Examples Of Perfectionism In Beowulf

Honor, something powerful enough to sculpt the world’s oldest and most powerful empires. Throughout history great empires such as China, Japan, and the Anglo-Saxons have fought and died in the hunt for honor and fame; bringing life to many great and powerful heroes. Beowulf, one such hero, who fought many great battle in the name of honor and fame; putting his all into each battle he encountered. In the epic Beowulf, Beowulf decides to help Hrothgar with the dreaded monster Grendel and then battling him bare handed. Throughout the epic of Beowulf, Beowulf is mainly concerned about honor and fame, in his hunt for honor he agrees to help Hrothgar and fight the monster, Grendel, bare handed; but why?

Perfectionism is feeling anxious about a project because you want it to be perfect, so you stress over and procrastinate until the last minute. It is not being able to walk away from a task because you always feel that it could be more perfect. It is thinking that it’s unacceptable to make a mistake and that your achievements and accomplishments define who you are. “Perfectionism is a personality disposition characterized by a person’s striving for flawlessness, and the setting

It’s been three hours while I sit here and stare at the blinking bar, symbolizing the fact that I have nothing. My page is blank, but I promise you, my thoughts are not. Thousands of ways to start this essay have run through my mind, but none of them are sufficient. Which, I suppose, is where I will begin. Perfectionism, as defined by Merriam-Webster, is, “a disposition to regard anything short of perfection as unacceptable” (“Perfectionism”). It is a trait that numerous people might regard as desirable or something to be proud of; a word used to describe oneself on a resume to impress employers. However, I see it much differently. Perfectionism is a fight for something unobtainable, a cyclical trap in which disappointment reigns, and

A way Beowulf demonstrates his heroism is the way he stays true to the Geats by honoring them. Before

The storyline of Beowulf illustrates the epic battle between good and evil, and demonstrates to the readers that external war is not the only conflict hero’s face. Beowulf struggles a lot with his pride. Beowulf’s biggest internal battle was experienced when he was preparing to fight the dragon. He decided to go into battle, ignoring the fact that he had aged, but his pride, and warrior code wouldn’t let him run. What makes matters worse, he decided to go into the battle alone. His hero pride overcame the actions a normal king would’ve taken. The hero ideology at the time was strictly against a warrior running from a battle, and if Beowulf had done so, he would’ve been persecuted by society, as well as his own conscience.

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, the defender of Hrothgar and Heorot, exhibits far more complicated (and less sincere) shades of revenge than the Grendel’s mother. At the end of the day, Beowulf’s goal is to become the preeminent warrior in all the land. In his society, the only way to gain such widespread celebrity is through courageous and self-endangering acts. Beowulf masks these deeds with a façade of seeking revenge; he supposedly comes to Heorot to save the Danes from Grendel’s terror, but his true motives lie in becoming a hero. His reward is not the pride of doing a good deed; Beowulf is rewarded with lavish and expensive gifts.

As with loyalty, the importance of reputation also guides Beowulf throughout the poem. One’s reputation reflected one’s importance in the warrior culture. When Beowulf first arrives at Heorot, he tells the Danes about his past deeds that have brought honor for him and his king:

The world is full of hypocrites and in the story “The Pardoner’s Tale”, Chaucer writes about a man who is living a life of sin. The Pardoner’s tale is an epologia of a pardoner who has the power from the church to forgive others for their sins but makes a living out of lying and tricking his audience. Throughout the Pardoner’s Tale he preaches about greed, drinking, blasphemy, and gambling but in the Pardoner’s Prologue he admits to committing these sins himself. The pardoner is really just a 14th century con artist who makes a living by his own hypocrisy.

For example, after the defeat of Grendel’s mother Beowulf is reminded by Hrothgar that his pride will lead only to his undoing but it can also be said that his pride and search for glory has undoubtedly left the land in better shape than without his heroic feats. It can also be said that Beowulf is a representation of a change in times from traditional Scandinavian values such as doing great feats to achieve more glory or to die in battle for a glorious death to a more Christian set of values such as being a humble servant to the people or to God. Beowulf’s character starts off the story as being boastful and prideful but as the story progresses it can be seen that Beowulf evolves into a humbler

In the story, “The Pardoner’s Tales”, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the character the Pardoner in descriptive way. He describe the Pardoner’s corruption teaching and the way the Pardoner act in the tale. The religious that the Pardoner teaching is corrupted and very selfish, greediness, and gluttony. This thing are all opposite to what the real church religious is teaching. In the story, he tricks the people to buy his fake relics and other things by using the church’s believe. The Pardoner act and his teaching are all corrupted because of the church. It shows the side of greediness, gluttony and selfishness which highly reflect into himself and his believe.

Perfectionism can be defined as an individual’s determination of extremely high standards of performance and behaviour. Hagen (2016) suggests that perfectionism stems from a genetic predisposition combined with environmental factors and an individual’s life experiences.

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is a collection of stories by a group of pilgrims who are heading to Canterbury Cathedral. In this book, the pardoner and the reeve show antipodal characters in many ways. The pardoner is beautiful blonde hair man who is being loved by everyone. However he is very corrupted and smart and sells fake religious stuff to people saying very good compliment. On the other hand, the reeve is very serious and honest business man. He is very smart enough to know what criminals think and do. The pardoner story-tells a great example (or tale?) of seven deadly sins and reeve’s story is mocking of the miller. These very different characteristic men tell story telling that human beings are always punished for

The Germanic warrior society had an unspoken code – a list of rules that warriors and kings alike must uphold. The main aspects of this code for warriors were strength, courage, loyalty and honour; and for kings were loyalty to his warriors, generosity and a sense of responsibility. The character of Beowulf represents both sides of this Code very well. Hrothgar, King of Denmark, represents the nobility’s side of the code:

The first half of this dual ordeal is the internal conflict of human nature to be overcome by pride and greed. The characteristic of pride and its contradiction to Christian values gives a first look at the dichotomies of pride vs. humility and sacrifice vs. greed. In Herot, King Hrothgar reminds Beowulf that pride, untempered by humility, will result in the tragic fall. He also shares with Beowulf a second element of Christian philosophy; “wealth, accumulated through the grace of God, must be shared unselfishly.” The characteristic of greed is contradictory in Beowulf. At first, Beowulf is made out to be a selfless warrior; he fights Grendel and Grendel's mother to ensure safety for his people, even if it means he will die. However, once the greed of Beowulf mixes with his pride, he loses that trait of selflessness. Beowulf lets his pride consume him, and begins to brag about what he has accomplished. Beowulf says “Grendel is no braver nor stronger than I am! I could kill him with my sword; I shall not...” (Beowulf 376) Beowulf starts to call himself the best soldier in the world, and that he is the only one that could kill Grendel. At this point, Beowulf is no longer fighting for the protection of his people, but rather for his own personal glory.