Epics and mock epics

A Presentation by
Avani Dwivedi
Debopama Debnath
Nikhil Goyal
Harshdeep Singh Hora

What is an Epic?
 A long narrative poem ordinarily concerning a
serious subject
 Contains details of heroic deeds
 Describes events significant to a culture or
nation
 The action consists of deeds of great value or
superhuman strength and/or courage
 Is of great legendary significance
 Centred on a heroic/quasi-divine figure on
whose actions depends the fate of a tribe, a
nation, or the human race

Characteristics of Epics
 Features long and formal speeches
 Shows divine intervention on human affairs
 Features heroes that embody the values of the
civilisation
 Often features the tragic hero’s descent into the
underworld
 Setting is vast in scope, covering nations, the
world, or universe
 Presence of supernatural forces

The Epic Hero
 The hero is a figure of great national or
even cosmic importance
 Usually the ideal man of his culture
 Often has superhuman or divine traits
 Has an imposing physical stature
and is greater in all ways
than the common man

Mock Epics
 Also known as mock-heroic or heroi-comic
 Typically satires or parodies
 Mock common classical stereotypes of heroes
and heroic literature
 Typically, mock-heroic works either put a fool in
the role of the hero or exaggerate the heroic
qualities to such a point that they become
absurd
 Accept same metre, vocabulary & rhetoric of
epics

History of Mock Epics
 Became popular in the post-restoration &
Augustan periods in England
 In the 17th century, epics and pastoral genres
had become exhausted
 Epic genre was heavily criticised, because it
expressed traditional values of feudal society
 Among new genres, satirical literature was
particularly effective in criticising old habits and
values

John Dryden
 Responsible for dominance among satirical
genres of the mock-heroic in the later
Restoration era
 Dryden’s MacFlecknoe is the locus
classicus of the mock heroic
 His prosody is identical to the regular
heroic verse : iambic pentameter closed
couplets
 The parody is not formal, merely contextual
and ironic

Beowulf
 Oldest surviving epic poem in English literature
 Out of the 30,000 lines of literature left from the
Anglo-Saxon period, almost 4,000 lines are
preserved in this epic poem
 Story of the supernatural, as well as a record of
Anglo-Saxon history

The First Battle : Grendel
 Story begins with the description of King
Hrothgar, who constructed the great hall Hereot
for his people for celebrations
 Grendel, a troll-like monster, pained by the
noise attacks the hall and devours many of the
warriors while they’re asleep
 Beowulf, a young warrior from Geatland leaves
his homeland to help Hrothgar
 Beowulf battles Grendel and ultimately kills him
by tearing Grendel’s arm from his body

The Second Battle : Grendel’s
Mother
 Grendel’s mother angered by her son’s death
attacks the hall
 Hrothgar and Beowulf track Grendel’s mother to
her lair under a lake
 Beowulf dives into the lake and engages in a
fierce battle with Grendel’s mother
 Beowulf ultimately beheads her

Third Battle : The Dragon
 Beowulf returns home and becomes king of his
people
 One day, a slave steals a golden cup from the
lair of a dragon
 Furious, the dragon leaves its lair and attacks
Beowulf’s kingdom
 Beowulf battles the dragon, kills it, but is himself
mortally wounded

An Analysis of Beowulf
 An epic poem in which the hero travels great
distances to prove his strength at impossible
odds against supernatural forces
 The Anglo-Saxon period had two types of poetry
– heroic ( achievements of warriors ) & elegiac
(the loss of loved ones ) – Beowulf has both
 Heroic because of the feats of Beowulf, elegiac
because of the lament at his loss at the end of
the poem

Battle of Frogs and Mice
 Tackles grave subjects of war and revenge
 Plenty of bathos
 Divine intervention by Zeus
 Extremely satirical and humorous –
civilised animals, as violent as the Iliad –
just with frogs & mice in the plot
 Similarity – war, revenge, divine retribution

Epic and Mock Epic – A
Comparison
Epic Mock Epic
 Oral & poetic language
 Public & remarkable
deeds
 Legendary hero
 Collective enterprise
 Generalised setting in
time & place
 Fable & action are grave
& solemn
 Sentiments & diction
preserve the sublime
 Written & referential language
 Private, daily experiencer
 Humanized, “ordinary”
characters
 Individual enterprise
 Particularized setting in time &
place
 Fable & action – light &
ridiculous
 Sentiments & diction preserve
the ludicrous

Significance of Epic Poetry
 To arouse the spirit of warriors to heroic
actions
 Praised their exploits
 Supplied warriors models of ideal heroic
behaviour
 Assured a long & glorious recollection of
their deeds
 Heroic songs were often sung before
battles – boosted morale of combatants

Importance of Mock-Epic
Poetry in 18th Century
 18th century – exaltation of wit & reason came to
forefront of literature
 Exposed superficial follies & moral corruption of
society during neoclassical period
 Society embraced an obsession with “decorum”,
a facade of established traditions & vanities

 Satires during this period aimed to point out
shortcomings of society through ridiculing
accepted standards of thought
 Chastised hypocrisy in Britain at that time
 Poets like Alexander Pope and Jonathan Swift
inspired to nudge British society into new era of
enlightenment with regards to social & political
morality

Epics and mock epics

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Epics and mock epics