Examples Of Evil In Grendel

In the epic of Beowulf, one of the warrior’s biggest adversaries is a creature from the swamp named Grendel. Although the character of Grendel is present for only a short portion in the story of Beowulf, Grendel signifies one of the important messages in the text about humanity. In Beowulf, Grendel is called a ‘monster’. However, if observed closely, analyzing the meaning behind the story, it is easy to see that Grendel is not a typical monster, in fact, it doesn’t seem like he is a monster at all. There is much evidence within the short period of the text where Grendel is present, which indicates he is

The ability for readers to see how Grendel is feeling (through first person point of view) aids in understanding the wickedness of Grendel. Aside from the blatantly evil act of genocide, one of the most gruesome scenes of the novel is Grendel’s idea of killing the Queen. Grendel describes, “I would begin by holding her over the fire and cooking the the ugly hole between her legs. I laughed harder at that… I would squeeze out her feces between my fists.” (Gardner 109). This colorful scenery by Gardner displays the truly sinister side of Grendel. The author continues by calling Grendel’s heart as “inhumanely steady” before he was about to commit his final murderous act on the meadhall. During his excitement of eating man by man, Grendel states that he is “blazing, half-crazy with joy.” Just as the definition of evil states, Grendel has bad character and conduct.

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

Grendel must be considered evil, because of his destructive tendencies. In chapter 1 of the novel, the arrival of spring weather allows Grendel to remember the various acts of violence he has committed throughout his realm. “It was just here…..I tore off Athelgards’s head. Here, I killed the old woman with the iron gray hair” (Gardner 7). This shows the readers Grendel’s evil tendencies from

Grendel in a situation where he is feeling different emotions that make him act a certain way. Every time Grendel terrorizes human beings, it seems vile and full of hate, but that is not the intention. People fail to acknowledge why the relationship between Grendel and humans is full of hate. The awful relationship started off when they started off with a negative impression due to the lack of communication. Grendel became scared of the humans and the only thing the humans can do is defend themselves when they see an enormous monster. While Grendel knows of his evil deeds he is still confused about what his true identity is. This failure to figure out his identity is what Grendel seems to try and achieve throughout the novel. It is not easy for him because of the position he has in life. Grendel does not truly know his place in the world and he strives throughout his life to find the answer.

Being that Grendel is a ridiculous child-like character there are two points of view in this analysis. The analysis of Grendel, and his actions against humanity that is

After meeting with the Dragon and being given an immense amount of knowledge, Grendel walks away with only one thing, he must be the monster humans need to survive, "Whatever I may have understood or misunderstood in the dragon's talk, something much deeper stayed with me, became my aura. Futility, doom, became a smell in the air, pervasive and acrid as the dead smell after a fire" (Gardner 75). The dragon sought to assist a lost soul, yet when he realized Grendel was not understanding his lessons, he took an opportunity to create a monster. Grendel finally accepts this answer to his question of "how should I live", yet it sinks him deeper into a Nihilistic way of thinking. He begins to understand that life had no real value, neither do the humans surrounding him, " It leads gradually to his increasing isolation: he finds fault with all the great human values (and the fault is legitimate; nothing in this world is perfect...)" (Gardner's Letter). However, this life of destruction is pointless and begins to bore Grendel. Both of his encounters with Unferth demonstrate how "over it" Grendel has become. Rather than entertain Unferth and fight, he decides to have fun and mock him instead, " And now I was raining apples at him and laughing myself weak." (Gardner 85). This interaction with a man who is supposed to encompass all human values, leads Grendel to doubt the words

From all of this, the only real explanation for his war on the Danes is this: Grendel is pure evil. “So Hrothgar 's men lived happy in his hall till the monster stirred, that demon, that fiend, Grendel, who haunted the moors” (Beowulf 1: Line 15). Hrothgar 's men, firstly, provoked Grendel simply by being happy. Any demon such as Grendel hates happiness and wants nothing but to steal, kill, and destroy that happiness in someone 's life. Throughout Beowulf, Grendel is called many names, and demon, monster, and fiend are the most frequent. It is no wonder he loved killing. Grendel was born into evil, said to be a descendant of Cain, the world 's first murderer. Grendel 's mother was evil herself, being a sea serpent who did not stray from indulging in evil either. One the fact of Grendel being evil, one piece of evidence stands above them all. “Killing as often as he could, coming alone, bloodthirsty, and horrible. Though he lived in Herot, when the night hid him, he never dared to touch King Hrothgar 's glorious throne; protected by God” (Beowulf 2: Line 80). God is good, and He will always triumph. Grendel knew he could not match the power of God, who loved Hrothgar 's throne. If Grendel were to

However it is true that the characters he meets and even just happens too notice do change the way he is as a Human/Monster. Beowulf, being the last most influential character in Grendel that ultimately affects Grendel overall as a character. In the very end Beowulf drives Grendel over to where Grendel becomes more of a Monster. At the very beginning it is easy to think of Grendel as a young minded baby and it's hard to imagine him as some sort of monster. But at the very ending we have a selfish self centered monster that blames his death on “Poor Grendel’s had an accident,” Clearly Grendel has no remorse on the world and has put himself at his

Beowulf spent his life killing and torturing innocent men. Grendel did not like when the men would would be cheerful and happy, so he put an end to all happiness in the land that he roamed and lived in. Grendel is easily perceived as the monster, because of thall the terror and horror he causes in the eyes of the warriors and townspeople.

Evil is commonly portrayed in characters that are heartless and cold externally, but true evil sprouts from deep within one’s soul. John Gardner's Grendel is the tale of an outcast monster that struggles to find his place in the world. Throughout the course of the novel, Grendel is affected by the perceived evil inflicted upon him by others. One will find that Gardner’s depiction of the character Grendel provokes sympathy in the reader and proves that he is not evil, and therefore not punished for any evil actions; he is simply placed under the superficial title of evil because of the actions of his peers, which include the humans’ illustration of him as a mindless

Grendel is a monster. Although it’s not exactly “ethical” to judge one by their appearance, and as shown in other stories such as Frankenstein, one knows a monster when they see one. Grendel has trouble finding his place in the world, because he doesn’t feel different than the humans; however they see him as different. Throughout the story Grendel cycles through a variety of beliefs in an attempt to discover who he really is.

Grendel shows obvious signs of psychological issues which support the idea that he is a cold-blooded creature. His lack of mental stability is shown when he says, “An evil idea came over me—so evil it made me shiver as I smiled…” (83-84). It is easy to say that he is mentally unstable solely based on the fact that he smiled as he

It may be that at one point Grendel was a human much like Beowulf. "Yet, so as to save his life, he left behind his hand, his arm and shoulder" (957-959). He has the appearance of a man and he has a mother, but the humanness of Grendel has disappeared, and what remains is a creature that as the text says, "the Creator had condemned." Instead of saying that Grendel was just a real bad guy, through these descriptions, he has taken on a supernatural or mystical quality. God was even concerned enough to curse Grendel for his atrocities.

“Evil labours with vast power and perpetual success, but in vain, preparing always only the soil for unexpected good to sprout in.”(Tolkien, Sauron and Evil) This quote, from a letter sent from J.R.R. Tolkien to his son, builds a general characterization to what Grendel embodies in the his title text. The Evil that Grendel embodies is a interesting one, for you can find the roots of which his evil stems from. But to say that Grendel is evil without any thought is foolish, he is evil because of his encounter with Hrothgar, he further understands his evil with the encounter with the dragon, and he must be evil to survive because everything in our world is evil.