In the epic poem Beowulf, Grendel, a monstrous being, is portrayed as a demon as opposed to Beowulf which shows Beowulf as a hero. John Gardner’s novel Grendel is a novel that is written in the point of view of Grendel rather than Beowulf. From all the descriptions given in Grendel, Gardner tries to portray Grendel as more humane than the actual humans, portrayed as more good than bad, and also a sacrifice himself for humans. Throughout Grendel, there are some messages that show how humans at the time acted.
Throughout the epic, Grendel is portrayed in many humanly ways. The monster has the ability to communicate with others but not in a way humans can understand. As for Grendel’s actions, it almost seems like an immature beast walking around. Grendel, since young, was ignored by his only parent,
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his mother, and was never taught manners.
If humans were not taught what is wrong and right, they would essentially kill others too. Not knowing what the monster did right or wrong could explain why he went on for 12 years killing humans like they were toys. Since Grendel’s mother neglected care, Grendel did not have the parental figure he needed in life so he was not taught what feelings were and that humans had feelings too. This also leads to loneliness and wanting attention in many dark ways by killing humans. The same could happen to humans as well. Another way Grendel seems more human than the humans themselves is because Grendel seems more justified. Grendel did not kill his own people for fun. Grendel would not have killed those that are close to him too. Gardner states "Sometimes a horse, mired to the waist, would give up and merely stand, head hanging, as if waiting for death, and the men would howl at it and cut it with whips, or throw stones, or club it with heavy limbs, until finally one of them came to his senses and calmed the
others, and they would winch out the horse with ropes and wagon wheels, if they could, or else abandon the horse or kill it-first stripping off the saddle and bridle and the handsomely decorated harness” (Gardner 38). Grendel thought this was very cruel of the humans to treat and even kill them this way. Although all he knew was his mother, he did not kill her even if he was infuriated. Humans on the other hand, they killed many people of their own just for fun. When they wanted some kind of entertainment, they killed their own. When they got infuriated they killed their own. Even when they got bored, they killed their own. Grendel is written during the time period of the Vietnam War so Gardner incorporates what happened in the war. During the war people killed other people over a disagreement. Instead of having more justified ways of solving their problems, they sought war. The soldiers in the novel got bored so to counter that boredom, they killed their own. A method that kills their own instead of taking peaceful solutions. Although Grendel is a sacrifice to humans, he did not give up his own life. Grendel dies by the hand of Beowulf in a cruel way. Beowulf is portrayed as a psychopath by ripping Grendel’s arm and then proceeding to smash his head to the ground than killing Grendel less cruelly. An example of how Grendel is a sacrifice is to compare it to Martin Luther King Junior. King made a movement to better human equality, but no one thought anything of his speech. Not until he was assassinated. He was murdered for his speech. Many people did not agree in the equality and soon humanity was changing. It was positively changed after the death of Martin Luther King Jr. King is considered a sacrifice for America because he died trying to make a change. Some may think that in order for a sacrifice to be a sacrifice, the person will offer themselves or will know that they will die, but that may not be the case. Martin Luther King did not know he was going to die yet he is considered a sacrifice. Grendel is just like Martin Luther King. He was killed as a sacrifice for humans. Grendel’s death was also necessary in order for humans to benefit because Grendel killed too many humans. Just like the soldiers that were in Vietnam during the time of the publication of Grendel, no one wanted to die during the war, but they had to better the lives of others and the country.
For ages, humanity has always told stories of the classic struggle between man and monster. The battle between Beowulf and Grendel is a prime example of this archetype, but is Grendel only purely a monster? In his article “Gardner’s Grendel and Beowulf: Humanizing the Monster”, Jay Ruud makes a point that Grendel is a hybridization of both monster and man, particularly in John Gardner’s novel Grendel. In the poem Beowulf, Grendel is depicted as a purely evil monster who terrorizes Hrothgar and his people, but the novel provides a more humanistic backstory to the fiend. Throughout the novel, Grendel tells of his internal struggle between his thoughts of filling the role of the monster versus attempting to make amends with the humans. This conflict
Perhaps he would actually like to live a normal life with the humans. “Some evil inside myself pushed out into the trees, I knew what I knew, the mindless, mechanical bruteness of things, and when the harper’s lure drew my mind away from hopeful dreams, the dark of what was and always was reached out and snatched my feet.” (Gardner 54) It seems as though Grendel would like to change things if he could, but some outside force will not allow it. Even if this is true, Grendel is still inherently evil. Despite whatever dreams he may have. The reader simply cannot ignore the fact that he still does evil deeds with evil intentions. He is seemingly unable to feel love, or at least disinterested in it. He enjoys torturing and killing humans and rarely shows mercy. Due to these facts, it is impossible to say Grendel is a hero in this
He derives a satisfaction from his interactions with the Danes that he cannot get from interactions with any other creature. violent outbursts and antagonistic relationship with humans can be seen as the result of a lonely creature’s misunderstood attempts to reach out and communicate with someone else. Grendel was amused by the humans, observing of their violence that (ch 3) He was sickened by the waste of their wars, all the animals killed but not eaten. Ashamed of his monstrousness, what better that to be like the thing you envy the most.
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.
No one knows who wrote Beowulf but we do know who wrote Grendel. John Gardner took the epic Beowulf and added more to the brilliant story. Grendel takes on the same story as Beowulf but from the perspective of Grendel, the beast in Beowulf. The story of Grendel is very interesting because from reading Beowulf it is completely uninspected. In Beowulf Grendel is said to be a disgusting monster that’s only job is to kill. In Grendel we really see him as very nice but turns to be evil because he is pushed into that direction.
There are many similarities and differences between the movie "Beowulf and Grendel", to the poem. Major differences between the movie and the poem would be Grendel himself. In the poem, he is described as an evil monster born from two demons. In the movie, Grendel is actually human, but known as a troll to the warriors and Danes. The poem doesn’t give the background of Grendel or show how the Danes killed his father and the possible reason of his revenge, like in the movie. If the witch, Selma, was not included in the storyline of the movie, the audience would not have known key information that she was used to show from more flashbacks. The witch gives more of an idea about Grendel’s past life that could have been the possibility to reasons for his actions. Some major similarities are the battles. Both epics include the battles between Beowulf and Grendel, as well as Beowulf and Grendel’s mother. The end results are the same, leading to their death, but the journey and process to the two tales are different.
Even if, at first, Grendel seems almost kind, and the reader is pleased with his character, he soon becomes more and more evil, and his actions bring about a feeling of uneasiness, to say the least. Before, the killing of people for no apparent reason disgusted Grendel. However, when he brings Unferth home, he kills the two guards "so I wouldn't be misunderstood" (90). Later, in probably the most disturbing scene of the book, we see how meaningless killing has become to Grendel. He brutally attacks the queen and is determined to kill her.
There are many characters that are involved in the novel, Grendel by John Gardner, which have meaning and we can identify ourselves with them. For example, Grendel is the main character. I will be writing about Grendel because I think he is the most important character of this novel. I like Grendel because he seems like if he was human but, is really an intelligent monster who eats people. What I dislike about Grendel is that he observes people. I don’t like the fact that Grendel basically spies humans. Since, the author identifies the three stages in his live being: childhood, adulthood, and his battle with Beowulf. Grendel is characterized as innocence but, in the other hand as a monster. Grendel was big in size, and had the strength of many. But he was not brave at all. He is described as a large figure with the strength to pick up the weight of a grown man and consume him whole. 1 But, Grendel is shown as somewhat of a
Grendel also expressed his emotions throughout the story. For example, Grendel says “I looked at the foot in anger and disbelief” (Gardner 18). This clearly shows that Grendel has emotions and feelings in him. If Grendel was
While Grendel may possess a brute strength, his lack of wit and logic is what ultimately leads to his downfall and demise. In Beowulf, the actions and character that of Beowulf, or an Epic Hero, define the perfect Anglo-Saxon warrior. Epic heroes are indicated by a variety of traits, including that they, “must look like a hero, they must be noble, famous, strong, courageous, humble, prideful, thick-skinned, self-sacrificing, faithful, focused, be a leader, and have a tragic flaw” (Jones 3). Unfortunately, aside from the ‘tragic flaw’ and ‘strong’ categories, Grendel’s character is antithetical to all characteristics of an Epic Hero. This makes him quite the villain, and a generally despicable character. “Suddenly then, / the God-cursed brute creating havoc: / greedy and grim, he grabbed thirty men”
Grendel by John Gardner, a novel based on the epic poem Beowulf, was originally published in 1982. It looks at the story from the perspective of the monster, Grendel. It helps the reader empathize with Grendel and think of original story in a new way. Gardner portrays Grendel as the stereotypical misunderstood monster that turns to violence after being isolated and misunderstood form the normal people. This story is driven forward by acts of cruelty, from both the humans and Grendel. When Grendel first discovers the humans, he discovers a new kind of cruelty. Not only the creatures like him, but especially to each other. Grendel then discovers the joy of being cruel to others; he becomes more and more like the humans he despises. Finally, Grendel
In both stories, Grendel became the murderous being that the humans made him out to be. When he first attacked the hall after his confusion over the actions of humans on behalf of Wealthow being forced to go with the tribe, he finally snapped saying, “I would kill her and teach them reality. Grendel the truth teacher, phantasm-tester! It was what I would be from this day forward—my commitments, my character as long as I lived—and nothing could change my mind”(Gardner 110). Once Grendel lost faith in humans, he was forced to kill as he was disappointed and disgusted by their actions. With the lies of the Shaper, their murderous ways, and flawed beliefs, he has turned too far away from goodness and believed the only way to fulfill his life is to kill the ones who confuse him. This showed the complexity of Grendel as in Beowulf, the attacks by Grendel were seen as pointless acts of violence and evil when in reality the humans had pushed him to this point. One main reason for his violence was his constant fight with his belief of human religion. He was constantly questioning why God made him an evil creature and tested humans and their belief through violence. He framed himself as a god and wanted to feel the same power when calling himself the truth-teacher and phantasm-tester in order to make sense of the lies of humans and tried to understand his own purpose and situation. By the end of the novel Grendel had become completely untrusting of the people and finally decided that his role in life is instead to kill and torment the Scyldings because as he became more existential, he realized that his actions would not have an effect on the outcome of the universe, so filled the void in his life with rage on the people of the Hrothgar’s meadhall. As he goes to fight Beowulf and the Geats in the hall, he seemed to have accepted his role as, “[Grendel] seized up a sleeping man, tear at him hungrily, bite through his
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.”
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 reader’s perception of Grendel and his role in Beowulf by narrating the story through Grendel’s point of view. John Gardner transforms the perceived terrible evil fiend who is Grendel into a lonely but intelligent outcast who bears a striking resemblance to his human adversaries. In Grendel, John Gardner portrays Grendel as an intelligent being capable of rational thought as well as displaying outbursts of emotion. He portrays Grendel as a hurt individual and as a victim of oppression ostracized from civilization. The author of Beowulf portrays Grendel as the typical monster archetype as compared to John Gardner’s representation of Grendel as an outcast archetype.
Grendel throughout the book is in constant isolation with the human world and his own. In the realm that Grendel is from, the monsters and beasts do not obtain the intelligence to speak with Grendel, which Grendel himself seems to be far more intelligent than them. Grendel’s own mother in the story cannot even speak with him she relies on an emotional response for when she feels he is distressed, she holds him like you would hold a baby or she stares blankly at him when he questions her about the world even when he was a child. There was only one time that Grendel’s mother really did try to speak with him and all she said was, “drool drool.” In the human world Grendel is curious about human philosophies and understandings of the world around them but he is continually isolated from them because every encounter with mankind he has, even when he is a child, ends with them chasing him off or trying to kill him. Mankind misunderstands him and chase him away even with his first encounter with them as a child in the tree. The men think he is a God that they need to feed, which he laughs at, making the men think that Grendel is angry so they try to kill him. Thankfully Grendel’s mother comes and saves him from the men but she still never speaks to him. Grendel realizes and acknowledges even when he was a child that he and mankind are very similar creatures that is why I believe that he constantly revisits the communities