Oedipus Vs Beowulf Essay

The time-honored figure saves the damsel in distress; a warrior saves his kingdom with the slaying of a dragon; a prince steps into position as king to lead his soldiers into battle. A beloved hero, praised for his or her benevolent and generous actions, shoulders the burden of inevitable tragedy-- the inescapable downfall. However, with the fall of the esteemed hero, comes a certain attainment. The fall does not result in pure loss, as seen in the epic poem Beowulf, translated by Burton Raffel, and in Sophocles’ famed tragedy, Oedipus. As the tragic hero Beowulf bleeds to death at the teeth of his late enemy, he claims long-sought glory in exchange for life as he asks for a tower built in his name; on a similar note, the Theban king Oedipus uncovers his twisted fate, eliminating his own sight and renowned reputation as a wave of …show more content…
Yet, despite the efforts of both tragic heroes, fate wills them to face their disturbed realities. In O’Brien’s quoted recollection, he constantly resists-- resists going near the corpse, resists looking at it, resists thinking about the body of the old man through his reassurances, “I didn’t go,” “I didn’t even look,” and “I looked away.” The tragic hero attempts anything to push reality from his innocent mind in a similar manner to the fallen hero, Oedipus. Despite not being the murderer of the old man, O’Brien still conveys a tone of depression and guilt in his description of his “sickness” and of “greeting the dead.” Not to mention, the erratic narration indicates a sense of anxiety-- all from the downfall of O’Brien’s ignorance. Therefore, both O’Brien and Oedipus attain emotional trauma through altered perceptions of their respective realities as a result of learning the