Grendel's Argument Essay

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

Like many whom suffer the same disorder, Grendel completely changed his mind, extending from one topic to the exact opposite. He goes against his own ideas as if he were two totally opposing characters. He also always thought the dragon was near. Grendel allowed the ways and beliefs of the dragon to get in his head. He would claim he could “smell the dragon’s scent” whenever something sinister occurred. All of these symptoms, in addition to the isolation from Hrothgar’s people lead to the overall cause in withdrawal from society. Grendel’s emotional disturbances caused him to react completely unreasonable and rather foolish many times within his life.

During Grendel's journey he meets a dragon, an ancient, red-gold, gigantic creature resting upon and guarding its hoard of treasures. The dragon mocks Grendel, claiming to know his thoughts—in fact, to know everything that ever has happened or will happen. The dragon shares Grendel’s disdain for humanity, but tells

As a result of this emotional pain, the Dragon’s statement to just find gold and sit on it serves to produce an alternate path for Grendel - a path of true disdain for humans and their development. However, signs that Grendel may have been tormented by these demons present themselves early in the book, with the quote, “So it goes with me day by day and age by age, I tell myself. Locked in the deadly progression of moon and stars. I shake my head, muttering darkly on shaded paths, holding conversation with the only friend and comfort this world allows, my shadow” (8). The Dragon discusses these same concepts with Grendel (being locked in the progression of life, holding conversations with shadows) and continues to question the reason behind caring, and promotes a life of lethargy, a self-destructive

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

In the novel, Grendel, the images of isolation and darkness enhanced the character development of Grendel as he encountered loneliness, developed hatred, and became evil. Isolation and darkness were two important images used throughout the novel. In the beginning, baby Grendel was an innocent being. Initially, he did not kill humans for fun, and he only killed animals for food. With each image of isolation and darkness being portrayed, Grendel began to transform into a lonely, depressed, hateful, and ultimately evil character. The primary burden that Grendel had to endure was that he had nobody to develop a relationship with and nobody to love him in return. Therefore, he became consumed with his own loneliness, depression, and

After waiting in a tree to catch a glimpse of men, Grendel attempts to communicate with the humans in the woods. Initially the humans feed Grendel, but his laughter at the prospect of food frightens them, and they decide to attack them. Grendel, observing the humans plan out their attack, realizes that humans are not dumb, they strategize and plan, making them more dangerous than he could have imagined. And what’s more, there’s nothing he can do to make them see he does not want to harm them. At this moment, Grendel realizes that he is completely separate from man, that there is no meaning to the world: “The world is all a pointless accident...I exist, nothing else!” (Gardner 28).The arrival of the Shaper further hurls Grendel into an existential despair. The Shaper tells tales of glory in battle and other such things that Grendel condemns; however, he does it in such a persuasive way that Grendel doesn’t know what to think: “Thus I fled, ridiculous hairy creature torn apart by poetry...I clamped my palms to my ears and stretched up my lips and shrieked again, a stab at truth” (Gardner 44-45). Here, Grendel officially identifies himself as a separate entity, calling himself a ridiculous hairy creature. The poetry confuses him and Grendel gives up on trying to obtain truth, slipping further into despair.

"The mountains are what I define them as.... What I see I inspire with usefulness... and all that I do not see is useless, a void." [28-29] Grendel then sees that the world is how he views it, and his senses make up everything: reality is dynamic. This important conclusion leads him to begin to look around him and form thoughts and opinions on all that he sees, as well as placing him at the first step down the road of the cynical death he suffers. His first impressions

Though he does not actually remember how he’d learned it, John Gardner’s Grendel speaks a language which is similar to that of the human characters in the book and is, therefore, able to understand them. During Grendel’s first encounter with humans, he pleads to them for assistance when he is caught and wounded in a trap. The leader of the humans is Hrothgar who eventually becomes king of the Danes. When Grendel’s cry for help is mistaken for a cry of attack, the humans attack Grendel and wound him more painfully than flesh could be wounded. The first intelligent, speaking beings, with some similarity to himself, which Grendel has encountered, have attacked instead of helped him. It is in this moment that Grendel forms his first opinions of existence; the outside world does not seem to embrace good as he does. In a one-way conversation he has with his mother after the incident (Chapter 2), Grendel says, “ the world resists me and I resist it. That’s all there is. The mountains are what I define them as.” In the statement, “ the mountains are what I define them as”, Grendel starts to form a belief of a sort of reality which does not actually exist. Life is meant to be lived as the owner wishes to live it; it is what you

Anyone who defends Grendel or his behavior is guilty of agreeing with a terrible crime and sin in the sight of many. Grendel had but one mission and one purpose: to terrorize and murder. He fulfilled it well.

The dragon’s negativity creates conflict felt by Grendel. For starters, the dragon tells Grendel to go “find gold and sit on it.” This is an example of the dragon essentially telling Grendel to follow his urges, and act based upon what he wants and his impulses. Also, he is telling him to close himself off from the world. According to the

The dragon believes that Grendel lives in a ripple of time that will slowly pass away as the years pass. The dragon reveals that eventually all of man’s advancements will eventually fade away. The dragon states that Grendel does have a place in this world. He says that Grendel is man’s “brute

Grendel begins to think that he might as well perceive the smallest hope of becoming like them and finally get rid of the stereotype that has been following him all his life. However, things didn’t seem to proceed as he wished. When he realized that he could understand the language of human, he tried to answer them back but all that came out from his mouth was a loud roar which scared and terrified the Danes and built up a misunderstanding. The Danes misinterpreted Grendel’s intentions and kept attacking every time Grendel tried to communicate. Throughout the novel, we also see how Grendel passes through the three stages of existentialism designed by the 19th century philosopher, Kierkegaard. The three stages are called aesthetic and ethical stage and the enlightenment. The first stage is the aesthetic stage, where one simply acts in whichever way they wish to as long as it brings them happiness and pleasure. We see this happen to Grendel as well when… The second stage is

On John Gardners, Grendel the main character Grendel is very confused of the life he is living. He is in search of his purpose in life, what he doesn’t realize at the beginning is his purpose is to be the villain. The humans in the novel are terrified of Grendel because to them he is a beast. As a natural reaction for us humans when in fear we tend to eliminate what causes us fear. In many occasions humans try to kill Grendel because he is viewed as evil, until Beowulf

In the novel Grendel by John Gardner, the main character Grendel seems to be a vicious evil monster that makes his goal to kill every man that steps foot in the mead hall, built by King Hrothgar, for his men. Grendel night after night enters and almost has a “midnight snack” by going in the mead hall and devouring about thirty men of Hrothgar's a night. Grendel has made an evil appearance to the audience by now but as learned later in the book, it is discovered that Grendel’s job is to keep balance between him and the population of the Danes. He is seemed as misunderstood, but actually has proven himself to be rather evil because he kills women and children, does not try to work the situation out with the Danes and finally, does not understand the human mind and thinking process. Grendel’s inabilities bring him more trouble and are the main cause for the conflict against the village of the Danes. Over the course of the book, Grendel slowly becomes Overall, Grendel is evil because of he kills women and children, does not try to work the situation out with the Danes and fails to understand the human mind and thinking process.