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Epic Of Gilgamesh Analysis

Decent Essays
In the “Epic of Gilgamesh”, it is easy to conclude that Gilgamesh, the protagonist of the story, is the hero. In “Like Mayflies in a Stream”, Gilgamesh is merely a scary person who appears in the story here or there rather than being the protagonist. Instead, Shamhat is the main person that the story focuses on, but the book is imprecise on one hero of the entire story. There are numerous characters that could reflect hero aspects such as going on a quest, having another to help guide them, or facing trials. Personally, I believe that there is no true hero in this story due to the nature that Shamhat is a woman, who were represented badly during this time, and that Shauna Roberts did not want to misrepresent the epic due to extreme…show more content…
This singular word, “only”, immediately tells us as a reader that they are looked down upon, are not as good as men, and are not as important to society. Along with this, many people call Shamhat a whore when her pregnant stomach begins to show. Women, and girls for that matter, as Nameshda was only 13, were raped by Gilgamesh. Shamhat is the older sister in her family, yet her younger brother Geshtu gets to make all of the decisions for the family. The scenarios in this book are contemplative of how women are viewed and treated compared to the men of society. Patriarchy is correct by their standards, and having women in any sort of important role is almost nonexistent. Due to this condescending view, we can understand why it would be difficult to have Shamhat as the hero in this story. If men are the superior ones, wouldn’t it make sense to have a man as the hero? In the event that a woman was a hero in this story, it may make readers predict that the entire society will change their outlook on women by the end of the story. On the other hand, others may think that Roberts was trying too hard to modernize this epic. With this issue, Roberts could fear that creating this story with a female hero may be too contemporary and take away from the true epic. She already modernized the book somewhat by adding in a love triangle and happily-ever-after ending. Adding a female hero may just completely
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