Leila Shahine September 18, 2015
The argument of existence can be debated throughout all eras of civilizations. In the book Beowulf, Beowulf is considered the hero and the king for more than 50 years. He has killed many monsters along fought many battles. Beowulf is a respected meaningful king and ruler of the Geats. Grendel is one of the monsters Beowulf battles against and his life is meaningless and so are the other monsters. There are different sides to the argument related to how everything is unpredictable, and existence is meaningless in Beowulf by an Anonymous Author and Grendel by John Gardner.
Grendel can be used to prove the fact that life is meaningless. For instance, Grendel feels that he is not a monster, but more human-like, he can talk and understand English. He is told by the
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Dragon, his mentor and someone he looks up to him that he has fulfill the job of being the monster even though he does not want to.
Grendel feels like he does not belong in with his mother, when she tries to hug him he is grossed out. Although, he is in the book does not make him important or have meaning because without him in the story there would not be the battle with Beowulf and him, and his mother. The story would have been the same, there would not be a big difference. FIND QUOTE OF GRENDEL BEING ASHAMED. The quotes presents the fact that Grendel feels ashamed and embarrassed by his mother, and where he came from. Also, Grendel can speak and understand English, however Grendel’s mom cannot. He thinks he is more connected with the humans than with her. Grendel considers himself a meaningless creature after he loses the battle with Beowulf and he walks off a cliff. He is implied that his days are numbered and he will not survive. “I am weak from loss of blood…I will fall. I seem to desire to fall, and though I fight it with all my will I know in advance that I can’t win. Standing baffled, quaking with fear, three feet from the edge of
a nightmare cliff, I find myself, incredibly, moving toward it. I look down, down, into bottomless blackness, feeling the dark power moving in me like an ocean current, some monster inside me, deep sea wonder, dread night monarch astir in his cave, moving me slowly to my voluntary tumble into death… ‘Poor Grendel’s had an accident,’ I whisper. ‘So may you all” (Gardner. 173/174). This quote explains that Grendel knows he is going to die and he is extremely weak from the loss of blood from battling Beowulf. He feels meaningless as he feels himself moving towards the cliff and the dark inside of him is leading him to walk off. Beowulf the hero, can prove that life is meaningful from all his times in battle and all the people he has saved, without him in the world they would have all been dead. He has fought and won all battles, but the Dragon laid him down for good at his final battle. Beowulf has beat Grendel, and Grendel’s mother, and monsters at sea with his swimming challenge with Brecca. Beowulf is a great king and ruler of the warriors for over 50 years. He is proven meaningful from all of the battles he’s won to protect his kingdom. Beowulf is meaningful because he is his kingdoms hero who is ready to save them at any time, from in the middle of the night to the break of dawn. He is superficially strong like no other human, more like a hulk. “Once again the king gathered his strength and drew a stabbing knife he carried on his belt, sharpened for battle. He stuck it deep into the dragon’s flank. They had killed the enemy” (An Anonymous Author.183). This quote represents the outcome of the fight between Beowulf and the Dragon. Beowulf is the true meaningful hero because he died for his people in the battle with the Dragon. He was old and he knew his time has come, but he still fights with the Dragon with the confidence for fighting for his people. “{Grendel’s mother} She came to Heorot. There, inside the hall, Danes lay asleep, earls who would soon endure a great reversal, once Grendel’s mother attacked and entered… Beowulf was quickly, brought to the chamber: the winner of fights, the arch-warrior, came first footing in with his fellow troops to where the king in his wisdom waited, still wondering whether Almighty God would ever turn the tide of his misfortunes. So Beowulf entered with his band in attendance” (An Anonymous Author.89/91).
“The monster’s thoughts were as quick as his greed or his claws: He slipped through the door there in the silence snatched up thirty men, smashed them…” (Raffel Lines 34-37) In other words, Grendel is characterized as a monster whose only desire is to kill. However, the humans chose to forget their beginning encounters with Grendel and don’t realize that they are the true cause. When Grendel tries to communicate with the humans because they speak the same language, he is repelled by the Danes. “The harper broke off, the people screamed. Drunken men rushed me with battle-axes. I sank to my knees, crying, “Friend! Friend!” (Gardner 52) In other words, Grendel wants to be friends with the humans but they immediately judge him based on his appearance and reject him. This causes Grendel now have become isolated from both the humans and animals. This isolation leads to Grendel to start killing the humans as a form of interaction. Sadly like with animals, the only form of communication with the humans Grendel will receive is through killing them like the Grendel we see in Beowulf. Overall, due to Grendel being surrounded by humans who misjudge him, he is motivated by isolation in which the only attention he will get is from killing
Grendel, as a character, has a much more complex identity than just a monster and a human. Some, such as Ruud, classify him as a mixture of three different characteristics, but alone, they tend to conflict with each other. By making the connection that Grendel represents immorality, the previous idea makes more sense, while simultaneously incorporating more aspects of the character into the analysis. In either case, Grendel represents much more than meets the eye, and provides a fascinating insight into
Grendel’s point of view as a narrator adds an added sense of violence to the scene, which suggests that absurdism is useless, as absurdism ultimately decay into nihilism due to the chaotic nature of life.
In the story Grendel, one learns that this monster that seems atrocious and insensitive holds a dark outlook on the world. He often ponders the meaning of life, which seems to plague him. This stems from his painful childhood: “I understood that the world was nothing: a mechanical
Since the beginning Grendel is very confused with why he can’t talk or get along with people or animals. He starts off wandering through the forest when he gets caught in a tree. Grendel cries out for his mom but is disappointed to be without her arrival. He later encounters a bull that nearly kills him but instead ends up wounded. Grendel could not communicate with the animal and out of this encounter he perceives life in a nihilistic way. After waking up from his sleep humans wearing armor surround him and believed him to be a tree spirit. Grendal tried to speak to them but again he had failed to do so. Finding out he wasn’t, they became hostile but fled after hearing Grendel's mother.
Grendel as a character is very intelligent, he is capable of rational thought at all times. Because of this, at sometimes during the story I would forget Grendel is a monster, the way he acts in his thoughts and actions I would mistake him for a human; at times I was even feeling bad for Grendel because he is a very lonely person who tries to understand all of the meaningless of the world around him. Grendel can never get to close to
As a result of not receiving help when the bull was attacking him, Grendel develops a new theory: “I alone exist. All the rest, I saw, is merely what pushes me, or what I push against, blindly—as blindly as all that is not myself pushes back. I create the universe, blink by blink” (Gardner 21-22). Grendel’s questioning of his way of living marks a transformation of Grendel into a mature character who gains knowledge from his experience with the bull, concluding that the world revolves only around him. The utilization of ‘I’ portrays that his growing isolation from the absence of his mother during the bull attack is what permits him to believe that he is superior to everyone else and the only worthy creature to exist. This foreshadows his ultimate purpose in life which is to kill mankind. Grendel, as the creator of the world, holds the ultimate power to decide who will live, lacking the perspective that there is a higher force other than himself. In other words, the experience Grendel acquires from the bull attack enables him to mature and obtain insight on the truth of his
Grendel’s first impression was to ask his mother about the meaning of life and what was his part in it. After Grendel’s first encounter with man, he immediately told his mother what had happened. “I tried to tell her all that happened, all that I had come to understand: the meaningless objectiveness of the world…She only stared troubled at my noise”. However, she had lost her ability to speak years ago and only responded with gibberish, not once giving him an answer. Instead when he said, “the world is all pointless accident…I exist nothing else”, she hurried over and seized him pulling him close to her. Realizing that his mother probably doesn’t understand, Grendel was forced to turn to some one else for the answers he needed, so he turned to man.
...rence between Grendel and Beowulf, like that between heroism and existentialism, is meaning. Grendel kills without meaning, and Beowulf kills with meaning. A small difference, indeed, but it is the symbolic distinction between he that dies and he that survives. From Grendel's point of view, even his own end is meaningless; it is only an "accident" which happens to him. To Beowulf, it is a victory, a triumph, and a rebirth for humankind. Is Beowulf's perspective, according to Gardner, necessarily more valid? No. But Gardner also remarks that nihilism, true or not, must end in denial. Finally, he implies that existentialism is very different from nihilism. In a world where definition and meaning are not always clear, many, including Grendel, find comfort in existentialism and the assumption that people are entirely free in their, hopefully optimistic, quest for meaning.
Grendel is born a neutral being, perhaps even good, but nevertheless, without hate. The transition which he undergoes to become evil is due to misunderstandings between himself and humans and also meeting with a dragon who is questionably evil. As a young “monster”, Grendel knew nothing other than the cave he lived in and his mother who could not speak any distinguishable language. He was a playful creature who seemed to be like a “bla...
Beowulf outlines turmoil between three opponents: Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the Dragon. These separate discords each serve to fulfill different metaphoric purposes. Grendel’s character epitomizes the adverse persona of how an Anglo-Saxon warrior should not be. His mother represents everything that a woman during the time era should seldom be. Lastly, the Dragon embodies all the values that an Anglo-Saxon king should not dare retain. Without a doubt, the symbolic implications of the monsters in Beowulf bring the context to a new level of understanding.
Grendel is the embodiment of all that is evil and dark. He is a descendant of Cain and like Cain is an outcast of society. He is doomed to roam in the shadows. He is always outside looking inside. He is an outside threat to the order of society and all that is good. His whole existence is grounded solely in the moral perversion to hate good simply because it is good.
In the poem “Beowulf,” Grendel’s mother, a monstrous creature, is one of the three antagonists Beowulf, the main character, fights against. The battle against Grendel’s mother appears to be the strangest of the three battles. The main reason for its strangeness is that Grendel’s mother is the mother of the monster Grendel, who was killed by Beowulf in the first battle. Another reason for its strangeness is that Grendel’s mother is the only female-type creature. An alternative reason for this strangeness in the battle is due to the fact that Grendel’s mother is not a true monster, aside from her physical form. Through the explanation of kinship, the understanding of the missing words from the original text, and the comparison of Grendel’s mother to other mothers in the poem, specifically Welthow and Hildeburh, it can be established that the intentions of Grendel’s mother are not monstrous even though she has the appearance of a monster.
In the medieval epic poem, Beowulf, the author uses a variety of elements to bring the story of a great Geat warrior, who sought fame, to life. The author’s use of irony, characterization, setting, and symbolism bring to light the theme of identity. Beowulf only went to Hrothgar’s kingdom in search of the fame he would receive by killing the monster. Grendel’s identity was set before he was born, due to the actions of his ancestor, Cain. The darkness of Cain’s action sealed the fate of all of his descendants. The poem is a prime example of all of the elements of fiction working together to bring the story of a great adventure to
Anger then yields itself to insecurity and low self-esteem. The moment Grendel realizes that there is someone just as strong as him, he tries to run away, ". . . Grendel's one thought was to run / From Beowulf, flee back to his marsh and hide there:" (437-438), but it is too late. Just like when the average bully meets his match, he runs in fear of not being able to win. Grendel does not have the audacity to stand up to Beowulf with all his might and therefore falls to Beowulf.