Beowulf Essay


What are the main traits of a hero? Some of us consider heroes to be brave and macho men who are noble, that have to overcome adversity with glory. Beowulf(underline) is the story of a young warrior who kills two monsters that has been plaguing the kingdom of Heorot. He then returns to his homeland, where he is rewarded, and then inherits the throne when their old king does in a war. During his 50 year reign, he decides to slay a dragon that has been wreaking havoc. After the battle he is left wounded, and dies shortly after. In our modern society, Dexter, from the television series Dexter, has a lot of the same qualities as Beowulf. Dexter is a serial killer, but is considered a hero, because he only kills criminals who have killed innocent people, but were wrongly convicted. Dexter is a psychopath, and his dad gave him a code to abide by, were he only kills bad people. Some people think he's making the world a better place, while other think that he's a mass murderer. Both Beowulf and Dexter show signs of confidence and relentlessness.

Confidence is an important characteristic of any hero. No hero has the ability to overcome an endeavor without self-confidince. When Beowulf arrives to Heorot, he speaks of his past accomplishments, and of his heroic background. He then kills Grendel with his bare hands, just as he said he would. Dexter is talking with his sister, who knows his secret, and she asks him if he ever gets afraid, because one wrong decision could cost Dexter 25 to life. But he answers no, with conviction because he uses the same process he's been using to track criminals wrong, and he is very precise. During the whole series Dexter only makes a few mistakes, but his secret always remains at bay.

The other characteristic of a hero is relentlessness. And this isn't a characteristic that only heroes have, but many other greats. Steve Jobs, Michael Jordan, and Julius Caesar are all examples of relentless people. After Beowulf kills Grendel and his mother, he decides to kill a dragon as a very old man. He still decides to do it, and doesn't give up fighting against it, and even though he was badly wounded, he still defeated the dragon. And in Dexter, during the second season, he was on the hot seat, because people had found dead bodies, and some people were linking it to Dexter. He didn't let those people get to him, and had to go against his code, and kill those people to keep his secret from spreading. Although it was morally wrong, he did whatever he could to remain a free man. Both characters were willing to do whatever they had to, in order to get what they wanted.

Beowulf would be much different if told in a feminist perspective. A hero by definition is a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities. The definition by itself is masculine, which attests to how different it would be. With a female writing it, there would be no story of honor or courage, it would be more about love, gracefulness, and romance. There would be a lot less violence and it would be more of a romance, where Beowulf falls in love, instead of his story of nobility.
When we think of a hero, we typically think of males that triumph and not females. We tend to think of females as the sex that is more dramatic, and we don't hero of female heroism. It is much different in the eyes of a male.