Beowulf Character Analysis

Through analysis of the text Beowulf translated by Burton Raffel, it is questionable of whether or not Beowulf is good or evil. Based on his actions, intentions and motivations behind his actions, and the way culture shapes him, it is clear that he is, in fact, an evil character. Beowulf is a dishonorable character who is self-absorbed and only saves the people of Herot for fame and wealth.

The tale of Beowulf follows one of history's oldest heroes as he ventures throughout Nordic Europe on a quest to kill the infamous monster Grendel, however in contrast with many of the regaled heroes of the past Beowulf remains constant in every aspect of his character. His goals, values, and actions never undergo even the slightest amount of alteration, even throughout his unusually long life, he remains static, Why? Some would argue that Beowulf’s unchanging personality could be contributed to poor penmanship by the author of the tale, or that it simply could have been lost throughout the ages of the story being retold orally, but despite all of that, it seems most likely that Beowulf was intentionally portrayed this way in order to set an example for those who would encounter his story, in all senses of the Nordic Culture that he came from, Beowulf is the Paragon of what a nord should aspire to be, his values encompassed everything their culture held dear in this world: gold, glory, the well-being of his people, and an aspiration to have his name ring out for the rest of eternity.

In the poem Beowulf, the author shifts from Beowulf being an orphan to being a king, by incorporating underlying themes such as strength and skill, identity, and shift in power to demonstrate the importance of social structure and the adherence to the comitatus code between noblemen and thanes. The most important literary element that the poet utilizes is strength and skill for the reason that the better you are in combat the more respected you are and the greater your rewards. One of the first examples of the comitatus code in Beowulf occurs when Beowulf responds to King Hrothgar’s call for help. King Hrothgar would like peace restored to his kingdom, but thus far this has proven to be impossible. Wreaking havoc on his

While reading the epic tale of the almighty, brave Beowulf, readers are forced to ask themselves questions regarding the reliability of the story. In these types of stories literature, “readers are required to do more ‘detective’ work to determine whether a narrator is trustworthy or not” (Olsen 104). The tale of the almighty warrior Beowulf can be hard to believe due to because of its use of an unreliable narrator. In the epic poem Beowulf, the third person omniscient narrator can be seen as unreliable due to their description of Beowulf’s battles including the information they have given which is known by no character. However, these extreme conditions in the story may seem natural in the supernatural setting of the poem.

Screams! Blood! Gore! Good prevails, evil perishes. Good and evil. Light and dark. These seem to be recurring themes in the story of Beowulf. Beowulf is a hero. In the book he faces many challenges. Three of which are supernatural and some that are not. Grendel, She (Grendel’s mother), and the Firedrake are only the mythical challenges. Beowulf prevails, which is normal in a book or story. This is perhaps one of the greatest ancient epics of its time.

The epic poem Beowulf, may be hundreds of years old but the life lessons still apply to our own lives. Many life lessons can be found in the text, like being selfless or brave. Personally, the most important life lesson that I learned from the poem was loyalty.

Although written almost a thousand years apart, there are numerous amounts of heroic qualities that correlate Beowulf from “Beowulf” and King Arthur from The Once and Future King to each other, but there are also various qualities that make them differ from one another. In any epic or book, there are specific reasonings as to why certain traits make characters heroic. Beowulf and Arthur are just two examples of heroic characters. Two traits that Beowulf and Arthur share that make them heroic are courage and faith. They both never give up on their battles, no matter the situation. On the contrary, the amount of confidence in each individual varies. Beowulf seems to have all the confidence while Arthur seems to lack all of it. The confidence

Throughout this semester, I read much reading that had to do with English1302, but most of them haven’t caught my attention at all except Beowulf. This reading is most philosophical than other to me. In this paper. I ponder the story that makes it a more philosophical about the perusing than the majority of alternate readings are going to be the genuine and how the story is composed by the writer. On the off chance that the perusing has an awesome storyline then it will emerge to the readers. The story instructs a ton about writing to the understudies or any other individual that understands it and along these lines, it assumes a major part in the English classes we take today and is a noteworthy story that is read all over in the United States.

Over the course of a lifetime, time’s greatest power lies within its ability to evolve different aspects of our lives. In Beowulf, our epic hero, Beowulf, experiences a significant change of character; he begins as a humble warrior, and develops into a well-respected and powerful king. However, previous kings, such as King Hrothgar, rose to the throne due to their noble statuses in addition to the standardized succession of power in early British history. The stark contrast between these two notable kings remains that Beowulf first played the role as a valuable and principle warrior, a true epic hero, while King Hrothgar did not. Beowulf exhibited characteristics of loyalty and strength, among many others; however, were these character

The tale of Beowulf is the idealization of a protagonist whose personal character disqualifies him from being considered an ethical hero. With an unknown author, much conjecture has been presented as to the likelihood of the writer and the age of which it was written. Consensus points to a time following the establishment of the christian faith within the British Isles. Correspondingly, authorship of Beowulf points to a monk, with christian parallels found throughout the tale utilized to depict Beowulf in a favourable light.

The reference that most helped to deepen my knowledge and understanding of Beowulf was an article I found on the website CliffNotes. The article is titled “Beowulf”, written by Stanley Baldwin and Elaine Strong. The article is broken down into multiple segments. Each segment discusses something different in relation to the epic poem Beowulf, all of which help to explain Beowulf even further. There are segments discussing the context of the epic poem, Beowulf’s plot, the characters in the story, the symbolism within the epic poem, and much more. The website also includes a glossary full of terms in Beowulf and famous quotes and what they meant within the story.

The epic poem Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney, revolves around the Anglo-Saxon accolade of battle and glory. Beowulf being the main protagonist of the poem experiences the glory of battle as well as the fame from his multiple conquests during his youth, because of his many subjections Beowulf ascends the throne of the Geats aging with the kingdom. But his overly confident attitude of his abilities causes him to challenge the dragon despite his inevitable death. Yet he is not the only character that experiences this. Grendel after coming to the point of domination over Heorot he feels as if he is invincible only to be faced with Beowulf his superior in strength and wit. Grendel as well as Beowulf both exert bravery and arrogance when pursuing battle challenging those that pose a threat, embodying the Anglo-Saxon idea that confidence in one’s abilities can lead to wealth and fame but also one’s downfall.

Beowulf overexerts against allies and enemies alike to establish his superiority and status. Grendel senses strangers as the Geats walk towards the Danish coastguard. After his introduction, Beowulf remarks, “‘Be so kind as to give us some advice, old man. We’ve come on a fairly important errand.’ The hint of irony in the smile grew darker”(154). Beowulf belittles the people he intends to help. He ridicules the guard’s age and treats the situation like a task. Ethically, this attitude is just childish and bears no benefit towards anything other than his own ego. Beowulf just tries to boost his image as he takes pride in himself the most. He regards his appearance of heroism higher than the actual act of heroism. When the Danes accept Beowulf, Unferth challenges his dedication and capabilities. After explaining his loss to Breca, Beowulf retorts, “I don’t recall hearing any glorious deeds of yours, except that you murdered your brothers. You’ll prowl the stalagmites of hell for that, friend Unferth”(162). Beowulf exposes Unferth’s shortcomings, but he explains it through piercingly negative manner. Unferth surely is shallow-minded for questioning Beowulf however the deprecation and harsh rebuttal provides no help for the situation. Beowulf has absolutely no respect for Unferth even knowing such personal information about him. The lack of sensitivity only feeds into Beowulf’s supremacy and he has no motive to possibly have Unferth help him in this dire situation

The story of Beowulf is a tale as old as time it is one of the oldest stories in the English language. It has been passed down generation to generation, being changed as time goes on. It's a story of good versus evil it's a story of  how a beast named Grendel attacked men and their way of life. So a hero steps in to save the day by killing the beast that everyone was too scared to face and then the beast mother comes to avenge his death and the hero kills her off leaving the land a better place. This version of the story is one that no one has ever heard before it's one like no other it takes place on the best battlefield ever the soccer field. It was two teams that hated each other the Lady Panthers and the Vilonia Eagles. The Eagles had one girl on their team who was terrorizing all the teams in the league she was a bully. Her name was Becky, she was six foot four and towered over all the other girls she had long blond hair that she braided and used as a whip and she was two hundred and seventy five pounds of pure muscle she was a beast she would shove you and you would have to do everything you could just to stay up. Their was one  team who was tired of hearing about how she is the meanest in the league and how nobody or team can beat becky and her team but the lady panthers heard of how she was acting and treating everyone so they went into battle with them. The Lady Panther were being lead by their caption Susan who chose to play in the same spot at Becky this game, she

Beowulf is not an ordinary man,he isn’t scared of anything or anyone. He is one of the bravest man , fighting anyone to protect his people.Beowulf is from a group call the Danes from Denmark. He did many magnificents things like fighting Grendel,the monster who hunted his people, and killed him ,he also took upon Grendel's mother and the dragon just so he's people would be saved.In his period of time Beowulf was praise, admire, and love by many, he was their hero.During Beowulf's time everything was different from now, back in the day everyone was scared of mostly everything so they let one person rule over them to protect them. Now it's not one person that takes control it multiple people everyone helps out ,for the most part. We would consider Beowulf a showoff in modern day because everyone has their limits and it seem as Beowulf didn’t because he liked the attention,all the victories, he was getting.