Was Beowulf crazy?

Beowulf was a warrior.  He also liked to jump into any challenge.  He had a lot of pride but it could have been something more.  His lust for battle and glory could have steamed from a deeper problem.  The man was nuts.  He seems to have very strong self-destructive tendencies.  Either he is the world’s bravest man or just plain crazy.

In his fight against Grendel he wanted to defeat him using nothing but his grip.  He grappled with him and used his strength to rip off Grendel’s arm.  He went into the battle planning to defeat him using only his manly strength.  He did not even have a plan of attack.  He just winged it.  Grendel was a monster known for his power, and he wanted to test his skills in battle.

He also goes to fight Grendel’s mother with no course of action.  She is the mother of a monster.  Feared across the land and he has no plan.  Just runs in and dose whatever comes to mind.  To him his death will be his and if he is defeated then so be it.  He really does not seem to care if he dies in battle.  He just wants the challenge.

He swam the ocean holding a sword just in case he needed it.  It is bad enough he swam into the middle of the ocean, but he had to do it holding a large sword.  He could not have even strapped it to his back he had to carry it with him in his hand.  That just seems like a bad decision to a normal person.

To wrap it up he is either very brave or just mad.  Someone who was not mad would have thought things out better.  He just ran into every change without a care in the world.  I could be reading too much into this but he just does not seem all there to me.

The Tragic Hero

The tragic hero is a something popularized in Greek tragedies.  But what if the Greeks where not the first with this idea of the tragic hero?  In the epic of Gilgamesh the main character Gilgamesh is in fact a tragic hero.  He shares many characteristic with the Greek tragic hero and in fact he shares similarities with Creon from Antigone.

This concept of hubris is “excessive pride or self-confidence; arrogance.” According to dictionary.com. This is a major character flaw in both of these Hero’s.  Creon said “You’ll never bury that body in the grave, not even if Zeus’s eagles rip the corpse and wing their rotten picking off to the throne of God!”  This is such a prime example of hubris. 

In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Gilgamesh’s pride is the thing that kills him.  He is self-destructive and he really does not get it until the end.  To me he is a prime example of what it means to be a tragic hero.

I want to argue that Gilgamesh is the first recorded tragic hero in literature.  I will break down what it means to be a tragic hero, and compare these to the Greek tragic hero’s to Gilgamesh. 

Antigone

Antigone is a tragic play.  There are some key elements that make this a tragedy.  Also there are two possible candidates for being a tragic hero in the story, but one to me stood out more as the true tragic hero. 

There are many different tragic elements in this story.  First of death is a common theme in the story.  Antigone’s brothers die, and so does she.   Creon also losses his son and then his wife.  “I killed you, I, god help me, I admit it all!”  Another big thing is that most of the death could have been avoided but the characters where to flawed to do so.  The main characters had flaws and that is big in Greek tragedy's.  also the tone of the story was grim witch is a common theme also.

I personally feel that Creon is the true tragic hero of this story.  Antigone did voluntarily do something knowing it could end up killing her.  She had to bury her brother even though her sister warned her about the outcome. She never really had a revelation or a turning point she just maintained her same level or spirit through out the story.  “You chose to live, I chose to die.”  She comes to a tragic ending and had her fatal flaws, but she is not the tragic hero. 

Creon not only dooms himself but he dooms his family with his arrogance and pride.  It is because of this he is the tragic hero of the story.  “You’ll never bury that body in the grave, not even if Zeus’s eagles rip the corpse and wing their rotten picking off to the throne of God!”  It is this pride that his down fall.  His own son came to him to ask him just to spare her.  He could not do so and because of that everything in his life went to hell.  His character finally wants to set things right, but by the time he dose it is all too late and he cannot bring back his loved ones for his own pride killed them.