Terrorizing a town for 12 years Grendel kills countless men and woman in the epic of Beowulf. Banished to an underwater dwelling when descendants of Cain were banished and killed, many warriors faced him but few survived. Many have herd of Grendel and his tale of horror, but who is Grendel?
The natural being of monsters is supposed to instill fear in humans. Their original purpose of creation was to scare children into doing what they were told and to scare people away from places. They instill fear because they possess supernatural powers. Each society that has monsters worked into their culture, reflects that society’s values. In the majority of societies across the globe, men are seen as the stronger, more dominant gender. So, when monsters have more power than men, and that monster happens to be female, men feel vulnerable to allure and emasculated to their domination.
It always find a way to categorize or place labels on things. Although, some of these placements are accurate, majority of them are misconceptions. People in this society are prejudice toward the creature and often place him in an evil category based on his appearance. They hold disdain for people unlike them, especially for a creature they never seen before. Society wrongly treat the creature on the assumption he is a monster. They torment him because of his forbidding look. The moment he was accused of murder he demeanor took a turn for the worst. “I had saved a human being from destruction, and as a recompense I now writhed under the miserable pain of a wound which shattered the flesh and bone. The feelings of kindness and gentleness which I had entertained but a few moments before gave place to hellish rage and gnashing of teeth. Inflamed by pain, I vowed eternal hatred and vengeance to all mankind” (16. 19-20). Neglecting the sunshine and truce, society has brought the monster out of the monster. This led to the mass murder of Victor Frankenstein’s brother and
If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Similarly, if a being is never provoked by man, will it become a monster? The latter is a question that is put into focus throughout Gardner’s Grendel and Shelley’s Frankenstein. The reader learns of Grendel, and of Frankenstein’s creation, and must determine if they are truly monsters or merely a product of the world they live in. It is very easy to take one glance at the seemingly heinous crimes committed by Grendel and Frankenstein’s creation, and based off of this, deem them to be monsters. However, it is the actions and words of man that transform both Grendel, and Frankenstein’s creation into monsters.
Secondly, whatever the difference monsters have from a human, whether it be animal characteristics, made-up attributes, or a combination of human limbs and other traits, any discrepancy points out their difference from humanity. The monsters with human attributes backhandedly comment on human behaviors, such as Manticore, Medusa and Minotaur. Blake and Cooper note that Medusa is in a group of “over-sexual women… were combined with snakes in order to emphasize the supposed sinful nature of women and temptations of their bodies” (Blake and Cooper 4). In recent monster stories, humanoid monsters have become increasingly normal. Thirdly, despite their distortions, monsters reflect who we are as humankind. Their many differences in meaning and image reflect humanity’s diversity. “Gothic” fiction is a literary tradition that started a recent wave of monsters that consisted of novels from Dracula to The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. People began to write tales that tamed the supernatural
The monster asserts,” It was your journal of the four months that preceded my creation… I sickened as I read. ‘Hateful day when I received life!’... ‘Accused creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?” (Shelley 134). The monster discovers Victor’s hatred towards him, sending him into a revengeful attitude. The monster’s first experience of love comes from Victor creating him; although now that it is gone, the monster obtains no concept of love. His absence of love adds to his unethical and lethal terror on Victor and his family. Kim A. Woodbridge writes, “Even though the creature received a moral and intellectual education, the lack of nurturing and loving parent as well as companionship and acceptance from society led him to reject morality and instead destroy”. Victor’s gluttony causes the monster’s immoral turn to violence. Representing another deadly sin, Victor only provides for himself and puts his interest and well-being before the monster’s. In doing this, Victor not only angers the monster, but compels the monster to feel unloveable. The one person the monster wants love from the most deserts him, creating a destructive animal, ready to
For instance, Grendel is often kept in the dark by his mother about purpose of staying in the hole that they dwell in, which creates creates a sense of mistrust with his only source of interaction. She never replies to his frequent prodding, “ ‘Why do we stand in this putrid, stinking hole?’ She trembles at my words. Her fat lips shake. ‘Don’t ask!’ her wriggling claws implore”(Gardner 11). The lack of information being given to young Grendel disheartens him and leads him to hate his wretched mother. He feels like an outcast even in his own home.
Similarly, Grenouille is again seen as an outsider when society refuses to accept him. His mother leaves him to die in a pile of fish guts and many others refuse to take him in, leaving him as an unwanted outsider. Again this foreshadows his future actions of violence and murder when society rejects him and many people act on their basic instincts and leave him to die suggesting a sense of evil in him. Grenouille is further shown as an outsider when he is described to have a “lack of scent”. This lack of scent clearly shows he
Grendel was clearly unhappy about his desire for Wealtheow, and was disturbed. He knew that there would be no way for Wealtheow to love someone or something like him which made him want to kill her even more. He thought about killing her because he wanted to get rid of these feelings. On his way back to the cave he decided to focus on the obnoxious side Wealhtheow, "her unqueenly shrieks" and "the ugliness between her legs (the bright tears of blood)"
Grenouille is the perhaps the most twisted and disgusting character that I have ever read about, and I still like him. I am unsure of how you managed to create a sick and evil
Alhough Victor Frankenstein calls his creature a monster, and considers it disgusting and abhorrent, it is in fact Frankenstein who behaves monstrously. He claims to have created the creature for a noble purpose: to defeat death. However, it is clear that his motives
Upon further probing, there is perhaps a deeper terror rooted in Frankenstein, which subtly appears to stem his hesitancy at creating not just another monster, but specifically a female monster. Because Victor Frankenstein fears the existence of a female free of restrictions that he cannot impose, he destroys her, thus eliminating the female’s options of becoming either completely feminine through becoming a mother and mate, or totally unfeminine by opting to leave her partner and face the world alone.
In the Romance novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley she illustrates themes of innocence and revenge. The book focuses on a wild scientist named Victor Frankenstein. The novel goes through many stories and perspectives on the life of Frankenstein's creation. Throughout the novel the monster tries to prove to the society that he is not a horrible creature and that his physical attributes do not represent him. Although he tries hard to accomplish this goal, society does not believe him so the monster decides to get revenge on Frankenstein. The society is responsible for the deaths that occurred in the novel because they assumed he was a certain way based on his looks, their violent towards him, and they mentally hurt him with their words which turn him evil and make him obsessed with revenge.
The monster is practically human in his want for love and fraternity. Since his creation, he is dismissed and abused by everybody he meets, including his creator. It is his depression and dismissal by the public that makes him so malevolent. The main individual who at first acknowledged him as a helpless being who required comprehension was De Lacey, and it was on the grounds that he was visually impaired and in this way, did not pass judgment on the monster by appearances. "Nothing could exceed the love and respect which the younger cottagers exhibited towards their venerable companion. They performed towards him every little office of affection and duty with gentleness; and he rewarded them by his benevolent smiles"(page 101) The monster learns good habits with looking these people, and their experiences daily which, then, he has resentment towards his creator, that he is eviler in his behavior than the monster with his appearances.
In gothic fiction, the author endeavors to manipulate the emotions of a reader and somehow control the reader to perceive the sensations the main character is experiencing. Throughout the narrative, the main character endeavors to evoke sympathy from the reader. The author does this by making the main character, of the narrative, experience a series of emotions such as resentment, apprehension, distress, or even a morose depression that the reader may perceive or comprehend. Therefore, Gothic literature is able to enthrall the reader and even take the reader on an adventure of multifarious sensations. In the narrative of Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, the monster, Victor Frankenstein synthesizes a monster, feels depressed, and is enquiring Victor on why he would create such an atrocious being then leave him in desolation without the care of a companion. "You are in the wrong," replied the fiend; "and, instead of threatening, I am content to reason with you. I am malicious because I am miserable. Am I not shunned and hated by all mankind? You, my creator, would tear me to pieces, and triumph; remember that, and tell me why I should pity man more than he pities me? You would not call it murder if you could precipitate me into one of those ice-rifts, and destroy my frame, the work of your own hands. Shall I respect man when he contemns me? Let