Epic Hero Essay
A hero is a person of distinguished courage who has outstanding qualities and abilities, and who is admired for brave and noble acts. An Anglo-Saxon hero is a person who has good leadership qualities, is able and willing to provide people with a sense of security, and is willing to go into danger despite possible harm to them. Beowulf, Roy Hobbs, and the Dark Knight are all three heroes that exhibit Anglo-Saxon qualities that have allowed them to evolve into something bigger than itself. All three heroes have shown Anglo-Saxon values which have allowed the newer generation of heroes such as the Dark Knight to still possess these values and qualities that were founded at an earlier date. I have found six qualities among the three heroes which they all happen to possess which include strength, loyalty, courage, bravery, confidence and honor. These six qualities have shown that no matter how new or old the hero is, they have all stayed true and evolved starting with the Anglo-Saxon era. One of the qualities that the three characters possess is strength. Strength is even an example of an archetype because it’s a continuous pattern that has been shown throughout many heroes for the longest times. For Beowulf, he showed strength by tearing Grendel’s arm off. He was blessed with an incredible superhuman strength which also allowed him to show no mercy while defeating both Grendel and his mother to protect Hrothgar. Roy Hobbs hits a towering homerun that breaks the stadium lights. He was strong enough to hit the ball far which shows the type of game hero he was. Lastly, the Dark Knight has more of a mental strength because he relies on his own scientific knowledge, detective skills, and athletic mentality.
Loyalty is another quality that heroes seem to have when dealing with a specific task at hand. Beowulf stayed loyal to Hrothgar with his promise to protect the Danes from danger and by keeping his promise to kill Grendal. In the movie The Natural, Roy had stayed very
Loyalty is another quality that heroes seem to have when dealing with a specific task at hand. Beowulf stayed loyal to Hrothgar with his promise to protect the Danes from danger and by keeping his promise to kill Grendal. In the movie The Natural, Roy had stayed very
Cited: Raffel, Burton, and Leonard Baskin. Beowulf. Amherst: University of Massachusetts, 1963. Print. The Natural. Dir. Barry Levinson. Perf. Robert Redford, Robert Duvall and Glenn Close. Tri- Star Pictures, 1984. DVD. “Wikipedia”.Wikipedia.N.P., n.d. Web. 15 October 2012 <http://wikipedia.com/> “The Dark Knight Rises: Quotes.” The Dark Knight Rises (2012). N.P., 1990. Web. 15 October 2012. <http://imbd.com/title/tt1345836/quotes>