In this epic, Beowulf journeys through various challenges that sculpt his character and teach him valuable lessons. His journey is a metaphor for his internal struggle to always live up to the extremely high expectations he holds for himself, and the high expectations others hold of him. He struggles with overconfidence, and his path is constantly interlaced with his desire for adding to his hero status. Beowulf’s path, or internal quest, has a goal, which is for him to become the ultimate hero of his society, and thus a better member of society, by conquering incredible accomplishments slathered thick in bravery and heroism. Beowulf is not the only one who learns from his quest, for there is us, the readers, as well to soak lessons from Beowulf’s adventures.
One of these lessons is incorporated in the beginning of the story, when Unferth, who envied Beowulf, challenges Beowulf’s claim of being fully capable of killing off Grendel. Unferth tries to needle in this point by bringing up the swimming match Beowulf participated in, by outlining its ridiculousness, but Beowulf merely flicked away the bitter remarks, and replaced them with boasts about his inspirational achievement in the match. This goes for showing us that we should always think positively about ourselves even when others try to break us down with their negativity.
Another lesson taught to us in the book is that taking risks is an essential part to being successful. For instance, before Beowulf attempted to kill Grendel, he acknowledged that it wasn’t the simplest task in the world, and that his life was on the line if he messed up the job. Yet, he still took that major calculated risk, knowing that he possessed magnified strength that had the great potential to end Grendel. And in the end, Beowulf killed Grendel, earning quite more honor for himself than he had before. He would not have been able to accomplish gaining that type of respect if it wasn’t for him taking risk. Through this, we and Beowulf learn that like it or not, we have to go through the uncomfortableness of taking risk to accomplish our/his dream goals.
But taking too much of miscalculated risk can lead to dangerous issues, as it happens in the story. This time, Beowulf decides to fight against a fire-breathing dragon and has full confidence in himself that he could do it. However, Beowulf doesn’t take into mind that although he is a master of battling, he is not the same age he once used to be, and is thus threateningly overconfident of himself. This eventually leads to Beowulf’s death, when he realized he couldn’t win the battle versus the dragon. This last adventure of Beowulf’s teaches that although taking risk and being confident will prove fruitful to our goals, taking miscalculated risk and being overconfident can prove to be detrimental to our future.
One of these lessons is incorporated in the beginning of the story, when Unferth, who envied Beowulf, challenges Beowulf’s claim of being fully capable of killing off Grendel. Unferth tries to needle in this point by bringing up the swimming match Beowulf participated in, by outlining its ridiculousness, but Beowulf merely flicked away the bitter remarks, and replaced them with boasts about his inspirational achievement in the match. This goes for showing us that we should always think positively about ourselves even when others try to break us down with their negativity.
Another lesson taught to us in the book is that taking risks is an essential part to being successful. For instance, before Beowulf attempted to kill Grendel, he acknowledged that it wasn’t the simplest task in the world, and that his life was on the line if he messed up the job. Yet, he still took that major calculated risk, knowing that he possessed magnified strength that had the great potential to end Grendel. And in the end, Beowulf killed Grendel, earning quite more honor for himself than he had before. He would not have been able to accomplish gaining that type of respect if it wasn’t for him taking risk. Through this, we and Beowulf learn that like it or not, we have to go through the uncomfortableness of taking risk to accomplish our/his dream goals.
But taking too much of miscalculated risk can lead to dangerous issues, as it happens in the story. This time, Beowulf decides to fight against a fire-breathing dragon and has full confidence in himself that he could do it. However, Beowulf doesn’t take into mind that although he is a master of battling, he is not the same age he once used to be, and is thus threateningly overconfident of himself. This eventually leads to Beowulf’s death, when he realized he couldn’t win the battle versus the dragon. This last adventure of Beowulf’s teaches that although taking risk and being confident will prove fruitful to our goals, taking miscalculated risk and being overconfident can prove to be detrimental to our future.