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Patriarchal society and women
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The fictional world of Grendel has great divides between male and female characters. While the novel is written in a fairly contemporary society, the world that Gardner constructs still follows under the same logic and principle as the ancient writings of Beowulf. The men are overtly masculine and tough, and the women are constructed with extreme passivity; there is marginal middle ground in both worlds. The constructions of how certain genders act are crucial to interrogate in order to understand one’s bias and become cognizant of the variety of gender roles men and women can endorse. The world of Grendel is full of symbols that construct men as violent, sexual creatures and women as passive objects.
With the rhetoric and ideas constructing
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The fact there is no mentioning of Grendel’s mother’s name implies that she is valuable insofar as her son is alive. This is could not further away from the truth because Grendel’s mother saved his life, and she is more powerful (Hala 39). Grendel acknowledges when he mentions “a shriek tens as loud as mine came blaring off the cliff. It was my mother!” (Gardner 27). While Grendel situates himself in danger, his mother comes along to save him from the situation that he placed himself into. Even though she has her own identity and persona, the novel never mentions her as something other than him. She is more powerful and dominant than Grendel physically, but because of the nature of her role, she becomes as subservient mother whose only function in life is to serve her son. She does not know anything besides her role as a mother, implying that mothers have no other role in life even they are talented or powerful. The novel is eroding the worth and value that comes from a mother because she has played an important role in raising Grendel. Because the book Grendel is trying to mimic the same world from when Beowulf is written, there are apparent contradictions when Gardner writes the mother “had forgotten all language long ago, or maybe never had never known any. I’d never heard her speak to the other shapes.” The mother is powerful and influential, but Grendel’s mother is continually portrayed is an unintelligent, useless being that has no independent worth beyond her
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
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.)
Since the dawn of man and women, the issue of gender role has existed. Throughout history the norms of each gender have shifted. The two texts of Beowulf and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, both support a single sex, but are on opposite sides of the spectrum. Beowulf, written in around 800 AD represents the time of men superiority over women, who were the dominant figures in society and their families. On the other hand, We Have Always Lived in the Castle, depicts the contrary, the time of the 1960’s where women’s power grew stronger in contrast to men. In each test the power of each gender is perceived as threatening to the opposite sex, to keep in place, the supremacy of their own gender.
In John Gardner’s novel, Grendel, Grendel has a lifelong struggle of finding who he is and where he fits into society. In his youth, Grendel is very new to the world around him and feels vulnerable. Soon however, Grendel meets man and begins to be influenced and shaped by their customs and ways.Through the continual influence of society, Grendel turns to and accepts his violent nature and begins to justify senseless killings, thus falling into man’s way.
Revealing the relationship of Grendel to something other than language, Gardner introduces the “beast” performing a “dance” (Gardner 92). He begins by suggesting for Grendel to “do a little dance beast” and continues when “[Grendel] clasps [his] hands over his head, points the toes of one foot [...] takes a step, does a turn” (Gardner 92). Even though the sentence lengths differ, the content of the two sentences juxtapose each other. The contrasting sentences further divulge the internal conflict of Grendel desiring to be known as a “beast” yet he performs like a human (Gardner 92). An uncertain tone later comes to reach as curious Grendel reflects on “what [we will] call the Hrothgar-wrecker when Hrothgar has been wrecked?” (Gardner 92). The ambiguous tone exposes the intrigued mind of Grendel, which discloses another internal conflict of Grendel to be curiosity. Therefore, through an ambiguous tone Gardner emphasizes the curiosity of men baffling and intriguing Grendel. Gardner utilizes contrasting sentence lengths and an ambiguous tone to divulge the distinct internal conflicts of the envious
Grendel's mother, unknown to the Danes or Geats, is plotting to avenge the death of her son. After the celebrations are over in Heorot and everybody is asleep, Grendel's mother appears out of her dwelling place, the swamp.
Grendel, a book written by John Gardner, retells the epic of Beowulf from the perspective of a lonely monster who struggles to find his purpose. By peering into the life and perspective of Grendel, Gardner encapsulates the themes of, “form is function” and nihilism vs. existentialism. These themes coincide with Gardner’s childhood. On their family farm, Gardner had a cultipacker, a machine that crushes dirt clumps and creates a smooth seedbed. One day he drove the cultipacker with his siblings Sandy and Gilbert. The engine ran out of gas and jolted on a downward incline. Gilbert was thrown out of the cultipacker. It continued to move forward as the huge machine was on an incline, crushing Gilbert’s head (Stanton). At just 12 years old, Gardner
...n very human feelings of resentment and jealousy. Grendel was an unstable and saddened figure because of his outcast status. Though Grendel had many animal attributes and a grotesque, monstrous appearance, he seemed to be guided by vaguely human emotions and impulses. He truthfully showed more of an interior life than one might expect. Exiled to the swamplands outside the boundaries of human society, Grendel’s depiction as an outcast is a symbol of the jealousy and hate that seeks to destroy others' happiness and can ultimately cripple a civilization. This take on the outcast archetype ultimately exposes the Anglo Saxon people’s weaknesses, their doubts and anxieties towards the traditional values that bounded nearly every aspect of their life.
“Culture does not make people. People make culture” said Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a Nigerian writer and educator, in a presentation on feminism in a TedTalk. The culture in which Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was written was misogynistic and it shows in the writing of the poem. Medieval cultural misogyny manifests itself in multiple ways in SGGK. This paper will examine the negative relationships between Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and gender by discussing: the representation of female characters, gendered violence, and Christianity in the Middle Ages.
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.
...atiently waits because she knows that the same person who slew her son would be coming after her as well. Beowulf’s pursuit of the mother is nothing more than another way to build his reputation because if he had slain Grendel and it got him such recognition, slaying both ogre’s would raise his reputation tremendously thus bringing him even closer to his name being secured on the cover of the history book. Him going after Grendel’s mother has nothing or very little to do with the fact that she is a woman, it however has everything to do with the fame he would get and the respect that would be associated with his name.
Beowulf is an epic tale written over twelve hundred years ago. In the poem, several different female characters are introduced, and each woman possesses detailed and unique characteristics. The women in Beowulf are portrayed as strong individuals, each of whom has a specific role within the poem. Some women are cast as the cup-bearers and gracious hostesses of the mead halls, such as Wealhtheow and Hygd, while others, Grendel's mother, fulfill the role of a monstrous uninvited guest. The woman's role of the time period, author's attitude, and societal expectations for women are evidenced throughout the poem.
As a man fascinated with the role of women during the 14th Century, or most commonly known as the Middle Ages, Chaucer makes conclusive evaluations and remarks concerning how women were viewed during this time period. Determined to show that women were not weak and humble because of the male dominance surrounding them, Chaucer sets out to prove that women were a powerful and strong-willed gender. In order to defend this argument, the following characters and their tales will be examined: Griselda from the Clerk's Tale, and the Wife of Bath, narrator to the Wife of Bath's Tale. Using the role of gender within the genres of the Canterbury Tales, exploring each woman's participation in the outcomes of their tales, and comparing and contrasting these two heroines, we will find out how Chaucer broke the mold on medievalist attitudes toward women.
The movie Beowulf desires equality and compassion. In the movie, Beowulf’s compassion towards Grendel represents that views Grendel as a human like figure and this is supported because of the evidence that Grendel has a son. Grendel’s death ceremony contains the same respect as that of a human’s death ceremony would. Beowulf expresses his compassion when he tells Grendel’s son, “Be proud”, as Grendel lied there dead in his mother's underwater cave. (Gunnarsson 2005) His love and admiration towards the witch are expressed deeply, which eventually is discovered to be the mother of Grendel's
There are three prominent monsters in the Beowulf text, Grendel, his mother, and the dragon. While the dragon proves to be the most fatale of foes for Beowulf, Grendel and his mother do not simply pose physical threats to the Germanic society; their roles in Beowulf are manifold. They challenge the perceptions of heroism, a sense of unrivalled perfection and superiority. Moreover, they allow the reader to reconsider the gender constructs upheld within the text; one cannot help but feel that the threat that these monsters present is directed towards the prevalent flaws in Beowulf’s world. Moreover, what makes these monsters is not their physical appearance; it is what they embody. Both Grendel and his mother have humanlike qualities yet their monstrous appearance arises from what their features and mannerisms represent. The challenge they pose to societal paradigms makes them far more terrifying to our heroes than any scaled flesh or clawing hand. These monsters provide the ‘most authoritative general criticism […] of the structure and conduct of the poem’. Their presence provides contrast and criticism of the brave society (Heaney 103).