Beowulf And Aladdin Analysis

Although some might think the epic poem, Beowulf and the animated movie, Aladdin may have nothing in common, these two works actually have many relatable aspects. One of these common characteristics is the type of the plot that both of these works contain, the Hero’s Quest. However, with these similarities come many differences in these respectable works of literature. These similarities and differences include the Hero’s Quest, the type of villain, and the hero portrayed in each plot. Which one fits the Hero’s Quest better? The Hero’s Quest is an archetype that is used commonly throughout works of literature in history. By coincidence, both Beowulf and Aladdin use the Hero’s Quest as their type of plot. Both works of literature follow the

First and foremost, Beowulf follows an epic hero archetype by passing at the end of the poem whereas Aladdin survives and lives a glorified life as the husband of a princess and future Sultan of the Arab States. This is most likely the largest difference between the two works, but there are still a relatively large amount of differences still present. For example, Aladdin has Genie’s companionship and mentor-esque factor that help him along his journey. This is an obvious difference from Beowulf and his journey as Beowulf is a one man show in his fights with the exception of fighting the dragon with Wiglaf. This leads to another difference, a sidekick type character. Aladdin has his trusty monkey, Abu and Beowulf is all by his lonesome until Wiglaf comes at the very end and aids in fighting the dragon. Although they both have sidekicks at the butt end of the plots, only Aladdin has a sidekick for the majority of the film/poem. These are just a few of the countless differences between the movie, Aladdin and the epic poem, Beowulf.

These two works, Aladdin and Beowulf are both similar and different in their own respective ways, some differences even stemming from the similarities. For example, the two stories share the exact same plot all the way to the end where one character, Beowulf, dies and Aladdin lives, making a new life for himself as prince

For example, there are more differences between Aladdin and Beowulf, yet the similarities are more pivotal in their respective ways. This can easily been seen by the kind of plot used in the pieces, Hero’s Quest. Without using this kind of plot or storyline, there would be nearly no similarities between the two, however, since Hero’s Quest was utilized by both the director and the author, it creates many more similarities beyond the plot. Yet, the number of differences is far greater than that of the similarities. For instance, Aladdin is motivated by love compared to Beowulf being driven by ego and pride. Another example could be that Beowulf went through the Hero’s Quest three separate times in the poem, squashing Aladdin’s completion of only a single cycle of the quest. As one can see, the differences outweigh the similarities by number, but not