In the book Beowulf by John Green, Grendel was made out to be a terrifying creature with no soul. In my opinion, Grendel was a misunderstood creature. Grendel was portrayed as a bloodthirsty being with no idea between right and wrong. He was just a satanic monster wanting to take lives. However, Grendel was actually a kind monster with good intentions but lacked the knowledge to understand the world.
Grendel was a shy, apprehensive animal. He didn’t want to inflict pain on anyone. He didn’t realize what was right and what was wrong. It was hard for him to distinguish that he couldn’t do some things rather than others. Grendel had never experienced a life like this before; constantly being scared of the world, no understanding of it and the
Grendel’s encounter with the bull marks his initial understanding of the world; he realizes the universe provides no definite meaning to living creatures, as it is very isolated and mechanical. During Grendel’s earlier life, he accidentally gets his foot stuck in a tree. No matter how hard he cries for help, no one, not even his mother, comes to his aid. This makes him feel distanced from the rest of the world as he thinks he is not important enough to be cared by anyone. Furthermore, a bull comes to attack him and shows no sign of empathy to Grendel but rather charges at him mindlessly. He finally understands that
There is a stage in everyone’s life where they feel they are not accepted by someone or something. Whether it is because of one’s age, appearance, or emotional and mental stability, a sense of disproval and isolation appears to be glaring through the eyes of society. Throughout Grendel’s life, he is shunned from humanity for he was viewed as something of destruction and harm. However, not one person ever took the time out to see Grendel’s true personality or really discover what he was all about. When facing the realities of the cruel world, Grendel found himself severely struggling with some psychological deficiencies. After performing multiple psychoanalysis tests on Grendel’s behavior, his
In both works, Beowulf and Grendel, Grendel himself is generally given the same connotations. He is given kennings, called names, referred to as the evil spawn of Cain, and even viewed as a monster; but why? Why in both books is he a wicked, horrible, person who is harshly excluded from everyone? After stumbling upon John Gardner's book, it was halfway expected that some excuse would be made for Grendel; that he wasn't really the inexorable monster the thanes in Beowulf portrayed him as. But all it really did was make him worse. What is the message we are being sent about Grendel?
Is something considered a monster just because it looks like a monster? In the fictional story of “Grendel”, by John Gardner, Grendel is a horrendous giant, hairy beast who is considered an evil monster by the humans who have heard and seen of him. He struggles in life because of this, and attempts to cope with it the best way he can. He may seem like a scary monster because of his appearance, but he is innocent of all crimes of monstrosity that is charged against him for several reasons.
Despite the element of relatedness that Grendel and the men may share through their common language, the men do not accept Grendel and therefore Grendel reciprocates this rejection. By Grendel discrediting the purpose of the outside world he is further enhancing his own self-worth within the world because he is recognizing himself as greater than man. When Grendel returns to his cave after his interaction with man, he wants to tell his mother all that he discovered, however she has forgotten how to speak and can not respond to Grendel. Even though she could not reply, Grendel continued to talk to her, "trying to smash through the walls of her unconsciousness" (27).
Grendel was a character that was widely misunderstood in the book Grendel by John Gardner he was portrayed in the book as a gruesome beast when in reality all he had wished his entire life was to fit in. Throughout this story Grendel feels he has no friends in the outside world and no one to accept him besides his own mother. He doesn’t want to accept his role in society of being the Great Destroyer described to him by the dragon. Man creates a huge problem in Grendel’s life and has had a major effect on the way he lives with man. Grendel in his heart never truly wanted to be destructive; it was the rejection of mankind that changed his view on his life.
Grendel is characterized as a misunderstood person; one who continually leashes out against the world in an antagonistic manner. Simply put, he is a reject. This characterization of Grendel is exemplified and manifested in Raffel's Beowulf, Gardner's Grendel, and The Beowulf film directed by Robert Zemeckis. In each of these works, Grendel is consistently given the same characterizations and referred to in similar connotations. Grendel is called names, referred to as being evil, and viewed as a monster.
Jaeden Young Brit Lit 5B 4/30/16 How is Grendel Human Human nature is found deep within all of us. We all share the same qualities and feelings; those of loneliness, jealousy, abandonment, pain, and anger. Throughout all of literature it seems as though the antagonist beholds these particular characteristics which typically leads to the conflict. In the epic poem Beowulf, Grendel, the antagonist of this story, can be described using these characteristics. What the reader fails to recognize is although Grendel is suppose to be a “monster” he really is more human than one realizes.
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
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, is thus seen as the descendant of an individual who epitomizes resentment and malice in Beowulf. The author states Grendel lives in exile and is seen as “mankind’s enemy”(Raffel, 22). Grendel is the representation of all that is evil and he is declared to be the “shepherd of evil and the “guardian of crime”(Raffel, 33) by the Danes in Beowulf. The author describes Grendel to be an evil, cruel, apathetic creature who’s pleasure lies in attacking and devouring Hrothgar’s men. The author describes Grendel’s malice by painting a gruesome picture of Grendel’s countless attacks on the mead hall in which he exhibits Grendel as a heartless, greedy, and violent being who mercilessly murders the men at the mead hall by tearing them apart, cutting their body into bits and drinking the blood from their veins. The author describes Grendel’s greed by stating Grendel’s thoughts were as “quick as his greed or his claws”(Raffel, 21). He describes Grendel’s as having eyes that “gleamed in the darkness and burned with a gruesome light”, swift hard claws and great sharp teeth which paints a picture of Grendel’s frightening appearance in the reader’s mind. In contrast to the traditional story of Beowulf, Grendel in John Gardner’s novel, Grendel is not depicted as a monster but as an intelligent creature capable of human thought, feelings and speech. John Gardner portrays Grendel as an outcast
Grendel is a monster. He has instincts that he cannot overcome. It is almost a kind of creature nature that tells him what to do. He does not have a solid reason for killing these humans brutally other then fact that they started this war with him. When asked why, Grendel asks why not. "How, if I know all this, you may ask, could I hound
In Heaney’s new verse translation of Beowulf, Grendel is described as a monster of “Cain’s Clan” (ll.106) that hailed from the borders of the Dane’s land. This helps to identify Grendel, the most ambiguous character in the story, as a partially human demonic creature. However, Heaney chooses to represent Grendel as a monstrous creature in his translation, with a head that took a task of four to joist on a spear (1637-1638) and an arm with claw-scales, spurs, and spikes (983). This serves to set up a clash of humanity versus monstrosity when Beowulf duels with Grendel Meanwhile in the movie adaptation we see Grendel as a deformed humanoid figure, an invasion of the category human. This is due to him being a half-breed bastard of Hrothgar and his mother.
Grendel, because of his lineage from Cain, was exiled from the human world. This causes Grendel to not be able to fully think through his actions. He kills the Danes and fights Beowulf because of the deep emotion of loneliness that overcomes him. If the reader looks only at Grendel as a monster or demon, he will be considered evil and therefore Beowulf is honored as a great hero. By seeing Grendel more humanely the reader can see him more as a human rather than a monster. The circumstances that Grendel has grown up in has caused him to act out with evil tendencies. “I tried to tell her all that had happened, all that I’d come to understand: the meaningless objectness of the world, the universal bruteness. She only stared, troubled at my noise. She’d forgotten all language long ago, or maybe had never known any.” (Gardner 28) This quote shows how little communication Grendel had with anyone in the outside world. He was not able to express any of his thoughts due to the fact that his mother was incompetent and did not speak. “Why can’t I have someone to talk to? I said. The stars said nothing, but I pretended to ignore the rudeness.” (Gardner 53) Those who believe Grendel is evil do not acknowledge the whole reason that there is a hateful relationship between Grendel and the Humans. The failure to communicate lead to confusion and fear which lead to the attacks made by Grendel or the humans. If Grendel was not as isolated in his
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.