Gilgamesh Transformation

After reading The Epic of Gilgamesh, the reader can see how the transformation of the characters plays such a huge part of the whole story. Gilgamesh starts out as a terrible ruler. The story begins with a description of Gilgamesh and the type of person that he is. “Gilgamesh sounds the tocsin for his amusement, his arrogance has no bounds by day or night. No son is left with his father, for Gilgamesh takes them all, even the children;. His lust leaves no virgin to her lover, neither the warrior’s daughter nor the wife of the noble (Sanders 4). Right at the beginning we can paint a picture in our mind of the kind of ruler that Gilgamesh was and know that he was not a good one, or one that his people looked up to. The people of the city actually cried out to the gods (4). What a

Gilgamesh is afraid of what will happen to him when he dies. “ 'When I die, shall I not be like unto Enkidu? Sorrow has entered my heart. I am afraid of death and roam over the desert (Sanders 14). Gilgamesh has a great fear of death at this point in his life. He has gone from a terrible king that his subjects hated, to one that was a friend, to now being afraid of death. This fear of death is what persuades him to look for everlasting life. Eventually, Gilgamesh reaches Utnapishtim, who tells him of a " 'wondrous plant, Whereby a man may obtain his former strength” (Sanders 18). Gilgamesh becomes excited at the thought of being able to find the plant and to be able to take it back to Uruk. At this point, we see a kind, compassionate person, who was willing to share what he had found with others, someone who is completely different from the man that he was at the beginning of the epic. Gilgamesh find the plant and is excited, but that doesn’t last too long because a serpent comes and takes the plant away from him. “Gilgamesh sat down and wept, His tears flowing over his cheeks” (Sanders