Beowulf And Achilles: A Tragic Hero

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"All men naturally seek heroes (Scheske 1)." Until the end of time there will be heroes, they naturally occur whether they are true or false heroes. People look to complete themselves through another person. Humanity wants to be able to look up to someone and aspire to be like them. Everyone has either an idol or a hero that they admire. Long ago a hero had a completely different definition. Heroes used to be great warriors who killed people and creatures and who took territories. A hero would be someone who slayed a king and took over, or someone who saved a damsel in distress. In today 's world the word hero has a wide variety of definitions. Heroes now can be a soldier in a war, a doctor curing a patient, a lawyer getting justice for a crime. …show more content…
Beowulf displayed honor when fighting Grendel, he took off his armor and laid down his sword because he knew Grendel didn 't know what these things were, therefore it would have been unfair. He did this still while knowing Grendel was not honorable at all. Beowulf is shown to be much more superior than Grendel by his act of honor. In the same way, Achilles is also an honorable warrior. He realized he was hurting his people while he was being stubborn. He made an honorable decision to go and avenge his friend, while protecting his people from harm. Agamemnon dishonors Achilles by taking his prize, this enrages Achilles and he then refuses to go to war. Patroclus his best friend, agreed to disguise himself as Achilles to scare everyone into thinking he really is fighting. After this plan goes south, and Patroclus ' identity was revealed, Achilles shows bravery as he storms out onto the battle grounds slaying everyone in his sight, not afraid at all. While Beowulf are both strong honorable leaders, they are also very different from each other in their …show more content…
Beowulf fought three different monsters that were terrorizing his city. Achilles fought lots of other men, not monsters. Beowulf did not believe in fighting other men, only monsters, thus their values are quite different. Beowulf was more heroic than Achilles because he had values like loyalty, pride, and courtesy. Achilles was more of a warrior because he had superhuman strength, he mostly fought for things such as having power, high social position, and getting revenge. Achilles mostly cared about himself and not other people, Beowulf wanted to fight monsters to save all of his people which shows he was very caring and doesn 't seek power or glory. For these reasons, Beowulf is the better hero out of the two of

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