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His tragic flaw is evident throughout the novel thinking he can win them all. Beowulf defeats the evil monster Grendel and his mother with ease. However, when it is time to battle the dragon, his pride causes him to be defeated. Beowulf is portrayed as a classic epic hero and, like many other heroes of the time, has a tragic flaw that ultimately leads to his demise. Beowulf possesses many of the traits of an archetypal epic hero; he is strong, humble, and willing to fight to death if necessary.
Maurice Patterson March 11,2009 CH 201.024 Professor Fileva Gilgamesh and Odysseus: True Epic Heroes Epic poems have been around for centuries now and are considered a lengthy narrative that concerns serious subjects pertaining to events significant to a nation or culture and heroic deeds. Common characteristics of epic poems include: tremendous adventures, superhuman deeds, dignified language and a range of literary techniques from dramatic to romantic. The first epic poems, such as the Odyssey and the Iliad, were established through oral tradition and later written down to keep better track of the poems themselves. One key concept of an epic poem is the presence of a hero. A hero in an epic poem is typically an important figure in a legend or history that holds some type of royalty and embarks on a cyclical adventure or quest.
Beowulf, his story so great and prominent that it seems to proceed him. He defeats the first two monsters with little resistance. When Beowulf comes up against the last opponent, a huge dragon. He is left to fight, almost alone when his men run away in fear. He comes to his ultimate demise in the final slay of the dragon.
Beowulf firsts shows this when he defeats Grendel in Herot, for the ring-giver Hrothgar in behalf of his king Higlac. Beowulf had killed Grendel with his bare hands in order to show his true strength. Beowulf exhibits his superhuman strength also when he kills Grendel’s mother with “A heavy sword/ Hammered by giants.” During this fight Beowulf also showed another superhuman quality of courage. Beowulf showed his superhuman courage when he
The three heroes discussed here, Beowulf, Sir Gawain and King Arthur, are heroes for different reasons. Beowulf, our earliest hero, is brave but his motivation is different than then other two. To Sir Gawain personal honor and valor is what is important. King Arthur, Sir Gawain's uncle, is naturally the quintessential king of the medieval period. Though all men to a certain extent share the same qualities, some are more pronounced than in the others.
Hector and Achilles as Classic Heroes of Homer's Iliad Literary heroes have been important to stories and poems throughout history. Each author develops his hero through a unique writing style, combining conscious use of detail, diction, tone and other narrative techniques to outline a hero's personality. Homer, in his epic poem The Iliad, develops two classic heroes who are totally different at first glance, but upon a closer look are very similar in terms of their basic characteristics. Hector and Achilles both are courageous soldiers, relatively honorable men, and respected leaders, but they also both have human failings that eventually lead to tragedy. In Homer's lyrical verses and in his use of detail, diction, and imagery, he paints his own portrait of a classic hero through the brave deeds as well as the human flaws of Hector and Achilles that eventually lead to the downfall of proud and powerful Hector.
When I hear the word hero, I think of someone who is idealized for their courage and bravery, having outstanding achievements, and having noble qualities. Policemen and firefighters are heroes to me. Heroes can come in all different shapes and sizes and that’s important for some people to understand, just because they aren’t super tall and lusty doesn’t mean that they can’t be a hero. In the earliest English epic poem, “Beowulf”, the hero is Beowulf. As a hero, the Anglo-Saxons made Beowulf have certain hero characteristics.
We can see that Beowulf shows courage when he is going to go fight Grendel. Beowulf gains leadership when he leads his men to victory over Grendle. He shows that he has power because he defeated a monster that nobody could defeat. Although Beowulf was undefeated, he came back one hundred years later to fight a dragon, but he failed and died. This can relate to many people in our society.
The two texts that we read contained to easily distinguishable epic heroes. The first text, is the epic poem, The Epic of Gilgamesh. Here we are introduced to our first “epic hero” King Gilgamesh. “Gilgamesh is an unstable compound of two parts god and one part man. He is thought of as the greatest of all men, and yet his virtues and his flaws our outsized.