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Batman And Beowulf Comparison

Decent Essays

In the last 50 years, countless heroes have been created or shown through film. One of the most interesting, modern, fictional heroes that we have seen is the Batman played by Christian Bale, otherwise known as the Dark Knight in the Dark Knight series. Even after more than a thousand years since the creation of the epic poem Beowulf, similar characteristics of the character Beowulf are still seen in fictional heroes such as Batman. Although on the surface Beowulf and Batman seem very different, many of their basic characteristics are very similar including their motivation, the people that doubted them, their love for their homeland, and the personal sacrifices that they made for the greater good. This juxtaposition is proof that humans throughout history have gone through the same thought process when creating their heroes.
One of the many similarities between Batman and Beowulf is their origins. Batman and Beowulf alike were born and raised in the city/kingdom that he aimed to protect. Because of this similarity, the …show more content…

In Batman this is more true than in Beowulf, but nonetheless, the archetype remains strong in both stories. In Beowulf, only one person, a man named Unferth, seems to truly doubt the hero when he questions his past successes. This dubious man is soon silenced by a simple conversation where Beowulf proves him wrong. This aspect of both heroes definitely seems to be more complicated with Batman. Instead of only one or a few people expressing serious doubt in Batman’s ability, it is almost the entire city that expresses concern. Batman only has a few people that believe in him including Commissioner Gordon, Batman’s butler Alfred, and a few citizens of Gotham. Despite their differences, Batman and Beowulf both contain one of the key elements in a hero’s story; people who try to pull them down, and the people who express nothing but

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