The Struggle for Immortality

Gilgamesh, who is two-thirds God, and one-third human was a creature of extraordinary strength, courage and beauty. All throughout the poem, he desires to be immortal like the Gods.

Gilgamesh is a character who is not looked upon too favorably by his people. He does numerous things to displease his people. For instance, he sleeps with the virgin brides before the groom on their wedding night. In my opinion the only reason why he gets away with a lot of the things that he does is not because of his kingship, but because of his enormous amount of courage and strength given to him. No one will stand up to him.

There are many examples throughout the story that demonstrates Gilgamesh’s quest for immortality. One of the main reasons why Gilgamesh strives for immortality is because of Enkidu’s death. He notices how Enkidu’s pain and suffering causes Enkidu to feel shame as he gradually dies, and he doesn’t want it to happen to hi

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He felt that he possessed qualities of the Gods and could measure up to the Gods. Had he embraced this, Gilgamesh could have focused on becoming a better leader. To prove his point, he tells his wife to bake a loaf of bread for everyday that he sleeps. He is also told on more than one occasion that it is not in his destiny to become a God. When Siduri told him what he had to do to get immortality, Gilgamesh got upset and broke the tackle of the boat that he needed to use to cross the treacherous ocean to visit Utnapishtim.

Gilgamesh basically doesn’t listen very well because he is told on numerous accounts that death is something that can not be avoided. Siduri isn’t the only one who tries to Gilgamesh that his destiny was not to become a God. He also fights and beats Humbaba who was a giant of the forest even though everyone thought that he was going to loose. He tells Gilgamesh to stay awake for six days and seven nights. Before he died, Enkidu prophesied to Gilgamesh of a dream that he had. Which is one of the attributes of most Gods. He was put through different tests and failed. Gilgamesh failed to realize that the human necessities that was given to him by his father which were sleep and death could not be avoided.

Approximate Word count = 632
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

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