Beowulf: Poem Analysis

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Pages: 7

In the epic poem Beowulf, the character Beowulf is under constant pressure to perform acts of greatness in battle in order to prove himself to the world, leading to his demise through overwhelming tasks; likewise, in the movie Whiplash, Myles Teller plays an inspiring jazz drummer who becomes obsessed with impressing his teacher which causes him to physically abuse himself; an inability to settle caused by exponentially increasing expectations for themselves, hinders someone from feeling a sense of accomplishment. Struggle is a necessary evil in life, that has led to the achievements of many, but not to be overshadowed by the tremendous work before their success. Characters such as Beowulf, who have quite a legacy, are constantly trying to make their name even more well-known and in doing so attempt tasks that may be too difficult. In the same way musicians, who are burdened by the plethora of up and coming artist, are always trying to separate themselves from the others. They accomplish this by practicing for thousands of hours, …show more content…
Leonardo da Vinci was a master in creating masterpieces and revolutionary ideas. During his time in Florence, he began to paint what would become the Mona Lisa, yet since he was such a perfectionist it took almost 3 years of painting for him to finally come to terms with its completion. However, in a quote he says how “Art is never finished, only abandoned,” which is surprising because of all the fame that surmounted from his works of art and aforementioned ideas. It is unknown exactly how long it took him to paint the Mona Lisa, but he is thought to have started it in 1503 and stopped working on it in 1506. Da Vinci’s expectations of himself were so great, that he could not manage to finish his works because they could never be great enough in his mind. This contributed to why he took such a long time in painting his works of