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A narative perspective of grendel from beowulf
A narative perspective of grendel from beowulf
Grendel in beowulf analysis
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In the original epic Beowulf, Grendel is portrayed as nothing more than the most primitive human qualities. This makes readers believe that he is a heartless brainless monster. John Gardner’s book Grendel however, introduces him as a temperamental and intelligent monster, he’s capable of completely rational thought as well as irrational outbursts of emotion. This new perspective makes him seem much more human than the original tale that he was a part of. Aside from Grendel’s horrible appearance and disgusting eating habits, very little sets him apart from humans. He is not unlike a lost puppy that’s simply misunderstood by the outside world. He struggles, within his own mind, to understand his place in a potentially meaningless world. The …show more content…
He would play games all by his lonesome, exploring his “far-flung underground world in an endless wargame of leaps onto nothing, ingenious twists into freedom or new perplexity” (pg.15), all while whispering plottings into the ears of his invisible play mates. The only other actual beings with him in his confined world were his mother and the “large old shapes with smouldering eyes” (pg.16) who would stare straight through young Grendel. One night, while exploring every black tentacle of his mother’s cave, he comes across a pool filled with firesnakes. When he comes upon it, he just seems to know “that the snakes were there to guard something” (pg.16). What that is, he doesn’t know. Of course, children are painfully curious, so after he’d stood there for some time, making sure his mother wasn’t coming, he screwed his nerve up and dove. Once he breaks surface, he comes up, “for the first time, to moonlight” (pg.16). He continues to sneak out of the cave, going a little bit further every night, always returning before sunrise. At this moment in his life he’s untroubled by the outside universe or philosophical questions, he simply wants to explore this strange new world just for the sake of exploring it. As he goes out farther and farther, he discovers
John Gardner’s Grendel brings a new perspective to the the way the story of Beowulf is told and interpreted. (Grendel’s ability to be influenced by the multiple sources around him changes his outlook on life. It also changes the reader’s ideas of who Grendel is as a character as he develops and changes in the book.) Grendel’s ability to be influenced with ease by multiple characters throughout the book shows his true adolescence and nature to follow others. These multiple characters such as the Dragon, the Shaper, and Wealtheow all are able to use their propaganda to instill into Grendel a new value or trait. Grendel’s adolescence therefore results in multiple sources of propaganda being so influential on him as a character. (is the reason why propaganda from many different sources influences him so heavily.)
One night, as Grendel was sleeping soundly in his home in the swamplands, he was suddenly awakened by the sound of music. The music angered Grendel because he had been up late the night before entertaining his monster friends and was in need of his beauty rest. So he headed out the front door and headed to see what the commotion is all about.
He does not act like the blood hungry beast he is seen as in Beowulf. In
Grendel, written by John Gardner, is a novel based off the early epic poem, Beowulf. Gardner tells the tale in the perspective of the monster, Grendel, who is struggling to understand the purpose of life and his place in the world. In Gardner’s novel, Grendel terrorizes the kingdom of Hrothgar for 12 years, killing men in the night relentlessly. With the descriptions of battles and heroic deeds, Gardener conveys to the reader, the ideals of Anglo-Saxon heroes as courageous, self-righteous, humble, and loyal beings that are humanly flawless. The book Grendel tears down all these fundamental ideologies of Anglo-Saxon heroism by giving Grendel the monster a nihilist perspective that makes heroism sound stupid and meaningless.
The deeds one does leave an impression on the people for a lifetime, a person is remembered by what he did, no matter what the situation is. Thus, in the same way Beowulf is defined as being a hero and Grendel as a monster. For instance, Grendel killed a lot of men in the kingdom of Hrothgar but, on the other hand Beowulf killed Grendel for the sake of his people and his honor. Furthermore, this tells us that a person is defined by the deeds he does for his people. And as we can say Without defeating Grendel, Beowulf would have never been considered a hero. Therefore, Beowulf would have been deemed as a liar for his whole life and he would have never been made the king of Geatland.
Even though Grendel is depicted as a monster in the story Grendel, his story still makes him an epic hero. An epic hero is described as a character whose heroic actions are central to his/her own culture, race, or nation. Grendel may not be an actual hero like Beowulf, but a monster who endure appropriate trials for themselves. Grendel’s terrifying and violent actions are things that are feared by many people and encouraged by his race. This is what makes Grendel and epic monster.
John Gardener’s Grendel is another version of the epic Beowulf, except in a differing perspective. This story is retold from the viewpoint of Grendel. Gardener wants us to empathize with Grendel through his own thoughts and emotions. The way one sees the monster in Beowulf is completely different than how one would think of him in Grendel. One is forced to view someone else’s opinion versus getting to form an opinion for oneself.
Why should people feel sympathy for a monster who claims to have no conscious? I personally feel sympathy for the monster Grendel in John Gardner’s Grendel. The creature is portrayed as being a monster in Beowulf, but in Grendel, he seems like a child who is lost and confused.
Grendel in the beginning of the book is just a lonely creature that has had no outside persuasion but this slowly changes when he meets man for the first time. He becomes fascinated with them and wants to deeply relate to them. However since society has already made him an outcast Grendel fails to see the similarities between him and mankind. In "Even Mothers Have Monsters: A Study of Beowulf and John
Are humans born naturally with a good and a bad side? Are we even born with a positive and a negative side? Many people throughout the course of my life thus far have told me that everyone has a good and a bad side, no matter how hard they try to hide it. Similar to how everyone wants to do good, some part of them want to do bad; I am no exception to this observation of human nature. I try to do good every day at my work where I coach and train kids on running American Ninja Warrior style obstacle courses by focusing on each kid and doing what I can to help them improve; however, afterward, when my training partner and I train for a while, I find myself wishing he does not do as good as me.
Throughout history there has been controversy concerning whether evilness is a born or an acquired trait. According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, evil is defined as “being profoundly immoral and malevolent”. All through history different pieces of literature document various ways evil originates from. After reading multiple texts including Frankenstein, Beowulf, and Grendel one can conclude that evilness is created not born. In the novel Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein is taken aboard a ship to the North Pole and tells an english explorer, Robert Walton, about his life’s story. Robert discovers that Victor is a man of science and his life’s mission is to bring death back to life, which he accomplishes by creating a monster. Unlike Frankenstein,
In Beowulf's first battle against Grendel, he is rather confident and attains a high level of pride in himself. At first, it was stated that Beowulf agreed to fight Grendel due to the fact that he had prior to that, defeated powerful creatures such as sea monsters and giants. For Beowulf, Grendel appears to be a relatively easy defeat. Before their altercation, Beowulf spoke to Hrothgar, the protector of Scydlings stating "I in my youth have undertaken many heroic deeds" (Paragraph 23, Line 8-9). He explains his former accomplishments to clarify that Grendel is no challenge to him. It is no secret that Beowulf contained an abnormal amount of power as he explains that the many people who had counseled him "knew the power of my strength,
“The key to the happy life, it seems, is the good life: a life with sustained relationships, challenging work, and connections to community.” In John Gardner’s Grendel, someone really needed to share this quote with old Grendel himself, as Grendel constantly goes through life in a state of despair. This is because Grendel is never able to live a normal and happy life (even for a monster) because of his lack of an adult parent/influence during his childhood, his meeting with the dragon at a very impressionable time in his life, and the humans’ cruelty towards him.
Humanity is a raging river. People persist, caught up in their own problems and lives. Society is ever-changing, always trying to adapt to new ways of life. Humanity plays a great role in how Grendel changes. Grendel is a beast that watches how humanity develops overtime; he notices how destructive and cruel humanity has become. Despite this, he attempts to get along with the people, but they regard him as a monster and try to kill him. Eventually, he gives into and becomes what the people believe him to be: a savage beast. However, Grendel was never originally evil. In Grendel by John Gardner, the anti-hero Grendel is misunderstood by humanity even though he attempts to socialize; has clear, lucid thoughts; and feels love, but humanity continuously
In the story Beowulf by Seamus Heaney, Grendel is a slimy green swamp monster that has human emotions but is portrayed as a hideous beast and an outcast of the Anglo-Saxon society.