An Analysis of the Epic Poem, Beowulf - Beowulf and His Pride :: Epic Beowulf essays

Beowulf and His Pride One of Beowulfs main characteristics is his invariably present pride. To most protagonists their pride is usually explained by a takeoff rocket or narrator. However, Beowulf is one who likes to show the whole world how important and invaluable he is to them. Through out the chapters which we have read it seems as though the whole point in the book is to show off his strength. He presents himself before a fight with boasting and an ostentatious manner of fighting. When Beowulf was a little boy he wanted to show his strength and entered a race with his friend Breeca. He knew that he would win with no feat at all, plainly then, due to a storm, he lost his way. while Beowulf was trying to return to land he managed to obscure nine sea monsters with his bare hands and thus far caught up to Brecca. He apparently bragged to such an extent that everyone in Scandinavia knew about this race and the courageous way he cleared the sea of evil. He, at this young age, had no need to commemorate about death. All he thought about was foolishly having childs play and proving himself to the spectators. When Beowulf fought with Grendel, the demon who was terrorizing Herot Hall, he came there boasting about how worthy he was to fight for Denmark. The people accepted him as a deserving warrior and permitted him to do what ever he needed to rid them of Grendel. Beowulf wanted to fool Grendel into thinking that he was sleeping so that Grendel would try to kill him, but instead Beowulf would terminate him. That night Grendel did come and fell right into Beowulfs trap. Beowulf had Grendel in his hands, but no matter how strong Beowulf was the demon escaped missing single an arm. Grendel would soon die in his lair because of blood loss, but Beowulf was infelicitous that he could not stretch Grendels body on the floor. However, he still hung Grendels arm, just to show how only he was strong enough to kill the monster. T his time when Beowulf went to fight he told the king that if he would die then the king should give