Beowulf A Tragic Hero And Some People example essay topic

Explain to someone who has not read the poem why Beowulf would risk a hazardous ocean voyage to battle an unknown beast foe a distant king. In outlining your paper, plan for at least three paragraphs, one each devoted to Beowulf's ideas about honor, fame, and courage. Scan his speeches in the first part of the peon to find what he has to say about these values and use short quotations form the text to illustrate you explanation. See "the Writing Process" in the Composition Handbook. Background: the Story Beowulf is an Epic poem written in the Anglo-Saxon period.

The author of the poem is unknown. Beowulf is the hero of the story and the Thane to Hygelac the king of the Geats in Sweden. When Beowulf finds out the Grendel (the big guy) is causing problems in Denmark he decides to go over there and help them out. He fights Grendel and everyone is happy. Then Grendel mother comes to avenge her son so Beowulf has to go fight her also.

After winning that battle Beowulf goes back to the Geats and becomes king and rules for fifty winters. Everything is good until he has to go fight this dragon. The dragon ends up killing Beowulf. In the story you can see how things like Honor, fame, and Courage are associated with Beowulf. The reason that he take the dangerous journey is to gain all there of those characteristics in his journey.

Out lines below is how he gets each one of those traits in the story. Honor: Before Beowulf's journey a man named Unfert taunts Beowulf and brings up how when they were little kid they had a competition to see who could swim the farthest and Beowulf kept swimming even though he was being attacked by monsters. In lines 397-400 " with plowing shoulders parted the waves, the sea-flood boiled with its winter surges seven nights was the greater, his swimming the stronger! ... ". Basically this guy Unfert was trying to make fun of Beowulf, and Beowulf defended his honor by bringing up how he beat him in the swimming competition.

Honor is important to Beowulf because he works hard for what he has accomplished and doesn't want some guys just making fun of him. Fame: This whole story is about how famous Beowulf is. The on thing that sticks out in my mind though would be fighting Grendel with out any weapons or armor. Grendel couldn't be effected by the weapons but armor would of helped Beowulf. Armor would of protected him if Grendel would of stuck him with a blow or something.

This is found in lines 501-504 "He stripped from his shoulders the bryn y of steel, doffed his helmet from head; into hand of thane gave iron, the best of blades; bade him keep well the weapons of war. Basically they just said Beowulf just took off all his armor and weapons that have kept him safe in war. He knows if he wins with out any of his armor he will look even more like a B. A in front of all these people. Courage: Last but not least is Beowulf's fame. Him fighting Grendel without armor is pretty courageous, but there is more cool acts of courage that he accomplishes. After Grendel dies his mom comes back to kill Beowulf.

She ends up running away and Beowulf chases her, her lair is at the bottom of the ocean (kind of like when superman loses his power to marry a chick) well to get to the lair you have to swim through a ton of sea monsters". the swimming forms of strange sea-dragons dim serpent shapes in the water depths", lines 937-938. That's what Beowulf had to dive into. Lines 960-961 "a Gleaming helmet guarded his head as he planned his plunge to the depths of the pool" that means he jumped into all these huge sea monsters to go fight someone that wasn't even wrecking his village. He didn't even have to jump in there but he did because he is awesome and he doesn't have to do it.

That's why Beowulf is so courageous So as you can see Beowulf has many of the traits that make up a hero. Beowulf all these traits to an extreme in the book. This is done probably because the author wants to get the point that Beowulf was an the best of the best when it comes to Heroes. I would suggest reading the story of Beowuwulf Beowulf was written during the Anglo-Saxon time period. Beowulf is a story about a young warrior and his quest through life.

Some people consider Beowulf a tragic hero, and some people just consider him a hero period. Whether Beowulf is a tragic hero or not, he fights many great battles. The reason Beowulf fights stays basically the same but it changes a little. In the beginning of the book, Beowulf goes to help the Danes out by killing Grendel. Grendel is a ferocious monster that has been killing the Danes in the mead hall (115).

During this time period, warriors will celebrate their victories and tell of their accomplishments by singing. This social gathering has started bothering Grendel because he can hear all the noise and happiness coming from the mead hall. This is making Grendel jealous because he is a descendant from Cain, and knows he will never feel happy (106). Grendel goes into the mead hall at night, and he begins killing everyone in there. News of how Grendel is murdering the Danes starts to spread all over. When Beowulf hears about Grendel, he feels that it is his obligation to stop Grendel from killing anymore.

Beowulf leaves to go to Hero to kill Grendel. He is mostly being praised for his long journey to face this terrible monster. Beowulf says, 'Grendel is no braver, no stronger than I am! I could kill him with my sword; I shall not' (677). Beowulf feels that he can defeat Grendel even without a weapon. The first night, they have a celebration in the mead hall, and the warriors fall asleep in the hall.

Grendel makes his usual nightly visit and finds many victims waiting to be killed (725). To his surprise, he meets his match, which happens to be Beowulf (748). After a brief confrontation, Beowulf rips Grendel's arm off, and Grendel runs away to die (823). Beowulf is considered a hero now for risking his life to stop Grendel from killing anymore Danes (837). Not only does Beowulf protect all the Danes, he also receives many rewards. Beowulf is doing a good thing, but all his motives are not the most honorable motives.

This shows the Pagan values of the time. Materialistic things meant a lot to people during this time. The next day, there is a celebration of Grendel's death. Beowulf and his group of warriors leave the mead hall to go sleep in their beds (1300). While they are gone, Grendel's mother decides to extract revenge (1257) by going to the mead hall and killing the king's best friend (1296). The king sends for Beowulf and tells him what has happened.

The king asks Beowulf to kill Grendel's mother (1379). Beowulf feels that he must extract revenge and keep this monster from killing anymore people. Beowulf's motives are nobler now. He accepts the fact that he might not come out of the battle alive.

Beowulf goes to the monster's home in the swamp. Beowulf starts to fight the monster but he is not hurting it. All of a sudden, a light from God shines on a sword on the wall. Beowulf gets the sword and kills the monster (1569). Beowulf's belief that God shows him the way to kill the monster shows the Christian values in the book. Beowulf returns home and becomes king after years pass by.

One day, a slave finds a tower filled with treasures and a dragon guarding them. The slave decides to steal a golden cup that is there. When the dragon awakens, he leaves the tower in search of his golden cup (2221). This is one cup out of all the treasures he has, so the dragon's evil represents greediness. The dragon is upset and starts burning up the countryside looking for the person that stole a piece of his treasure (2313).

Beowulf decides that it is his duty to kill the dragon to protect his people (2310). Although he defeats the dragon with help from Wig laf, he ends up losing his life (2821). As Beowulf is getting older, he starts to become nobler. Is Beowulf a hero or a tragic hero?

Beowulf is a hero, not a tragic hero. He does not have a trait or attitude that would lead to his downfall. He does not have a downfall; he just died as a hero because he is old. He keeps his loyalty to his people by fighting the dragon to keep it from killing or destroying anymore of his kingdom, even though all his warriors are not loyal to him.

All the soldiers but one leave Beowulf to fight the dragon. The main three evils that Beowulf is faced with are jealousy, revenge, and greediness. Even though Beowulf starts out with more self-beneficial motives, his major motive stays the same. That motive is to protect the good from the evil. What is a person that protects the good from the evil? This person is a hero.