Here are model DESCRIPTION paragraphs. NOTE: Do NOT copy, adapt, paraphrase or otherwise appropriate the word content or quotes of these models.
For Beowulf:
[TOPIC IDEA ABOUT FATE:] For Beowulf, fate is an outcome of God’s will. He is so convinced that God is instrumental in fate that he strives to keep the fight equal. Fate then must tip the balance. Beowulf would accept his own death and defeat as long as that outcome is God’s verdict. [DESCRIPTION:] During the race with Breca, Beowulf finds himself pulled under repeatedly by sea creatures while Breca swims along beside him, inexplicably unmolested by the denizens of the deep. The creatures ignore Breca and take turns glomming onto Beowulf, grabbing hold of him like undersea wrestlers. He must peel their bodies away from him just long enough to bring his sword to bear. Each time he breaks the surface to catch his breath another creature pulls him down, entwining him all over again until he can grab hold of it, pull it away from his body, and then dispatch it with his blade. This type of one-on-one wrestling at close quarters has always characterized Beowulf’s fighting style, whether he was fending off trolls, giants, or sea serpents. Finally, after an exhausting night of hand-to-hand combat, Beowulf breaks through the waves for the last time, takes a breath, and remains free of antagonism from below. A bright morning sun shines down like God’s own beacon on his face. He rejoices in the warmth and bright light and a deep down sense of God’s approval. The sun also makes a special point of gleaming and sparkling on the hides of his nighttime adversaries, whose scaly corpses now line the shore as if carefully placed there for human inspection. [INSIGHT:] Beowulf shares this experience with King Hrothgar in order to establish his credentials as someone called to a special purpose—his own special fate as long as Beowulf keeps the fight equal and one-on-one: [QUOTE:] “I hereby renounce,†Beowulf declares to King Hrothgar, “sword and the shelter of the broad shield, / the heavy war-board; hand-to-hand / is how it will be, a life-and-death / fight with the fiend. Whichever one death fells / must deem it a just judgment by God†(436b-41).
For Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur [The Death of Arthur]:
[TOPIC IDEA ABOUT DESTINY:] In Malory, destiny hardens the heart of Lancelot’s adversaries as part of their punishment for violating chivalry. Destiny will make sure that the foes of Lancelot will stubbornly persist in their evil ways because Lancelot’s inevitable victory is itself a warning to evildoers. [DESCRIPTION:] Running at each other with their lances, Tarquin and Lancelot knock each other off their horses. They are both momentarily dazed. Then they grab their swords and shields and grapple up close, at times breathing in each other’s face. The ground glistens and sparkles with flecks of their blood. The two are equals in skill and bravery. Finally, Tarquin steps back. He is not angry or frightened. He is deeply impressed, even a little in awe. He loves this knight like a brother. Part of him wants to throw down his sword, swear his allegiance, and ride with him against his enemies, whoever they might be. Tarquin had plowed his way through the Knights of the Round Table in quest of the knight who had killed his brother—that knight was none other than Lancelot. But now Tarquin questions himself. This fighter made him reconsider his quest. So long as this knight was not Lancelot, Tarquin was determined to make peace with him. Tarquin was ready to set free all the knights he had imprisoned if only this knight would be his brother in arms. Lancelot also took stock. He had absorbed as many wounds as Tarquin. The armor of both men had absorbed many slits and dents without either gaining the advantage. Lancelot noticed that Tarquin seemed of a new mind and reluctant to press the fight. So he took a risk and revealed his identity that he was indeed Lancelot. Tarquin seems anguished and deeply disappointed. He greets Lancelot cordially—but then the two men fly at each other like two bulls, once again the metal of their armor loudly clanging against each other and their swords piercing the seams over and over, bespattering the grass once again with their blood. [INSIGHT:] Destiny will settle for nothing less than the death of Tarquin. Destiny has no interest in reforming or redeeming Tarquin despite what seems to be his honest and sincere profession of love and loyalty, not to mention his heartfelt willingness to turn over a new leaf: [QUOTE:] “So be it,†Tarquin had promised, “that thou be not he, I will lightly accord with thee, and for thy love I will deliver all the prisoners I have, that is three score and four, so thou would tell me thy name. And thou and I will be fellows together, and never to fail thee while that I live†(57).
Also for Malory’s Le Morte Darthur:
[TOPIC IDEA FOR DESTINY:] Destiny is fulfilled when the Holy Grail appears to the knights of the round table. The feast of Pentecost celebrates the advent of the Holy Ghost, which literally comes true at Camelot, but the effect is dynamically fateful and may mean the dispersal of the knights to parts unknown, much to King Arthur’s distress. The Sankgreal is Christ’s bodily presence in a cup. It is the kingdom of God in the form of food and drink. [DESCRIPTION:] During the joust, young Galahad (son of Lancelot) knocked all the knights off their horses, except for his father and Percival. When requested by Queen Guinevere, Galahad opened his visor. Never did two people look more alike than Galahad and Lancelot, confirming they were father and son. She announced that Lancelot was eight degrees in lineage from Jesus Christ and Galahad was nine. As of the coming of Galahad, all prophecies could be fulfilled. When the knights took their seats, Galahad is out of his red-plated armor. He is now wearing a red silk robe and over it a cloak trimmed in white ermine. His seat at the round table is Siege Perilous, the seat predestined for the knight who would achieve the Sankgreal. Suddenly, the knights heard an explosive sound. The whole castle trembled as if it were about to fall. The Sankgreal was borne to the middle of the roundtable. No one could see who carried the cup. Over it was draped white samite, but this silken veil was lit up from inside by a light seven times brighter than the daytime sun. The knights turned to each other and marveled at how each of them—their faces—were also shining with light. Then the castle was filled with delightful scents including those that came from a banquet miraculously set before them. But the light went out; the cup was gone. The knights are beside themselves. King Arthur said everyone should just thank the Lord. But Gawain (Arthur’s nephew) vowed an oath to look for the Grail so that he might see it without any covering. To King Arthur’s immense vexation, all the knights made a similar vow, so overcome were they by the shining visitation of the Sankgreal. [INSIGHT:] Destiny is like a train on a track. It is so undeviating and so relentless that it can be overwhelming, even destructive: [QUOTE:] “So in the midst of the blast entered a sunbeam, more clearer by seven times than ever they saw day, and all they were alighted the grace of the Holy Ghost†(120).
For Milton’s Paradise Lost:
[TOPIC IDEA FOR PROVIDENCE:] In Milton, eternal providence insures that Satan never changes his ways. Satan must persevere in his arrogance and rebellion even at his lowest ebb. [DESCRIPTION:] Satan and his fallen legions stir to consciousness only to discover they are floating in a lake of fire at the bottom of the abyss, an infernal quarry from which God takes the raw material of his creation. Nothing makes sense here. The flames of the lake are dark and incapable of light. Nevertheless, Satan can perceive shadows and shapes. The lake seethes with burning sulfur. Storms rise up and swirl through the waves. Satan strains his eyes and makes out his chief lieutenant languishing near him where the two apparently fell together. Beëlzebub marvels that he feels his age-old angelic strength despite the agony inflicted by the fiery current. He gloomily wonders what God may have in store for the rebel angels. What service would God require here at the bottom of uncreated void? Satan seizes the moment to rally his lieutenant’s spirit. He shows his lieutenant his admittedly very powerful arm—an arm of invincible strength, harder, denser than that of any other angel. This arm, Satan declares, is a token, a sign of God’s terror—God’s fear of the rebel angels. This arm, insists Satan, brandishing its muscle before the eyes of his lieutenant, made God defend his throne in heaven. This arm, Satan says proudly, intimidated the most powerful force in the universe, God himself. Satan warms to his subject, inspired (and perhaps deluded) by his own speech. He finds his footing and stands. He pushes towards shore, his chest cutting through the liquid ore like the prow of a ship. Presently, at full height Satan casts a colossal shadow over Beëlzebub. When he turns back towards the lake, Satan’s chin juts forward like a mountain cliff or the balcony of a tower. He stretches his hand toward the awe-struck Beëlzebub. [INSIGHT:] Providence binds Satan to his course. Providence also binds us to the decision of Adam and Eve. Like Satan, we cannot resist testing our boundaries and challenging the Creator for supremacy in the universe: [QUOTE:] “All is not lost:†Satan declares, “th’ unconquerable will / And study of revenge, immortal hate / And courage never to submit or yield— / And what is else not to be overcome? / That glory never shall His wrath or might / Extort from me: to bow and sue for grace / With suppliant knee and deify His pow’r / Who from the terror of this arm so late / Doubted His empire!†(1.106-114).
Also for Milton’s Paradise Lost:
[TOPIC IDEA FOR PROVIDENCE:] Eternal providence brings down human pride. Once great civilizations are now ruins. They all owe their inspiration (in Milton’s view) to Pandemonium, the archetypal city of pride. [DESCRIPTION:] Satan stands like a massive tower on the shore of hell. He watches as his fellow angels assemble on the beach. Inspired by their leader’s dauntless courage, the angels apply their impressive skill-set to build an alternative kingdom. Ironically, Mulciber, the architect of God’s heavenly kingdom, also fell. He envisions a kingdom to rival even that of heaven. He succeeds in setting the standard for human kingdoms to follow. The angels mine the walls and hillsides of the abyss, plunging deep, scraping precious metals from the core of the abyss, and their machines pump roiling liquid fire from the lake of fire to fuel their crucibles and fill the molds of fabulous metal castings for the manufacture of pillars, roofs, and gates. Beautiful designs like fast-growing vines trace their way along the tops of every cornice. Then the whole confabulation starts to shudder, erupt, and heave upward in unison. Music accompanies the walls as they lift themselves from the foundations, fully fabricated. Today, of course, as tourists we walk along similar paths and streets of ancient cities. Now the gleaming marble pillars and battlements are shadows of their former glory. The ancient splendor retains just enough of its original shape for us to put it together in our mind’s eye, seeing again the towering walls, vast stairs, and broad plazas as well as the figures of a proud people like ourselves who once walked upon the stone pavements. [INSIGHT:] Providence allows these bastions of arrogance to have their moment of magnificence so that someday—cracked and broken and fallen in on themselves--they might testify of human vanity. Their role model and antecedent is Satan’s Pandemonium: [QUOTE:] “Anon out of the earth a fabric huge / Rose like an exhalation with the sound / Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet, / Built like a temple where pilasters round / Were set and Doric pillars overlaid / With golden architrave, nor did there want / Cornice or frieze with bossy sculptures grav’n. / The roof was fretted gold†(1.710-17).
For Julian of Norwich’s Showings [Revelations of Divine Love]:
[TOPIC IDEA ABOUT PROVIDENCE:] Julian argues that God’s providential model is homely love: that is, about the nitty gritty—little things that make up our everyday life but which were anticipated from the foundation of the cosmos. [DESCRIPTION:] We should not think of a far-off monarch looking down upon little ants. Instead, we should think of our bodies—our everyday activities--almost the way a nurse might attend us in the hospital or, even better, a nurse who visits us in our home as we live our lives. If we dribble milk down our chin while we eat our Cheerios, the nurse is there is to dab the milk with a napkin. She thinks nothing of invading our privacy because the nurse is embedded in everything we do. We wear the nurse like a garment. Her arms extend along our arms. Our head is under her chin. We always sit on her lap. We are like a toddler or even an infant that needs changing. We can cry and protest, but the nurse is already tending to our needs even before we know we are hurting or uncomfortable. Even better, think of a mother and the rambunctious toddler who tries to get out of his mother’s embrace. She is working on the smear of dirt on his cheek. She is kneeling beside him. Her hold on the child is secure. She uses her own saliva and fingers to rub the skin clean from the stain. She thinks nothing of this technique because she is no stranger to this child. She did not just come upon the child. This is her child. His skin is really her skin. [INSIGHT:] Providence is a homely love that pours down into the nooks and crannies of our flesh and blood existence. This foreseeing wisdom keeps pace with us in our everyday lives: [QUOTE:] “In this same tyme that I saw this sight of the head bleidyng, our good Lord shewed me a ghostly sight of his homely lovyng. I saw that he is to us all thing that is good and comfortable to our helpe. He is oure clothing that for love wrappeth us and wyndeth us, halseth us and all becloseth us, hangeth about us for tender love that he may never leeve us†(9; ch. 5).
The ESSAY (six paragraphs)
The ESSAY begins with an INTRODUCTORY paragraph that explains the student’s comparison between TWO of the four works we are examining. This introduction makes brief mention of the key scenes or moments in each of the two works that pertain to the comparison. The comparison is what both works have in common about fate, destiny, or providence—and/or how they might differ.
The ESSAY features TWO description paragraphs that were originally in a PowerPoint, one for each of the two works the student is comparing. They may need to be revised as per the instructor’s feedback and rubric comments when grading the paragraphs at the PowerPoint stage. For the Essay, the two description paragraphs (one from each work) becomes paragraphs 2 and 3.
The ESSAY now needs TWO supporting paragraphs. Each supporting paragraph becomes paragraphs 4 and 5 of the Essay. Each supporting paragraph begins by introducing the source (author, title of essay), explains the relevant idea, briefly reviews the key scene(s), and then closes on a relevant quote from the same supporting source. It should be a complete thought—an entire sentence (or two)—from the supporting source.
Supporting sources must come from our required books. Depending on which works you are comparing, here is what I need:
For Beowulf (from our required book), choose one of these three essays: Marijane Osborn’s “The Great Feud: Scriptural History and Strife in Beowulf,†(esp.139-40, 142, 146-50), Roberta Frank’s “The Beowulf Poet’s Sense of History†(esp. 174-82), or Jane Chance’s “The Structural Unity of Beowulf†(esp. 160-67).
For Malory (from our required book), I would like everyone to use Ramon Lull, “The Book of the Order of Chivalry†(336-41).
For Milton (from our required book), choose ONE of these essays: Lewis on Satan (401-07), Lewis on Adam & Eve (453-55), Gross on Satan (420-24), Lewalski on Adam and Eve (466-76), or Frye on Adam and Eve (458-65).
For Julian (from our required book), I would like everyone to use Denise Baker’s introduction (esp. xiii-xvii).
Concluding paragraph: The conclusion should start with dynamic description of a moment or scene in one of your two works (perhaps two or three sentences). Perhaps you are giving us more detail from the scene you already described in par. 2 or 3 of the Essay, or you are offering a different but relevant moment. Then close the conclusion with a relevant thought or idea (perhaps two or three sentences). The conclusion is NOT a review of your paper; it is more like an epilogue or coda.
The ESSAY requires a two-item Works Cited. Here are examples of citations
Works Cited
Note: For hanging indent, type the item without indenting, highlight with cursor, right click, click on paragraph, then special, and then hanging.
Baker, Denise N. Introduction. The Showings of Julian of Norwich, edited by Denise N. Baker, Norton, 2006, pp. ix-xix.
Chance, Jane. “The Structural Unity of Beowulf: The Problem of Grendel’s Mother.†Beowulf: A Verse Translation, 2nd Norton Critical Edition, translated by Seamus Heaney, edited by Daniel Donoghue. Norton, 2019, pp. 153-68.
Frank, Roberta. “The Beowulf Poet’s Sense of History.†Beowulf: A Verse Translation, 2nd Norton Critical Edition, translated by Seamus Heaney, edited by Daniel Donoghue. Norton, 2019, pp.168-82.
Frye, Northrop. “From Children of God and Nature.†Paradise Lost by John Milton, edited by Gordon Teskey, Norton, 2005, pp. 458-65.
Gross, Kenneth. “From Satan and the Romantic Satan: A Notebook.†Paradise Lost by John Milton, edited by Gordon Teskey, Norton, 2005, pp.420-24.
Lewalski, Barbara K. “From Higher Argument: Completing and Publishing Paradise Lost. Paradise Lost by John Milton, edited by Gordon Teskey, Norton, 2005, pp. 466-76.
Lewis, C. S. “The Fall.†Paradise Lost by John Milton, edited by Gordon Teskey, Norton, 2005, pp.453-55.
Lewis, C. S. "From Satan." Paradise Lost by John Milton, edited by Gordon Teskey, Norton, 2005, pp. 401-07.
Lull, Ramon. The Book of the Order of Chivalry. Le Morte Darthur: Selections, by Thomas Malory. Broadview, 2015, pp. 336-41.
Osborn, Marijane. “The Great Feud: Scriptural History and Strife in Beowulf.†Beowulf: A Verse Translation, 2nd Norton Critical Edition, translated by Seamus Heaney, edited by Daniel Donoghue. Norton, 2019, pp. 39-53.
