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“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. Growing up as a young monster, Grendel truly had no one to guide him or keep him on the right path. He literally lived alone in a cave, with his only interactions being with his …show more content…
insane mother who did not even possess the ability to talk. Grendel seems to understand she is useless, as he says, “Not that she thinks. Not that she dissects and ponders the dusty mechanical bits of her miserable life’s curse” (Garnder 12). She did not do anything for Grendel, and knowing that, it is pretty clear that a tough life was inevitable for Grendel. Another analysis of the novel agrees with this assessment, as it states that his mother was “a subterranean beast” (Hutman 3). Growing up without a role model or anyone to interact with as a young person is an incredibly difficult thing to have to deal with, and it can seriously mess a person up for life if they do not receive that emotional maturing and guidance that one receives from a guardian. Grendel had nothing to go on, and was always miserable, and that clearly translates to the latter stages of his life. Another event that clearly damaged Grendel for life and prevented him from leading a peaceful or happy existence was his meeting with the dragon.
When he meets the dragon, Grendel is still at a very young and impressionable time in his life. As stated previously, the only person he had in his life for a long time was a mother who could not talk, so he was probably pretty open to anyone’s ideas at that point. Unfortunately for him, the dragon was one of the first sentient creatures he met from the outside world. The dragon is a classic narcissist; a “vile, self- and world-loathing beast of no inherent value to anyone or anything” (Ruud 4). He has no care for anything in the world, and he is brutally unhappy. He also completely despise the humans, as evidenced when he states, “They’d map out roads through Hell with their crackpot theories” (Gardner 74). He sees absolutely nothing of value of life, and he unflinchingly translates this narcissism onto Grendel. Because of this, Grendel’s worldview is never the same again. He immediately becomes a less happy, more subdued and morose monster than he was even before the meeting with the dragon, and all but ensures he will never be able find any lasting and fulfilling …show more content…
happiness. Finally, the most evident and damning reason for Grendel’s lack of happiness in life is the humans’ complete rejection of him.
At first, Grendel is not even remotely hostile towards the humans, and he even asks, “Why can’t I have someone to talk to” (Gardner 59)? He is obviously very alone and desperate to reach out to someone; every person in this world needs another to talk to. He simply wants to at least observe the humans and watch their march of progress go on. Eventually though, he becomes stuck in a tree, and without any prompting, the humans immediately try to kill and torture him. This obviously has a lasting effect on Grendel, and from Grendel’s point of view, “there are plenty of men who, because of their craziness or insanity, are objects of derision” (Sanchez 47). They are evil and wicked to him without cause, and they deserve his scorn. He perhaps justifiably begins to hate the humans. The final nail in the coffin comes, however, later, when Grendel makes one last stab at forming a relationship with the humans. After hearing the Shaper’s tale, Grendel becomes an emotional wreck, and in desperation, runs toward the humans hoping they will accept and embrace him. Instead, they again turn him away without a moment’s hesitation, and Grendel’s last hope at happiness is snuffed out. This rejection fills him with hate once more, and he now has no one in life to turn to. His hate of the humans is complete. At that point, it is almost understandable where
Grendel is coming from when he starts attacking the humans- he literally has no one in life to turn to. Who is he going to reach out to or talk to? Not his mother. Not the animals he so despises. Obviously not the humans. He is completely alone in the world, and I would be filled with some serious rage and sadness if I was put in that situation as well. Really, it is hard to believe that Grendel made it as far as he did before he snapped. He had no parent growing up, the only person to ever give him any attention pressed a nihilistic worldview upon him, and the human race completely turned their backs on him and left him out in the cold. There is not a single person on this earth who could live a normal and happy life with that much trauma and denial stuffed into it. Now, Grendel certainly did not help himself all that much with his naturally depressing and rude personality, but all of the extraordinary obstacles be thrown in the way of his happiness only compounded the problem, and it is very possible that Grendel’s horrible personality stems from these obstacles themselves. In the end, it is simply clear that Grendel could not possess any happiness in life because of the events he had to go through, and it is a shame for him, as he was clearly very intelligent and perceptive. However, no matter how smart or adaptive a person or monster may be, they are not going to make it far at all in life without a drink of happiness, and in Grendel’s case, his lack of contact and relationships in the world kept his cup remarkably dry for the entirety of his existence.
Towards the end of the novel, Grendel finally becomes ‘himself’. Grendel is unable to decide what to make of himself and of the world surrounding him. He has only ever known the world as wild and mechanical, yet he is charmed by the artistic brilliance of the Shaper’s words. Grendel ultimately meets a brutal yet peaceful demise. Standing on the face of the same cliff he found himself in at the beginning of the novel, surrounded by mindless eyes, he states, “Poor Grendel’s had an accident.
Before meeting the dragon, Grendel had been labeled a monster by himself and the people of Denmark. His only purpose had been to spend his days in a languid stupor only punctuated by his acts of violence to the Danes. For the Danes, Grendels’ function had been to serve as, in the dragons’ words, “the brute existence by which they define themselves”(Gardner 73). However, Grendel find this dissatisfying and yearns to find his deeper purpose. The dragon sarcastically tells Grendel that it does not matter whether he is monster or not. After all, all labels are meaningless to a nihilist. Instead the dragon encouraged Grendel to “find gold and sit on it”(Gardner 74). Basically the dragon is saying for Grendel to cease measuring himself based off mans’ false labeling and find something tangible and rational to give him purpose.
Throughout John Gardner’s Grendel, the audience bears witness to a creature who has been ostracized by the world around him. Throughout his journey, the stories protagonist tries to live out his own life the way he wants to, despite being labeled as evil by those around him. Due to this constant criticism by his peers, he develops an inferiority complex that he desperately tries to make up for as the story progresses. Throughout his development, Grendel very rapidly moves past his existentialist beginning, through a brief phase of forced skepticism, and into a severely nihilistic point of view.
Grendel and the humans share a common language, but the humans’ disgust for, and fear of Grendel precludes any actual meaningful exchange.
Grendel's interludes with the dragon portray, at their onsets, the dragon as a worldly, wise creature with much to share. The dragon haughtily informs Grendel about his vast store of knowledge as he teases him with how much he knows. As Grendel's interests are piqued, the dragon expends the cumulative result of his travails: "Know how much you've got, and beware of strangers…My advice to you, my violent friend, is to seek out gold and sit on it" (Gardner page #). Although the dragon serves as a vessel to point out the necessity of Grendel and makes some pointed observations about mankind, all his respectability is lost with those two short sentences. The author is making an observation about materialism and the falsehood of wisdom always accompanying age. After all his years of intense scrutiny, the dragon can only grasp from human- and animalkind alike that possessions are the key to life's existence.
The Dragon tries to convince Grendel that the humans are bad people and that he should kill them because of their actions. He attempts to persuade Grendel that he shouldn’t be what the Shaper says. “ Ah, Grendel” he said. He seemed that instant almost rise to pity. “ You improve them, my boy! Can’t you see that yourself? You stimulate them! You make them think and scheme. You drive them to poetry, science, religion, all that makes them what they are for as long as they last. You are, so to speak, the brute existent by which they learn to define themselves” (Gardner 72). This specific quotation proves the idea of the negative influence the Dragon has on Grendel because it states that Grendel is the force which humans must kill to destroy him and prove who they are. It is basically stating that the humans are out to get Grendel and it brings Grendel in the direction of being mean. “ I discovered that the Dragon had put a charm on me: no weapon could cut me. I could walk up to the mead hall whenever i pleased, and they were powerless. My heart became darker because of that. Though I scorned them, sometimes hated them, there had been something between myself and men where we could fight. Now, invulnerable, I was as solitary as one live tree in a vast landscape of coal” (Gardner 75-76). Grendel talks
He is damaged psychologically and is basically put on exile by his own nature. As more humans appear to colonize within the area, Grendel meets a blind poet he calls “ the shaper” who tells the story of a man named Scyld Shefing, however being a myth Grendel is confused becomes hysterical and flees. When Grendel gets back to his cave he attempts to speak to his mother again and fails. This leads him to feel even more lonely and falls through the sea where he meets a dragon with a different philosophical view of fatalism. He shares with Grendel this view and Grendel again becomes hysterical. So it seems that when someone eventually does communicate with Grendel he is even more confused. Especially when someone has a different ideology, Grendel enters into a state of denial and
In Chapter 8, Grendel exclaims, “I’m a machine. Like all of you. Blood-lust and rage are my character,” (Gardner 123). This profound statement establishes a connection between Grendel and the ambiguous “you,” the reader. The monster, though he confesses to his wrongdoing, asserts that readers are no better than he. Countless bible verses reiterate this concept: “For all have sinned,” (Romans 3:23) “[Humans] are all. .impure with sin,” (Isaiah 64:6). Gardner’s reminder to readers of mankind’s predisposition to sin earns pity for the monster. He expands on these sympathies by describing the nature of Grendel’s lonely existence. “But there was one thing worse,” Grendel states after discovering the dragon’s charm, “no weapon could cut me,” (Gardner 75). In this moment, nihilism overcomes Grendel; if fighting poses no danger, it has no purpose, and neither does he. Any reader who has had an experience which challenged his or her values cannot help but feel empathetic towards the purposeless creature. Perhaps more piteous, however, is the suggestion that Grendel has no choice in being “the dark side. . the terrible race God cursed,” (Gardner 51). The dragon condemns Grendel as “the brute existent by which [humans] learn to define themselves,” telling him that it is worthless to better his character (Gardner 72). It is not until after
Grendel is introduced to nihilism when he meets The Dragon. The Dragon, who Grendel believes knows "the beginning, the present, the end . all time, all space." (Gardner 62) The Dragon believes that the world and all in it are meaningless, making him the most nihilistic thing there is. Grendel understands the advice from The Dragon, knowing that “the world was nothing: a mechanical chaos of casual, brute enmity on which we stupidly impose our hopes and fears. I alone exist,” (Gardner) He tells Grendel to "seek out gold and sit on it" (Garder 74) basically telling him to discount the world and do his own thing. Grendel has a new sense in self-confidence in now beholding a new view on life. For believing the nihilistic Dragon and his advice to “do whatever makes him happy”, he finds no reason at all to hold back on his desire to terrorize and destroy. Grendels vantage point of life also has a huge impact on on his Nihilistic views and his will to continue l...
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.
As Grendel dies, he whispers the words, “ Poor Grendel’s had an accident, so may you all” (Gardner 174). I believe that this is a blessing because throughout the story, it is clear that he has fundamentally changed. Although he does not like society, he is not wishing death upon them, rather he is wishing “an accident”. Moreover, it seems that Grendel has finally understand his change as death draws near, when he sees “cold, sharp outlines, everything around me: distinct, detached as dead men. I understand” (172). He sees the harshness of reality. Grendel has changed, understanding that his search for whatever meaning there was in the world, was essentially and ironically meaningless. This is because his true role was something else and he
John Gardner’s novel, Grendel, is about the development of Grendel’s character before his encounter with Beowulf. The novel starts out with Grendel in his childhood years feeling strongly connected to his mother. It wasn’t until his first encounter with humans that the bond between him and his mother was completely severed. Following this encounter with humans, Grendel was faced with the challenge of being accepted into society. He is constantly trying to refrain from being socially disconnected with humans. Grendel throughout the novel is trying to connect to society on both a social and philosophical level. After countless tries of trying to fit in, he ultimately fails at the end. Grendel being isolated is driven by loss of connection between
Grendels motive to causing all of this chaos is because he does not like people to be happy. It makes him miserable to see people full of joy and happiness. He is the monster that brings fear to the people and he likes that. He knows that this gives him power over everyone else. In order to have power there needs to be fear installed first. Grendel is a man of violence, and is not afraid to show
Grendel is a fruit of humans meanness and inconsideration. Grendel isolation and separation from the rest of the world marked his existence. Loneliness can be good for self reflection but it can welcome evil thoughts In the novel by John Gardner , Grendel is very emotional and philosophical unlike how is he is portrayed in beowulf as a bloodthirsty monster. The narrator of
In the epic poem, Grendel is depicted as a vicious beast with no real emotion. He is hardly human and has a very grotesque appearance. He lacks any type of sympathy and acts solely on a whim. The author of the epic poem never truly goes into detail about how Grendel feels about the debacle and fails to relate him to the Dane’s in any manner. The Danes and Grendel are two completely different entities with no similarities between them. This makes it very simple for the Danes to feel no pity or remorse towards Grendel. Additionally, the fact that Grendel is such a malicious savage makes it difficult for the audience to sympathize with him. He lacks human attributes and sympathy which further separates him from the