BEOWULF ESSAY

            “The man whose name was known for courage, the Great leader, resolute in his helmet, answered in return: ‘We are retainers, from Hygelac’s band. Beowulf is my name.’” This introductory declaration about Beowulf by Beowulf himself describes his struggle to build up and form the reputation that he has, gaining it through his great deeds in life. Beowulf describes a hero and his epic journey of his life through his confidence, fidelity, valor, and determination. With Beowulf depicting an idol for every reader since traditional literary time period, the concept of heroism hasn’t changed much over time. Beatrice Prior, “heroic” protagonist of Divergent by Veronica Roth, faces comparable difficulties and victories in life as of Beowulf, but the readers’ perception towards the theme of the book or the character changes because of the feminist narration and a female hero.

            A propensity of readers is to analyze a book or a work of art and to scrutinize, and sometimes even criticize the author or the artist’s biographical background and beliefs and then form judgments on their work based on it. But in Beowulf’s case, readers are restricted because the author is unknown. Its author uses literary techniques such as foreshadowing, metaphors, similes, irony, hyperbole, personification, etc and conveys them through syntax and diction that is grandiose, formal, and exaggerated – hyperbole. A monster, Grendel, is given a name and characteristics as of a human being and presented to the audience as a terrifying enemy and obstacle for Beowulf to overcome. Beowulf is depicted to be a confident, fearless, and generous character, who has unstinted love for his people and willing to risk and sacrifice his life for them. The grandiose diction allows the author to bring the level of intensity and courage of Beowulf to an elevated level, almost impossible to achieve by a normal individual. With Beowulf becoming an icon of heroism for authors of all periods of time, authors have now found a new approach for characteristics and actions of a hero.

            “True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.”¹ Contemporary readers have developed this perception towards the basic concept of heroism: it is merely a fight of good vs. evil and heroism is the victory of good over evil. It allows the readers to deem that heroes are authentic because they can also exist in real life. Beatrice (“Tris”) Prior is a paragon of a contemporary hero. She’s strong, confident, and an independent woman who lives not only for herself but also for the community around her. But unlike traditional heroes, such as Beowulf, authors characterize modern heroes with a personal fight that they have to overcome without external help – an internal conflict. Beowulf had no internal conflict, allowing him to make a decision solely based his instincts and self-confidence. But for Tris, her internal conflict was to choose a faction that both contented her parents and herself. Throughout the entire book or even series, Tris went through an epic journey of discovering who she truly is while fighting the external forces such as society and authority. With Tris becoming a revolutionary figure, readers get inspiration to start a movement. Also with modern heroes, as said in the quote, they’re sober – so don’t have attitude or arrogance about their abilities or characteristics. Because of this, readers might consider Beowulf to be quite arrogant as he said that he’ll fight the monster – even naked. With readers’ perception changing, the future generation heroes might even seem more realistic than those as of now.

            Although Beowulf and Tris seem to be differentiated by the time period and the literary techniques used in both pieces of literature, they do have many similarities as well. Obviously since both the characters are heroes, they both have an enemy, an antagonist – someone or something they need to fight. Even though they’re heroes, they still need someone to rely on, someone to trust. Beowulf needed Hrothgar to support his followers and his people if something were to happen to him. Tris, even though had her entire family, needed someone to take care of them and so had Four to do it. But female heroes are still not as prominent as male. According to a CNN news report, young adult literature focuses more on emotions – to sadden, to shock, or to awaken – and on characteristics of the plot, setting, and characters. And authors find their ability to do it on a greater extent with men protagonists than with women. Since female characters face more and complex problems in life than male characters do, Beowulf would’ve been more complex and convoluted of an epic if told by a feminist perspective. The story would be less realistic if Beowulf were to be told in a feminist perspective because women were viewed to be caring, loving, and soft natured to be fighting a villain. And so, the enemy for a woman protagonist is generally weaker than a man’s. Basically, a feminist perspective would take an essence of Beowulf and his heroic abilities out of the story.

            A hero doesn’t have to be a fictional character who’s smart, talented, strong, good looking, and all those qualities merged into one – but only has to be kind hearted and courageous enough to start a movement. Even though both Tris and Beowulf had their own abilities that set them apart from a normal crowd, they only had the courage to stand up against the wrong – Beowulf against Grendel and Tris against authority – that made them heroes. This major quality gives the readers hope and inspiration that even they can be heroes. A quote from Tris’s faction, Dauntless, that perfectly captures this idea, is: “We believe in ordinary acts of bravery in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another.”

¹ A quote by Arthur Ashe