Contents introduction chapter the battle of good and evil in literature of the XIX century

The relevance of this work: Is due to the need to obtain theoretical knowledge in the field of American literature.
The object of the study: Is the literature of the 19th -20th centuries. The subject is US literature of this period.
The purpose of the work: to structure knowledge about the literature of the United States of the specified period, fill in the gaps and identify the main development trends.
The structure of the course paper: The course paper consists of introduction, chapter 1, chapter 2, conlusion and bibliography.

CHAPTER 1.
THE BATTLE OF GOOD AND EVIL IN LITERATURE OF THE XIX CENTURY


1.1 Universal themes of good versus evil in English literature
The dawn of time, the forces of evil have always tried to gain an upper hand over the forces of good. The battles between these two forces have transcended time in both different forms and in different places. Every culture since the birth of man has background stories of creation and the battles that are waged between the two forces of light and dark.in the aftermath, stories and legends are passed down from generation to generation through the vast cultures and civilizations. Beginning with the use of oral traditions that took these stories and the use of spoken word to both inform and entertain the people of a given society. These tales also had another purpose, which was to remind people of the evils that were around them. Such stories fed on the fears of the people and the uncertainty of the world around them.the stories themselves may differ considerably from region to region, the basic underlying theme has always been identical. With the coming into being of written word, these stories could now be put down for people to read and serve as a reminder of their folklore. We have been lucky in the fact that over the last few hundred years, we have recovered many works from all over the world, dating back through years that had been long forgotten to many of us. In a great many of these works we have come into contact with many tales of heroism and the themes of fight between good and evil.
Readers may determine a theme as an idea, point of view, or perception, embodied and expanded upon in a work. When the writers convey messages of good and evil, they may choose to use symbols of light and dark, innocence and malice, or general opposites. Webster's dictionary defines «good» as virtue, validity, and the possession of desirable or positive qualities; while on those who represent «evil» remain morally wrong or bad, harmful, malicious, and absent of good.the time literature appears in the development of a culture, the society comes to share a whole system of stereotypes and archetypes. Often these works reflect the societies in which the authors live or experience. Myths, legends, and folk tales lie at the beginning of literature, while their plots, situations, and allegorical judgments of life repraesent a consistent source of literary inspiration.¹
First of all, we would like to describe the classical example of the struggle between good and evil - the epic poem Beowulf. The Old English epic Beowulf may have been written during the first half of the eighth century, or it may have been composed at about the year 1000, which is the date of the manuscript.
Lots of words in Beowulf define not only their equivalence to things, but also to one another. A symbol stands for something else or remains a sign to represent something else.There are many symbols that represent good in Beowulf. Beowulf himself is a symbol of good in this epic. Beowulf is tamed and civilized which are the characteristics of goodness and purity. Beowulf is pure and shows this before his battle when he removes his armor, and vows not to use a weapon to defeat Grendel.
Defeating Grendel, he shows that man, without armor and weapons, can defeat evil in any form including that of his enemy Grendel. This serves as a symbol of Beowulf’s Goodness.symbol of goodness is light. Light symbolizes day and rejoicing. When light, such as the sun and moon, are showing it gives people a sense of comfort and they don’t seem to be scared of daylight. In connection with light, words like shining and gleaming also prove to show goodness in this epic. Human civilization, in the form of heroic warriors, is often associated with light: the halls are illuminated with rejoicing and treasure.like light symbolizes good, darkness symbolizes evil in Beowulf. Grendel’s lair is dark and gray, and he only hunts at night, in darkness. Darkness and night is associated with evil and Grendel’s bloody attacks. Hrothgar’s warriors face the darkness and the evil, but when the light of day comes, only their blood is there. This shows that Grendel, the monster whose name strikes terror to the people of Herot, is also a symbol of evil.monster associated with evil was the dragon. In the end Beowulf had to fight one last battle and it was with this dragon. The dragon blew breaths of fire upon Beowulf as Beowulf was trying to shelter himself with his shield. But as his shield was melting, the dragon injected poison into Beowulf s neck, which injected him with poison, thus killing Beowulf. So the last battle came down to Good, which was Beowulf, versus Evil, which was the dragon.theme of good versus evil is portrayed throughout the entire epic. In the beginning there was Herot, which was good, and Grendel, which was evil. When Grendel killed most of the warriors in Herot, there was little good left. But when Beowulf came to Herot there was more goodness. So when Grendel attacked Herot that night, it was Beowulf and Grendel fighting it off. In the end it was evil which died. Beowulf managed to kill Grendel by tearing off his arm.overall effect this theme had on the poem as a piece of literature was by Beowulf, who represented good and Grendel, who represented evil. Beowulf had killed Grendel when Grendel had attacked Hrothgar s kingdom. After he killed Grendel he had to kill Grendel s mother too, who was also evil. So he set out to the murky swamps to kill Grendel s mother. After he swam for a whole day to find Grendel s mother he defeated her.
Then all of the people in the kingdom of Herot danced, feasted, and rejoiced for the rest of the night. Beowulf was then seen as a hero and was given the throne to be the king of Geatland.went well for fifty years, until a stranger stole the chastise from a dragon’s lair. The dragon then destroyed Beowulf s kingdom. As revenge Beowulf set out to kill the dragon. As a result, he killed the dragon but also died in the process. Wiglaf, a fearless warrior who helped Beowulf kill the dragon, was then given the throne and the kingdom was good again. Thus, the overall effect of good versus evil in the epic poem was to show that Beowulf was a good hero and to show that goodness will always prevail no matter what obstacles you will have to overcome.characters of Beowulf and Grendel are represented in stories throughout history. There will always be the hero looking for fame and glory. There will always be a «monster» that, acting like an overgrown child, throws a temper tantrum insisting on having everything their way and destroys everything that opposes them.masterpiece of literature that perfectly shows the struggle between good and evil comes from Elizabethan England, the age of William Shakespeare, who is renowned as the English playwright and poet whose body of works is considered the greatest in history of English literature.
People believe that when they succumbed to evil temptations, his or her actions would come back on them. When a person does something evil, such as murder, it would be believed that person would be fated to have an unnatural death, by way of divine intervention.
Ragan and Gonerail demonstrate this concept.the King Lear play, Shakespeare creates many conditions in which humans live in the world. The main characters in the play are used to portray Shakespeare's ideas. One of these ideas which Shakespeare is trying to portray is evil between the characters and in the world which are emphasized throughout the play. The evil, created by humans, is outweighed by good in the world of King Lear.was created by humans who decided to do wrong to others. Duke of Albany, said that all evil people will be justly punished. Albany indicated that it is the people who caused evil and people decided to do evil, not gods. Lear believes that since Edgar is out on the heath he must have given everything to his daughters as well. Since he believes that Edgar gave everything to evil Lear must believe that people are the cause of evil. It were Lear's daughters who decided to do wrong to Lear and it was Lear's fault in giving away all of his land. Humans caused the evil and Lear believes that humans were the ones who created evil., is another character in the play who believes that evil is caused by humans and not the gods. Edgar clearly says that the gods are right and it is the people who are responsible for promoting evil in the world. It is us who make the instruments necessary for evil to spread and plague the world. In the world of King Lear many characters believe evil was caused by the people and not by the gods.though evil was created by humans good will always exist. After King Lear was captured he showed that even if evil exists, good will always be present. Lear speaks about love with Cordelia in the prison cell and how they will still have each other despite of the evil around them . On another occasion Lear also says that despite all the evil in the world the raw nature, which is good, is still unharmed . Lear discovers nature's beauty by playing with the mice and listening to the signing birds. While all the evil is at its peak and everything seems to be lost, the raw nature in the play is unharmed.
The good exists even while the evil dominates the world.will not only exist if evil dominates, good will also outweigh evil eventually. The war which was lost by Cordelia and Lear, the good side, showed evil win. However, good over powered it after the war by Duke of Albany. The good in the play first was diminished to almost nothing but in the end more good was able to defeat evil in the play. When the two sisters began fighting between each other evil began fighting against evil. Eventually, because of that fighting between evil, good was able to over power evil. When the evil seemed strong and good almost non-existent, evil managed to fight itself and give good a chance to get stronger. At the end of the play evil was completely defeated and good once again dominated the world in the play.
A great amount of other writers and poets of all ages used the concept of good and evil in their works. In traditional folk literature, the difference between good and evil are well defined and unchangeable, and are indicative of the moral culture of the society represented in, or by, the story. Regardless of which side triumphs, the moral of the story is intended to reinforce community solidarity and values.classical literature, fate plays a major role in the tale and tragedies usually ended happily with good triumphing over evil but for the tragic hero invented by Aristotle. The Aristotelian tragic hero had four characteristics - goodness, superiority in some area such as politics or battle, a tragic flaw and the realisation of the flaw which then leads to his downfall.literature is concerned with the epitome of the fight between good and evil - the eternal conflict between God and Satan. There is also literature which concentrates on the struggle of mankind to find and keep their religious beliefs.²
But why is this dichotomy so important for us? Simple question, not so simple answer. Good is something that will promote a value, and a value is something that advances a life. For human beings good comes from the value of being thoughtful, rational, heedful of what is what. Understending of good and evil helps us to grasp the world we live in. In life, we are in a constant limbo between good and evil.