What Does Grendel's Last Words Mean To Be A Curse?

Grendel’s violence stems from his belief that all things in the universe, including people, have no reason to exist. After meeting the dragon, an omniscient creature with knowledge of the past and the future, Grendel tries to change his own ways by repressing his animal nature and not harming the humans. The dragon asserts that everything that the humans do in the search for meaning, including religion and art, is pointless. During the talk, the dragon suggests to Grendel that he should find something tangible in the world and hold on to it, saying “my advice to you, my violent friend, is to seek out gold and sit on it.” (Gardner 74).

When readers are introduced to Grendel, he is a melodramatic creature who has no one to truly understand him. His emotions contribute to Grendel is caught in situations where he tries to interact but there is a barrier. When he encounters humans they fear him because of how violent he is or seems to be, but they retaliate with the same violence. The irony in this passage is that humans are attacking him because

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

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 undoubtedly a killer. He is does not take pity on the humans at all. When he fights them, he fights and kills ferociously.

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.

The poem does not give this insight of what happens before, or from Grendel's point of view. Seeing this scene in the movie gives the audience a better understanding of why Grendel and also his mother attack the Danes. Later in the movie Beowulf says, "He's no more human than you and I", which is true. If the Danes didn’t kill Grendel's father, the outcome of the story could have possibly been changed because Grendel would have had a different life and not seek revenge on the Danes, specifically the one who Grendel had seen kill his father. In the poem Grendel fights Beowulf, rather than avoiding Beowulf most of the time in the movie. In the poem, Grendel is seen as an evil monster that kills and eats the Hrothgar warriors and cannot be penetrated by weapons, rather than just human, or troll, like the movie. When the battle with Grendel occurs in the poem, it is said that Beowulf had cut off his arm to defeat him. While in the movie, Grendel finds himself stuck hanging, and must cut off his own arm to escape from Beowulf and his men. Both the movie and poem result in the death of Grendel, eventually leading to the revenge of his mother.

Grendel is a novel dominated by forces of good and evil, religious allusions, heroism, and nature. These themes are the primary go-to’s for thoughts on significant themes in a novel such as this, but one overlooked theme plays a larger role in the context of the novel. The importance and power of language is arguably one of the most significant themes of the novel. This theme is demonstrated within 3 main scenes within the novel including; Grendel’s first encounter with men, The Shaper’s words and effect, and in the battles between Grendel, Unferth, and Beowulf.

Grendel is characterized as a lonely creature who is trying to figure out the meaning of life around him. Grendel is an unhappy soul because he feels useless in society and doesn’t want to accept his given role. Throughout the novel Grendel feels as if he has no friends and nobody else accepts him but his mother. Humans have always been a problem in Grendel’s life and they affect how he lives life each day. Grendel is not an evil creature, he is just unhappy because of the way he is treated. We should sympathize for Grendel because he is suffering on Earth and he does not know what to do about it. The author shows that Grendel is in a place where he needs love and does not get punished because he uses his emotion to escape from his punishment.

He is overcome by the Sharper’s song and approaches them with the body trying to show a good gesture. However when he approaches them, he describes it as a sudden attack. He mentions that his approach with the dead body would provoke them by saying that there are other interpretations, but his version is the truth. Grendel says, “ I staggered out into the open and up toward the hall with my burden, groaning out, ‘Mercy! Peace!’ The harper broke off, the people screamed. (They have their own versions, but this is the truth)” (51-52). His opinionated and partial version of the truth is another cause for concern, to the reader, of Grendel’s reliability as a narrator. Furthermore, Grendel interjects his opinions about the meaning of life, humans, and nature throughout the story. This is clear evidence from Gardner that Grendel’s reliability, as a narrator, is questionable. Grendel’s use of stream of consciousness in his narration introduces additional flaws, which further degrades the reader’s trust in the

"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

The mood grows even stronger by the last paragraph of the chapter, when it becomes clear that Grendel's death is

But for Grendel, Beowulf that swore that he was going to defeat Grendel and avenge the deaths of his soldiers that Grendel killed. One day Grendel went up to the mead hall to attack more of Beowulf’s soldiers, but it was a trap and Beowulf comes out attacks him. They engage in a gruesome battle and in the end Beowulf rips off Grendel's arm, which causes him to retreat. He then bled out and died on his way back

In a world of chaos, he who lives, lives by his own laws and values. Who is to say that the death of millions is any worse or better, for that matter, than injuring a cockroach. And in the case of an existing power in the form of God, who is presumed to be all which is good, presiding and ruling an organized universe, why then does evil exist? The prosaic response of “without evil, there is no good” no longer holds any validity in this argument as the admitted goal of good is to reach an existence without evil. So even if a God does exist, I think it is fair, at this point, to say that he is the embodiment of both good and evil. And if humoring those who would answer the previous question with the response that there can be no good

“That shadow of death hunted in the darkness, stalked Hrothgar 's warriors, old and young, lying in waiting, hidden in mist, invisibly following them from the edge of the marsh, always there, unseen” (Beowulf 2: Line 74). Grendel was smart and a slithery serpent. He did not wish