Essay Comparing Grendel And Frankenstein

Grendel was initially curious by nature, not cruel or vicious. He sought to explore and understand his world and the creatures in it, including the humans. Grendel

Grendel discovers and begins to gain the understanding/knowledge of different concepts such as power, etc. In addition, he observes how humans interact with one another throughout the twelve years of war; Yet, his attempt to communicate with humans gives him the title horrific monster. This leads to his loneliness and isolation from everyone. Furthermore, Grendel is left without any companion. Grendel can be best described as a monster who has human qualities but can be both rational and irrational. In Chapter 1, Grendel has an outburst because of the ram that appears.. “I stamp. I hammer the ground with my fists. I hurl and skull-size stone at him. He will not budge. I shake my two hairy fists at the sky and let out a howl so unspeakable that the water at my feet turns sudden ice and even I myself am I left uneasy.” This demonstrates how Grendel is hostile and belligerent. His emotions get the best of him and blinds his consciousness and awareness of how harmful he can be towards

John Gardner’s Grendel and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein both include characters who are labeled as monsters. Grendel and the Monster share common characteristics such as being ugly, strong, large, and they kill others. They are both insecure about their appearance and how society portrays them. Grendel and the Monster use violence to try and cope with their insecurities. In the literary works Grendel and Frankenstein, both the monster’s physical appearance and their interactions with others cause them to become an outcast from society. This leads to rejection of themselves, low self-esteem, and ultimately they create havoc within their communities.

In the novel, Grendel by John Gardener, Grendel is a human-like creature capable of rational thought as well as feeling emotions. Early on in the story Gardener depicts Grendel as being very observant, critical and somewhat spiteful of the world around him. He describes himself as a murderous monster who smells of death and crouches in the shadows. Grendel watches the humans from the shadows of the trees and at first it seems as though they are the real monsters, slaughtering and pillaging all for the sake of their leaders and for power. This light that the humans are put in gives Grendel a certain charisma about him, making him seem like the one to side with in this novel. Later in the story, however, things change. Grendel seeks out the

The novel Frankenstein was written by Mary Shelley in 1818. This gothic romance novel tells the story of a philosopher who discovered how to create life, without the full knowledge that his actions could cause grave consequences. Universal Studios made the film version of this novel in 1931. Unfortunately, the film version of Frankenstein has more differences than similarities to the novel. In the novel, Victor’s mental obsession seems to be more severe than in the film. The character of Victor Frankenstein was portrayed in both the novel and the film as a veriphobe, or one who is afraid of the truth, in this case, the truth of his actions. He

He has no initial reaction to the news of her death, and at her funeral service he did not bother to even see her before she was buried. His lack of emotion is evident in the very first lines of the book, “Mother died today. Or maybe it was yesterday, I don’t know.” This shows that Meursault is hardly caring for his mother. Society’s standards would result in him to be in absolute mourning and wanting to go as fast as possible to her body. This is not the only example of Meursault’s lack of emotion and care for factors in his life. He does not care for love and marriage after having intercourse with someone; the society standard at this time was to get married if two partners had intercourse. He does not care for promotion and career advancement when his boss offers him a better job opportunity; the standard at that time and right now is to pursue the best career possible. In these scenarios Meursault is living free from the chains, and does whatever he thinks is right to do. Eventually, society rejects him and his ways, and he gets in trouble with the law. He is judged by society and his ways are ridiculed, making Meursault appear to be a monster.

Grendel starts off his life story by explaining how he is always on the outside of everyone and everything. “Pointless, ridiculous monster crouched in the shadows, stinking of dead men, murdered children, martyred cows....Ah, sad one, poor old freak!” (6). Further throughout the novel, Grendel’s feelings of isolation increase when he realizes the dragon has placed a spell upon him. “Though I scorned them, sometimes hated them, there had been something between myself and men when we could fight. Now, invulnerable, I was as solitary as one live tree in a vast landscape of coal.” (76). Grendel’s consistent separation from the rest of the society causes the reader to feel sorry for him, despite all of his wrongdoings. The only thing that Grendel wishes for is a companion, making him relatable to readers who may feel alone. Grendel is a relatable character that readers may be able to sympathize with because of his isolation and constant feeling of being

Grendel exhibits human feelings and characteristics in many ways. Although Grendel is a monster “forced into isolation by his bestial appearance and limited imagination” (Butts) he yearns to be a part of society; he craves

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.

creation to the edge of the world, hoping he would fall off, never to be

Grendel and Frankenstein are two monsters whose society ignores their existence and find them to be burdensome to their society based on the mere fact that they are not like the rest of their surrounding man-kind. Grendel and Frankenstein both strive to accept their place in the views of their surrounding peoples. Although their sporadic happiness comes from them engaging in fights and killing members of their societies, they learn to accept their place within the societies by coping with their ability to stay loyal to themselves and to fight back with self-devotion and not wanting to give up on themselves.

Rejection lies in a vast sea of confusion and mixed emotions. In both of the novel's, major characters Grendel and Frankenstein attempted to obtain companionship, but never succeeded. The frustration from numerous failed attempts to befriend humans thus drives them into madness, turning their friendliness toward mankind into hatred. The novels’ structures both depict characters that started from naive, innocent beings, and transformed into ruthless monsters. In both Shelley's Frankenstein, and Gardner's Grendel, the characters start off with kindness toward mankind, that when met with rejection, inevitably results in frustration and violence.

The character Grendel in John Gardner’s novel has a more complicated life than the character in Frankenstein because of their reasons behind killing, their conflict of man vs. society, and their emotions of their existence are more complex in Grendel. The Monster in Frankenstein and Grendel are uniquely superior to the rest of mankind. Grendel on the other hand gets his superiority by killing man, causing them to fear him. The monster is created by dead corps put together, so merely his appearance creates fear in mankind.

When at the trial the prosecutor supposedly observed him various times once he even said that Meursault was “already a criminal at heart” (Camus 122). This statement was only made on the physical behavior Meursault was displaying on the day of his mother's funeral. When the whole trail was supposed to be about how he killed the Arab his accusers somehow kept bringing up the fact that he showed no affection towards his mother at the funeral. This show just how the society he is in and how they act is totally opposite from his point of views. Meaning that how he does things will be seen by society as uncanny and they will condemn it as wrong.

Mary W. Shelley’s brilliant gothic story, Frankenstein, is one that emits the prevalent theme of light versus dark, in which possesses obvious characteristics of a novel written during the romantic era. The novel tells the account of the overambitious Victor Frankenstein, who created a monster in hopes that he’d be known for crafting something human from the body parts of corpses with physical and mental advantages in society, basically playing the part of God on Earth, but through the auspices of science. Instead of creating a “normal” human, his creation ended up being a disfigured creature who he then neglects. Upon his abandonment, the monster seeks revenge on Victor after being cast away by society due to harsh physiognomy in which