Beowulf Group

Question:

britt123bossy
britt123bossy
Student
High School - 12th Grade

What is the main conflict in the last battle of Beowulf?

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Posted by britt123bossy on Wednesday October 21, 2009 at 2:31 PM and tagged with battle, beowulf, characters, conflict, last battle.

Answers:

  1. cbots
    cbots Teacher
    High School - 9th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    The most simple answer to this is Beowulf vs. the dragon. But there is more to it than that. It can also be looked at as Beowulf vs. himself; Beowulf feels a responsibility to himself and to his people to defend them against the dragon, but he is much older than he was when he defeated Grendel and Grendel's mother, so he is fighting a losing battle against time and old age. He is also in conflict with his own pride; is reputation has been built on his reputation as a great warrior, and now he still feels that he can do the things he used to do even though he is much older.  His pride will not allow him not to fight the dragon.

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    Posted by cbots on Saturday October 24, 2009 at 2:59 PM