Essay on Beowulf (Essay Sample)

Essay on Beowulf
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Essay on Beowulf
Beowulf thrives throughout the ancient epic to reign as an untimed hero in the modern and contemporary societies. The epic portrays Beowulf as a human being whose supernatural characteristics enable him to tackle challenging and dangerous situations for the restoration of peace in his kingdom. Despite the lapse of time, the character depicts similarities with several modern characters (Hill, 2007). Arguably, the Beowulf’s character in the epic is comparable to that of Batman, Superman, and Spiderman characters in the modern society. The essay will seek to outline Beowulf’s characteristics to compare with the modern characters as a hero; hence, it will outline the aspects of strength, persistence, the fight against evil, and the role of ethics.
According to the ancient epic, Beowulf exhausted his ability in the pursuance of justice and freedom in his kingdom. Such heroic characteristic compelled him to engage in dangerous affairs with the society’s enemies, but his zeal and persistence enabled him to conquer them and redeem the kingdom from impending dangers as quoted, “needed by society in Beowulf from a natural and legal perspective” (Nido, 2012). Beowulf compares to the character of Batman in the modern society as his heroic involvements in dangerous expeditions enable him to restore peace and avoid the loss of lives. For example, after the monsters’ invasion into the kingdom, Beowulf acts solely with a level of determination to defeat the enemies (Ghosh, 2010). Eventually, the heroic character embarks on journey to hunt the monsters from their territories. He exhibits strength and persistence in the process since the journey compels him to swim in a sea for a period of seven days before meeting his opponents. Despite the long distance and the involving events before his arrival at the monsters’ territory, Beowulf engages nine monsters into a fight with success (Hill, 2007). The characteristic of strength and persistence, which portray heroism are evident in the process.
Batman being a modern hero exhibits strength and persistence in his roles as he engages criminals and other anti-social individuals from committing unethical acts against the human race and their properties. For example, Batman engages the “Rogue Gallery” criminals, a gang comprising of the Joker, Poison Ivy, Riddler, and the Penguin. Batman strong and ethical aspects enable him to tackle Two-Face and Ra’s al Ghul criminals with an affiliation to the Rogues Gallery. Beowulf compares to Batman in that he is capable of wading off dangers from reaching and harming the society. The two characters compare in the aspect of ethics as they deviate from committing unjust killings against their opponents (Nido, 2012). The epic story indicates that Beowulf killed his monster enemies whenever the situation forced him to execute the act. On the other hand, Batman establishes similar heroic characteristics from his actions since the movie, “Batman” establishes him as an emotional character who is capable of judging situations to understand the worth course of action to undertake in tackling different characters.
Beowulf’s heroic character is comparative to that of Spiderman, a fictional hero in the modern and contemporary societies. For example, Beowulf shows emotional indulgence after the monsters attacked his kingdom. The tale further presents Beowulf as a loving character who enjoys social companionship. For example, the story narrates of his involvement in social events in the king’s castle (Hill, 2007). The characteristics of social involvement and emotional attachment depict him as a hero in the modern society, as he is capable of showing human characteristics. Similarly, Spiderman’s heroic characteristics of emotional involvement, love, and intersocial relationships, for example, are evident from his level of persistence into identifying emerging events that may cause intimidations to humans, and in love affairs (Ghosh, 2010). Scott’s passage quotes that, “From that night on Peter (Spiderman) makes an oath to himself and his late uncle to never make such a selfish decision again and to help everyone who needs it and fight for justice and use his powers for good.” Beowulf is capable of mingling with ordinary people from his ancient society to assess their views on the pressing issues. The characteristic of moral ethics in addressing situations emulates Beowulf as a hero since he is capable of identifying the appropriate measures to adapt towards the establishment of a solution.
According to the modern society, heroes are those characters who embrace the aspect of thoughtful evaluation of situations and the identification of accurate remedies to execute in order to solve problems. The heroic character of knowledgeable assessment of situations prior to the execution of an act is evident in the Beowulf (Nido, 2012). Arguably, the character acquires the necessary knowledge from his community before pursuing the monsters in their hideouts. Such heroic characteristics are comparable to those of other modern heroes, for example, Superman, Spiderman, and Batman. The characters portray intellectual capabilities of evaluating events to ascertain the accurate intentions before their involvement. The characte...