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Choose an instance in literature where the monster “won” and explain how.

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Sometimes the monsters appear to win in both life and literature, but usually they only win in part and because of some failing on the part of the hero. Examples of this include Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, because of Gawain's moral failure, and Beowulf, as Beowulf kills the dragon but receives a mortal wound because of his pride.

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The idea that there are no heroes and that the monsters win is a bit cynical, and one could argue that it is not altogether true. There are, however, instances in life when the "monsters" seem to win, and there are some literary works in which the monsters seem to win. Let's look at a couple examples from literature in which the monsters win, at least to a point.

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight , the "monster" is the mysterious Green Knight who arrives at King Arthur's court one New Year's Day with a challenge. One of the king's knights may give him a single blow, but the knight will have to receive a blow in return a year later. Sir Gawain takes up the challenge and gives a blow so forceful that he cuts off the Green Knight's head. The Green Knight merely picks up his head,...

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reminds Gawain of their agreement, and leaves. A year later, Gawain passes through a series of moral trials on his way to receive his own blow, and he slightly fails only one, for he accepts a supposedly magical girdle from the Lady Bertilak instead of trusting in God. The Green Knight (who is actually Lord Bertilak in disguise) gives Gawain a slight blow because of his failure. In a way, then, the "monster" wins, but only in part and only because of Gawain's own moral failure.

We can also think about Beowulf, especially the last episode of the poem, in which Beowulf fights the dragon. At this point, Beowulf is an older man and king of the Geats. He is not the strong young warrior he once was when he defeated Grendel and Grendel's mother, but he doesn't like to admit that. In fact, Beowulf insists upon facing the dragon alone even though he has a dozen of his warriors with him. Beowulf's pride takes center stage, and it gets him killed. Beowulf does end up killing the dragon (with the help of Wiglaf, a kinsman who refuses to obey Beowulf and joins him in the fight), but Beowulf receives a mortal wound in the process. He dies, leaving his people without a strong king to protect them and vulnerable to the aggression of other peoples. In a way, then, the monster wins, but only because of Beowulf's pride.

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An instance in which the monster wins is Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. The eponymous character of the play does not start out as a monster. He begins as an acclaimed theologian. However, unable to repress his infatuation with “magic and concealed arts,” Faustus initiates a deal with Mephistopheles and Lucifer. In exchange for his soul, Faustus receives twenty-four years to “live in all voluptuousness.” In a sense, the pact marks Faustus’s transition from a scholar to a monster. It turns him into a beguiling, inimical presence.

Faustus has “won” because he can engender his deleterious tricks without consequences. He can unabatedly wreak havoc on, among others, popes and knights. Yet it’s possible to claim that, by the end, Faustus loses because of how scared he is to spend eternity in hell. Even if Faustus loses in the finale, a monster still wins, since Lucifer has another soul to add to his collection.

Marlowe’s play was probably written and performed sometime before the 1600s. Around 200 years later, in 1796, Matthew Lewis published a novel, The Monk, which contains another instance in which a monster wins. Facing torture for a number of crimes, including murder, Ambrosio makes a deal with a demon to spare him physical torment. As Ambrosio only requests protection from a specific set of torturers, the demon, noting the fine print, winds up torturing and killing Ambrosio. While it would be wrong to categorize Ambrosio as a hero, it’s certainly plausible to label the demon a monster who secures his victory by sending Ambrosio to a harrowing death.

For additional instances in literature in which the monster can be said to win, consider how Jack wins in William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies or how Adrian Veidt wins in Alan Moore’s and Dave Gibbons’s comic, Watchmen.

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Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a perfect example of how monsters often “win” in literature. Consider how Dr. Jekyll transforms into Mr. Hyde so he can separate his dark side from his good side. When he is Mr. Hyde, he is an evil monster without a moral conscience. He does horrible things like trampling a young girl and beating Sir Danvers Crew to death with a heavy cane. And although he goes away for a while, he only becomes more powerful with time. Recall how Dr. Jekyll was sitting on a bench in Regent’s Park when he involuntarily transformed into Mr. Hyde. This is a win for the monster Mr. Hyde because it is proof that he is becoming more powerful than Dr. Jekyll.

Eventually, Mr. Hyde becomes so powerful that he takes over and commits suicide. Recall how Dr. Jekyll writes about Mr. Hyde’s hatred for him, saying that “he loathed the despondency into which Jekyll was now fallen” and did horrible things to Jekyll like burning letters and destroying the photo of his father. Eventually, Jekyll is unable to change back from Mr. Hyde to himself, and the battle between the two personas leads to suicide. This can be viewed as the ultimate “win” for the monster Hyde because he ends up destroying Jekyll.

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