Persuasive Essay Beowulf

Words: 914
Pages: 4

What is the point of a hero if he has no weakness what so ever? Is he even a hero if he knows that he is unbeatable? A person who is flawed is so much more relatable. How can you want someone to win if you cannot connect to them in any way? A story with a completely perfect character is no story at all. There is no personality to an utterly unflawed person. “Beowulf” the film portrays a more flawed hero than the poem does, which is much preferable. A person people can relate to is one more will follow. Beowulf lusts after the king’s wife Hrothgar’s wife. We as people have all had an experience of wanting someone else’s girlfriend or boyfriend. Beowulf stares at her a lot during the film with lust in his eyes. He dreams of her sleeping with …show more content…
Who wants to watch or read something if they know the outcome? When a character is struggling to win we root for them more. A hero cannot claim to be brave, or even a hero at all, if he knows the enemy has no chance. Fighting a fight you know you can win requires no bravery. Beowulf removes all of his clothing in the film to fight Grendel, so that it is a fair fight. It is so much more honorable and hero-like to fight without an advantage. Beowulf strips down to nothing and uses no weapons but his fists to fight Grendel (Beowulf). Heroes that do the stereotypical thing like in the poem are pretty bland. Beowulf does take off his armor in the poem to fight the monster, however throughout the whole poem he makes the stereotypical choices, as most heroes do. The poem is pretty obvious regarding the decisions Beowulf will make. There is nothing strange, out of the box, or unorthodox that happens in the poem. It just follows standard super hero plot. Beowulf is just a prince who everyone admires that almost always win and usually makes the right decision. “…/Crying that no better king had ever /Lived, no prince so mild, no man /So open to his people, so deserving of praise” (Beowulf 66). You could basically assume how the whole story was going to go in the poem, but in the film the hero is much more unexpected. Beowulf in the film is so much more entertaining and attention grabbing when he makes mistakes. It is impossible to sit through a hero plot that is just like every other. They are extremely boring. It is so much more of a story for them to be flawed. It allows the reader or watcher to connect to them, causes more emotion to be expressed toward the hero, and it gives watching the film or reading the poem purpose. Like Batman says “Why do we fall? So we can learn to pick ourselves up.”