BEOWULF ESSAY

     What defines a hero? Usually a hero is closely associated with the protagonist of a tale, the "good guy" that the audience is intended to sympathize with and support.  Typically, heroes save innocent people from death at the hands of the antagonist, and the background of the antagonist isn't normally explained in detail to better facilitate a connection between the deeper character of the hero and the audience  rather than one between the hero's enemy and the audience.  Often, a hero is who everyone aspires to be, and consequently, a hero's actions and beliefs can mirror the culture of the time period in which the story was created.  The classic hero Beowulf and the modern hero Luke Skywalker share similarities in character as heroes, but distinctions are also apparent between each hero and how they relate to the time periods in which they were written.

     In the epic poem Beowulf, the main character of the story, Beowulf, is the epitome of a hero according to the culture of the time period in which Beowulf was created.  Not only is he loyal to his king and the Danish king Hrothgar, an important value of his time, but he is also portrayed as self-confident, to a degree of slight arrogance, and accomplishes feats of strength in battle that lead to numerous victories against monsters terrorizing a kingdom.  This is comparable to the modern hero Luke Skywalker from the Star Wars series of movies from the 1970's.  Luke Skywalker doesn't have the strong self-confidence that Beowulf displays, but he fulfills the status quo of a hero who protects the innocent and fights evil when he volunteers to help destroy the Death Star, a sinister weapon of the Dark Side. 

     Both Luke Skywalker and Beowulf represent the religious influences of their time.  Beowulf's belief in God was influenced by the introduction of Christianity to the Anglo-Saxons in the fourth century as the tale of Beowulf was being transmitted orally from one generation to the next.  His belief is first alluded to when he proclaims that " 'God must decide/Who will be given to death's cold grip,' " prior to his battle with Grendel, which he plans to win without armor or a weapon.  Beowulf again mentions God when he says on his deathbed, " 'I thank/Our Father in Heaven, Ruler of the Earth-/For all of this, that His grace has given me.' "  Both of these textual examples demonstrate the importance of religious hero in the society of the creators of the epic.  Luke Skywalker, on the other hand, was guided in his endeavors by his belief in the Force, a concept that symbolized the renewed sense of Mother Earth as a power which exists in everyone that surfaced in the 1970's in the United States. 

     In addition, the actions of the characters Beowulf and Luke Skywalker in their respective stories reflect the idealistic views of both time periods that good will always triumph over evil.  This is evident when Beowulf succeeds in killing Grendel to save the banquet hall Heorot from Grendel's murderous rampages at night.  Beowulf saves the king's officials by ridding the kingdom of the beast and later, by killing Grendel's mother as well.  In relation, Luke Skywalker saves innocent lives also when he helps to destroy the Death Star of the Empire before it destroyed an inhabited planet.  In the end, he also rescues his father, Darth Vader, from the Dark Side by seeing a sliver of good left in him and reaching out to it.  The Dark Side, which is correlated to the evil Empire, could be a symbol of the communist and totalitarian governments present in the 1970's because the 1970's was in the middle of the Cold War between the democratic form of government that existed in the United States and the communist form of government that existed in the Soviet Union at the time.  The Soviet Union was seen as an oppressive enemy by the United States and consequently, by many Americans, which may have helped them relate to the cause of Luke Skywalker to stop the Empire.

     Beowulf and Luke Skywalker were both heroes whose courage saved the lives of many in their epics, and whose values represented the values of the culture of their creators.  Beowulf's apparent invincibility as a brave warrior was meant to inspire children and townspeople to the dream that loyalty and greatness can come from physical and religious strength.  Luke Skywalker's journey in Star Wars, which was released after the bicentennial of the United States, was intended to access the patriotism of its audience by showing the success of a group of rebels that Luke Skywalker was part of in overthrowing a totalitarian government, similar to the ideals of the American Revolution.  The gloriously portrayed lives of heroes are fabricated to provide an escape for the audience from their own seemingly monotonous lives, and a larger-than-life figure to look up to when their lives get difficult.