In the Norton Critical Edition of Gilgamesh, there are three interesting essays. Here are some of the main points covered in those essays.

William Moran, "The Gilgamesh Epic:  A Masterpiece from Ancient Mesopotamia"

• In addition to providing a summary of various versions of the story, Moran describes Three Transformations:
• Nonhuman to Human: Enkidu
• Seven days of sexual intercourse with Shamhat the harlot initiates him away from his animal life into the realm of the human, culminating in his submission to the authority of Gilgamesh, who as king symbolizes the pinnacle of earthly power.
• Human to Nonhuman:  Gilgamesh
• Gilgamesh mourns for seven days after Enkidu dies, refusing to take care of himself and becoming unbathed and slovenly, wearing animal skins instead of his kingly robes.
• 174: "Gilgamesh the hero is dead.  Gilgamesh, the anti-man, the would-be god, appears."
• Nonhuman to Human:  Gilgamesh
• In an attempt to prove himself worthy of immortality, Gilgamesh tries to stay awake, but instead sleeps, for seven days, after which he accepts his humanity and mortality.

• Jacobsen describes some contending goals:
• Achieving immortality vs. Avoiding  death
• Immortality through Fame vs. Immortality in the Flesh
• This pursuit occurs in a cycle of sorts:
• Fame: Killing of Humbaba, Bull of Heaven
• Flesh: Seeking Utnapishtim, Avoiding Sleep, Plant of Regeneration
• Fame: Returning to Uruk to insure legacy
• Jacobsen also describes Gilgamesh as a sort of Peter Pan figure, who refuses to exchange youth for adulthood, as represented by marriage and parenthood.
• 1st meeting with Enkidu:  rejection of marriage [if he was in fact about to get married] for boyhood [perhaps homosexual?] friendship
• Rejection of Ishtar:  unnecessarily violent
• After Enkidu's death, "Gilgamesh does not move forward to seek a new companionship in marriage, but backward in an imaginary flight toward the security of childhood"(207).
• Seeks Utnapishtim and his wife, described as parental/ancestral figures, who enable him a bit by offering him the Plant of Regeneration.

• As a text written BY men, FOR men, Harris contends, it likely demonstrates prevailing male attitudes of the times.
• One of Harris's main foci is on the concept of Gender Role Inversion, especially in the female characters.
• Essentially, she suggests, most female characters are regarded positively only when they assist the heroic men in their quests; they are supporting cast members, intermediaries, and assistants.
• Ninsun: only female with whom there is a loving male/female relationship in Gilgamesh.
• Interesting parallels can be drawn between the three figures of Ninsun,Gilgamesh, and Enkidu in this work and Thetis, Achilles, and Patroclus in the Iliad.
• Shanhat, the Harlot, and Siduri, the Tavernkeeper, occupy roles traditionally confined to the extradomestic domain and marginalized, but they here are portrayed as maternal, beneficent, and wise.
• Two married women--Utnapishtim's and Scorpion-man's wives--are unnamed, anonymous, relational, mediating between Gilgamesh and their husbands.
• Ishtar:  only woman who really doesn't fit the traditional female mold, especially in her sexual aggressiveness, which makes her appear to act more male than female, and leads to an inversion in position.  Ishtar is at the bottom, not the top, as a deity should be.
• Gilgamesh and Enkidu:  Act more like husband and wife than brothers or friends, thus enacting a reversal of traditional relationships between men.