Beowulf and Exile
...hysical it can be a mental thing as well. No one looks at Unferth as they do everyone else. Beowulf, after being nice and kind to everyone says to Unferth, “You killed your own kith and kin….you will suffer damnation in the depths of hell(41). By saying he will be damned to hell is in its own way exile of the greatest form, saying that he is that far away from the rest of the people. After being treated this way for so long, Unferth really has no friends and so becomes lonely and bitter. So he becomes angry with everyone else and tries to tear others down in the hopes of lifting himself up higher on the social ladder. When Beowulf comes, he creates a huge stir with all the people because he is this huge hero, and he is well liked. Jealous and angry that the people accept Beowulf and not Unferth, he attempts to bring Beowulf’s hero-like qualities down by verbally attacking him. He does this because is so angry that people are treated better than him : “Beowulf’s coming, his sea-braving, made him sick with envy: he could not brook or abide that fact that anyone else alive might enjoy greater regard than he did…(35). This shows that he is angry at the way he is treated. Unferth is so upset at this because he has been lonely for so long and tried very hard to be liked with no avail. Yet this man walks in and becomes an instant celebrity. So because Unferth is mentally exiled and separated from the rest of his people, he becomes angry and resentful of them and all others that are treated with equality. The dragon in the epic was exiled and separated from all peoples. Because of this, and the length of time he spent all alone in his cave, he came to hate the people and wanted to get revenge on them. When a man came into his cave and stole one piece of his treasure, he went balisic and tried to kill people. It is not because of h...