Inhumanization In Beowulf

In the Epic Poems Beowulf, by an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet, and Grendel written by John Gardner, Grendel, regardless of what he does, has been seen as unsafe to man. Grendel, perceived as treacherous, is just misunderstood and an outcast to society. The back story of Grendel is crucial to the reader’s understanding of Grendel becoming a monster. Grendel’s life experiences of his environment, men and meeting a dragon contribute to the drastic change.

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

John Gardner’s novel “Grendel” can be characterized as unique, to say the least. His portrayal of the illustrious “shadow stalker”, Grendel, must be carefully considered throughout the book. Although readers are able to sympathize, as well as relate, to this terrifying monster, he must still be classified as evil, given his destructive and corrupt tendencies. Because of his harmful actions, Grendel faces the worst punishment of all, as he is forever an outcast from the human society.

The story of Beowulf is a heroic epic, chronicling the distinguished deeds of the great Geatish warrior, Beowulf, who travels across the seas to rid the Danes of the evil monster Grendel, who has been inflicting destruction and terrorizing the kingdom. Beowulf is glorified for his heroic deeds of ridding the land fiendish monsters and stopping the scourge of evil, while the monster, Grendel, is portrayed as a repugnant creature who deserves death for its evil actions. However, many have disagreed with such a simplistic and biased representation of Grendel and his role in the epic poem. John Gardner in his book, Grendel, sets out to change the reader’s perception of Grendel and his role in Beowulf by narrating the story through Grendel’s point of view. John Gardner transforms Grendel, once perceived as an evil fiend in Beowulf, into a lonely but intelligent outcast who is actually quite similar to humans, due to his intelligence capacity for rational thought and his real, and at times irrational emotions. Gardner portrays Grendel as a hurt individual and as a victim of oppression, ostracized from civilization. Although the two works revolve around the same basic plot,, the themes and characters in Beowulf and Grendel are often different and sometimes contradictory.

John Gardner’s Grendel is the retelling of the heroic epic poem Beowulf; however, the viewpoint has shifted. Grendel is told from the viewpoint of one of Beowulf’s antagonists and the titular character of Gardner’s work—Grendel. In Grendel, Gardner humanizes Grendel by emphasizing parallels between Grendel’s life and human life. Through Gardner’s reflection of human feelings, human development, and human flaws in Grendel, this seemingly antagonistic, monstrous character becomes understood and made “human.”

In John Gardner’s novel Grendel, he chooses to retell the story of Beowulf from the monster’s perspective in an attempt to destroy the prejudice that occurred during this time. Written in 1971, Grendel attempts to open people’s narrowed mindsets during the pinnacle of the Civil Rights Movement. The 1970s were marked by the struggle to improve upon racial reforms from the previous decades. However, racial prejudices were still rampant across the country. Since many whites refused to acknowledge black people’s dignity, Gardner wrote this novel to open people’s minds towards those perceived as inhumane.

Let us begin with the book, Beowulf by Michael Morpurgo, published in 1815 at first obviously. In the book this “monster” that no one knows what it exactly looks like but are guessing from the description that Grendle is hideous and likes to tear things up. Grendle is going after this village for revenge of them stealing his prized treasure. The king of Denmark, Hrothgar builds a reign while everyone admires him until he can not fight off this monster. When Grendle destroys the village a brave man of the name Beowulf takes on the challenge to defeat this monster.Grendel slays the

After decades of collected prose and literary works, the nature of evil has been reintroduced through bombast and pomposity words, much like those found in Macbeth and Beowulf. These two masterpieces have set the standard not only for dark literature, but also for malevolent characters. While Macbeth and Grendel may have lived hundreds of years apart and do have many differences, both are characterized by evil traits such as naive ambition, rapacious guilt, and genuine immorality. These fatalistic and malicious characters expose that any man, or creature, has the potential to ultimately become an evil and commanding oppressor, completely disregarding the essential qualities of human

In most stories, it is easy to determine who the monster is. Dementors from J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter, Scylla from Homer’s Odyssey, and the Balrog from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings make it easy to see who the hero is and who the monster is. On the other hand, the anonymous poet of Beowulf does not make this distinction as clearly. The poet creates an ambiguous feeling throughout the epic that makes it unclear whether Beowulf is the hero of men that he is praised to be or a monster in disguise that uses his unnatural strength to murder his enemies. In Beowulf, the line between humanity and monstrosity is blurred as Grendel and his mother take on human attributes, while Beowulf takes on monstrous ones.

John Gardener’s ‘Grendel’ depicts the monstrous Grendel, previously portrayed as the vicious villain in ‘Beowulf, journeying through his life, attempting to achieve some kind of self-realization. Spending much of his time observing humans, Grendel develops a great disdain for religion. Gardener reinforces Grendel’s with anti-religious quotes from poets and philosophers, like William Blake and Francis Nietzsche. As his spiritual void increases, Gardener slips into an existential despair, fueled by the talk of the Shaper, who’s strangely persuasive words confuse Grendel’s underdeveloped mind. Finally, as Grendel slowly recognizes he is separate from men, his encounter with the dragon drives him to the self-realization that he is a monster

Multiple people have examined the classic epic known as Beowulf, but few have examined the modern novel, Grendel. This in depth story comes out of the mouth of the horrifying monster, Grendel. This tale brings meaning to Grendel’s life and experiences, but there lays meaning behind some of the character placement as well. The characteristic effects in Grendel represent one, if not many, of Jung’s archetypes such as the persona, the shadow, and the anima.

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

The story of Beowulf is a heroic epic chronicling the illustrious deeds of the great Geatish warrior Beowulf, who voyages across the seas to rid the Danes of an evil monster, Grendel, who has been wreaking havoc and terrorizing the kingdom. Beowulf is glorified for his heroic deeds of ridding the land of a fiendish monster and halting its scourge of evil while the monster is portrayed as a repugnant creature who deserves to die because of its evil actions. In the epic poem, Beowulf the authors portrays Grendel as a cold-hearted beast who thrives on the pain of others. Many have disagreed with such a simplistic and biased representation of Grendel and his role in the epic poem. John Gardner in his book, Grendel set out to change the

Human beings have always loved a well-told story. Whether it be fiction, non-fiction, or a shady mixture, there has not been a time when people did not pass along accounts of adventures. There is one common and essential element in each. It can be nature, another human or creature, or the protagonist himself, but there must be a bad guy. In order for any story to complete a purpose or make a point, it must have some monster to war against. The villainous characters in Beowulf and the Second Shepherd’s Play contrast in almost every conceivable way. The culture and time periods of both these stories affect not only the monsters’ physical manifestations, but also their relationships to the protagonists’ purposes. They are separated further by

The epic tale of Beowulf was written sometime after his death. In other words, a long time ago during the Anglo-Saxon period. Today, directors in Hollywood did not keep from creating their own rendition of this epic poem As a result, plenty of modern interpretations of Beowulf, such as Sturla Gunnarsson’s Beowulf and Grendel, have been released. Naturally, the cultural values that might be reflected in modern Beowulf renditions will demonstrate a clash with those of the original fifth century Beowulf literature. One reason for this is that in the modern age we value characters with profound characteristics, characters that change due to the challenges they experience; characters that we as the audience can attach to. Flat characters like those of the original Beowulf text are difficult to empathize with since they are not realistic enough for our standards. Due to these differences in culture and values, the Beowulf and Grendel from the original Beowulf text possess definite contrasts when compared with their Beowulf and Grendel counterparts.