Arrogance And Beowulf Comparison

Countless people have tried to say that Beowulf represents the qualities required of an epic hero, but many people also suggest that Beowulf does not show any of these qualities. While Beowulf shows heroic characteristics in all of his acts, both pride and greed motivate his actions. The story of Beowulf contains all of the information needed to show this, but people do not notice that which they do not want to see.

One example of Beowulf’s strengths was no other man could do the same tasks, and fight the battles he fought. Beowulf goes into many battles throughout his lifetime. Also, the quote in line 505-506 “If weapons were useless he’d use his hands, the strength in his fingers”. Beowulf also lifts the giant forged sword from the wall and swings it hard enough to cut of Grendel’s mothers head. A sword that is described as “so massive that no ordinary man could lift its carved and decorated lengths.

Beowulf, like other epic heroes, possesses the following heroic qualities: epic heroes are superhuman types of beings. They show great bravery, intelligence, strength and resourcefulness. They have a strong admiration for the values of their society. They are dominant male figures and suffer severe pain, but in the end, they

The Anglo-Saxon epic Beowulf touches on the vice of pride, and is instilled in the main character, Beowulf, the great and mighty warrior. His boasting and arrogance when first dropping anchor at Heorot transitions throughout the poem, and, in contrast with his ideal kingsmanship, motivates him to accomplish and overcome the many challenges he faces as an epic hero. The contrast of his absent humility in the rise and fall of the story help promote the progression of the story, through its different purposes. Beowulf, when first landing upon Hrothgar’s kingdom, boasts, which does not go unchallenged, so that he might gain the trust of the Danes, but when knowingly facing his last battle, uses bragging to comfort and brace himself for his ultimate demise.

Beowulf does not undergo much character development considering what he goes through. His personality and leadership traits remain static throughout the story unlike most other stories that involve a similar plotline. This both shows great strength as well as the inability to change which is often considered a weakness if this stillness is viewed without context. In the case of Beowulf this primarily brings out his strengths as a hero and allows the story to move at a quicker rate and not focus on character development, but on other aspects of the poem, this being the alliteration and beauty in the writing far beyond the plot itself. Beowulf is a consistently strong warrior that stays honorable through the poem, but just increases his levels of glory through each enemy defeated as well as each year of peace after he attains a full level of sovereignty.

Humility is an important lesson all successful people must eventually learn. The epic poem Beowulf written sometime around 1000 A.D. follows the adventure of a great warrior on his quest to greatness. Throughout the poem he is taught that humility is the key to success. Beowulf comes to the land of the Danes to defeat the monster Grendel. Beowulf accomplishes his task and conquers both Grendel and the monster’s mother. After claiming victory, Beowulf earns glory, honor, and respect. The great warrior then returns home to become the king later in his life. Beowulf learns throughout the story that arrogance has consequences and being humble will grant respect from others. Beowulf changes throughout the story ultimately becoming a humble warrior. Beowulf learns humility when fighting Grendel, when fighting Grendel's mother, from hearing legends and from his past.

Beowulf, like other epic heroes, possesses the following heroic qualities: epic heroes are superhuman types of beings. They show great bravery, intelligence, strength and resourcefulness. They have a strong admiration for the values of their society. They are dominant male figures and suffer severe pain, but in

“Where is the glory in doing something that others have done” (Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief). A quote befitting of the character Beowulf who slew the abomination known as Grendel to save the people of Heorot, then killing his vengeful mother using the sword Hrunting and finally as his last legendary exploit he brought down a mighty dragon to save his kingdom, the most prominent definition of an epic hero and the epitome of what the ideal Scandinavian hero is. On the surface, this may seem like Beowulf is a selfless hero willing to go to great lengths to save the people around him but after deeper analysis of the story, it may be that Beowulf’s pride and search for glory is what truly drives him.

as the only human hero in the story, Beowulf fits into a conventional hero schema; however, the several monstrous qualities that

The main difference between the hero during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance is that one is more focused on the ideals of religion while the other is focused on typical ideals of knighthood. Beowulf is essentially the perfect knight, having each value in spades. Beowulf has the heroic ideals of bravery, fortitude, and loyalty. In each situation that Beowulf encounters, he proves that he is a hero by displaying these values.

Pride usually carries negative connotations. It is an arrogant, malicious trait which can lead to a person's ruin. Pride, however, can also be a source of positive motivation. It can encourage its host to perform great feats and thus obtain honor. This duality possessed by pride can be examined in two famous Medieval poems, The Song of Roland and Beowulf.

Although similarities between Hamlet and Beowulf exist, there are a greater number of differences that greatly sets the two characters apart. One of the biggest differences that need to be noted between the two was their motives. Starting with Beowulf, the first thing to note about him is his everlasting desire for glory in battle. Beowulf is characterized as a duty-oriented warrior, driven by nothing but being a dominant and revered hero for everyone to look up to. There is not a perceived sense of love and religion in Beowulf’s character, which leaves him to be a very straight-forward character. Overall, Beowulf’s motive for being a hero was just that: to be considered as a hero among the people.

One of the major differences between the epic and the movie was Beowulf himself. Besides him trying to further his fame at any cost to be remembered, he was a very different character in the movie than he was in the epic. First off, in the epic he is a “stronger than anyone anywhere in the world” and shows no weaknesses at all (110 – 111). But, in the movie, he had a weakness for beautiful women, and whenever he was confronted by one, he would forget his objective and would give in to their beauty.

To see how Beowulf shaped modern literature we can look at the hero of Beowulf, which is Beowulf, and the heroes of today’s modern literature. In both, we see that hero’s all have certain qualities that made them heroes. In the poem of Beowulf, Beowulf is said to be the strongest man in the land, its states that he was the “strongest of the Geats…” (Raffel, 26). It defines Beowulf as a person who has beyond human abilities. Beowulf also volunteers to go to Hrothgar to fight the Grendel (Raffel, 26). Beowulf takes action to go fight off an evil spirit and even though it was for self-glory it is still considered a heroic action. In current literature, we see heroic qualities

In terms of values, their point of view can be a bad view for us. Beowulf provided us information about the expected values before. A person can be heroic if he shows bravery. A brave man that can