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- Title
Villains and Monsters: Enacting Evil in Beves of Hamptoun.
- Authors
Best, Debra E.
- Abstract
The article discusses the functions of monsters in the pages of the verse novel "Beves of Hamptoun." The monsters in the novel represent threats to and anxieties about social institutions. The author focuses on the giant Ascopard and argues that the monsters embody threats to the familia, to the local polity, and to Faith and Christendom. He considers the monsters' defeat as empowerment of both the hero and the institutions represented. He also describes the romance's characteristic redundancy, exemplified by the repetition of monsters and the ritualized combat, as enforcement of the basic social structures and beliefs.
- Subjects
VILLAINS in literature; MONSTERS in literature; LITERARY characters; GOOD &; evil in literature; NOVELS in verse; SOCIAL institutions in literature
- Publication
Medieval Perspectives, 1998, Vol 13, p56
- ISSN
1057-5367
- Publication type
Article