Gilgamesh
Love & Immortality Essay
Often outside forces have a bigger hand in propelling a protagonist onward in his epic journey than the protagonist himself. The situations that the protagonists find themselves in and the people in their lives both have a great part in the decisions they make. It is not just the character's own will that pushes him to do great things; it is the people he is surrounded by that influence his decisions and circumstances that drive him to accomplish the great feats that he otherwise might have never dreamed of achieving. This is portrayed through the use of secondary characters in both Gilgamesh by Joan London and in The Epic of Gilgamesh.
In The Epic of Gilgamesh, the sole reason Gilgamesh decides to make his epic journey to the underworld is his companion Enkidu. The death of Enkidu drives him to his epic quest for immortality, a journey he otherwise would never have made. Enkidu’s death causes him such grief and evokes such fear of his own mortality that he decides to go to a place no mortal has ever ventured. It is because of Enkidu that Gilgamesh grows as a person, finds himself, and eventually even acquires immortality in a manner of speaking. After his epic quest, he returns to Uruk as a changed man and finally begins to think like a king. He finds his immortality in the city that he had built and ruled. His place is in Uruk, which, if he rules it well, will live on as his legacy and continue to grow in power and beauty. Gilgamesh finally finds that there is no way to truly elude death: at least not corporeally. Utnapishtim’s story illustrates to Gilgamesh that only humanity as a whole perseveres. Even if each of us is to meet our own end eventually, the human cycle of life continues indefinitely. People die, but humankind will always endure. Enkidu’s death is paramount in propelling the events necessary to evoke such change in a man as prideful as Gilgamesh. In London’s Gilgamesh, Edith’s decision to make the strenuous
Often outside forces have a bigger hand in propelling a protagonist onward in his epic journey than the protagonist himself. The situations that the protagonists find themselves in and the people in their lives both have a great part in the decisions they make. It is not just the character's own will that pushes him to do great things; it is the people he is surrounded by that influence his decisions and circumstances that drive him to accomplish the great feats that he otherwise might have never dreamed of achieving. This is portrayed through the use of secondary characters in both Gilgamesh by Joan London and in The Epic of Gilgamesh.
In The Epic of Gilgamesh, the sole reason Gilgamesh decides to make his epic journey to the underworld is his companion Enkidu. The death of Enkidu drives him to his epic quest for immortality, a journey he otherwise would never have made. Enkidu’s death causes him such grief and evokes such fear of his own mortality that he decides to go to a place no mortal has ever ventured. It is because of Enkidu that Gilgamesh grows as a person, finds himself, and eventually even acquires immortality in a manner of speaking. After his epic quest, he returns to Uruk as a changed man and finally begins to think like a king. He finds his immortality in the city that he had built and ruled. His place is in Uruk, which, if he rules it well, will live on as his legacy and continue to grow in power and beauty. Gilgamesh finally finds that there is no way to truly elude death: at least not corporeally. Utnapishtim’s story illustrates to Gilgamesh that only humanity as a whole perseveres. Even if each of us is to meet our own end eventually, the human cycle of life continues indefinitely. People die, but humankind will always endure. Enkidu’s death is paramount in propelling the events necessary to evoke such change in a man as prideful as Gilgamesh. In London’s Gilgamesh, Edith’s decision to make the strenuous