Beowulf A True Hero Essay

A true hero is someone who stands up for an idea that has admirable intentions. In the book “Beowulf,” men were considered heroes based on the way they followed the warrior’s code. The warrior’s code included duty, honor, and chivalry. At the beginning of the book, Beowulf seems to have the characteristics of a warrior, but as the story develops Beowulf starts having a different perspective on what a true warrior is.

To begin with one of Beowulf’s aberrations on his behavior as a warrior, the desire of material things is the first one. Considering the third characteristic in the warrior’s code, that is chivalry, Beowulf had failed to take action without waiting for something in reward. In the first battle of Beowulf, he defended Herot because he knew the people needed

his help, but once he enjoyed what having money really was, he lost himself in greed. Beowulf was no longer thinking about what he really did for people, but what people could give to him after that.
In addition to all what Beowulf had being doing that had caused him to fall as a hero, there is fame.

Beowulf was always a respected man, everyone in every town loved him because of his achievements as a warrior and that made him get used to all this attention. Beowulf didn’t want to be remembered anymore, he wanted to be worshiped and seen as someone great and mighty. The sense of honor wasn’t important to him as it was before, glory and recognition was what he was now looking for. The stories of people about Beowulf became something so important to him that he lost the true meaning of being a hero that fights for his people.

The last distinctive characteristic of the warrior’s code that was broken by Beowulf is duty. Duty is what the majority of the warriors at that time fought for and what made them determined. Duty meant the call to all men to fight for what they thought to be true and good but for Beowulf, that wasn’t what made him do it. In contrast to the beliefs of the men of that time, Beowulf’s motives to fight were all the luxuries that came after his actions. Beowulf believed that his only duty was to become richer and to be known around the globe as a magnificent

being.
As was previously stated, Beowulf committed a lot of mistakes that were against the warrior’s code. His greed made him forget the significance of being a warrior and a hero for people and consequently falling as one of them. For Beowulf the good of people was no longer taking part on his list of priorities. Beowulf became a man full of selfishness because he did not longer act for the people but for himself.