Recently, after analyzing the novel Grendel, curiosity in the round character Grendel was realized. In this novel, John Gardner pulls from his life to create a complex character, whom is relatable and opposing to the previously written epic Beowulf. This produces not only an emotional effect, but changes the entire plot. Grendel, the main character, was previously portrayed in Beowulf as an inhuman monster, but in Grendel, one realizes the importance of mental state and how it effects characters’ actions and choices. Using appalling personification and morbid imagery, Gardener conveys Grendel’s self-journey as one of inevitable tragedy, which leads to the central idea that misinterpretation may lead to isolation.
To begin to describe this idea,
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Well, Grendel was savagely attacked in his youth when he required someone to talk with to ease the complete isolation, since his own mother no longer was equipped with the knowledge of the human language.
“Pig!” I tried to yell. It scared them. They all began shouting at each other. One of the horses neighed and reared up, and for some crazy reason they took it for a sign. The king snatched an ax from the man beside him and, without any warning, he hurled it at me.” (Gardner 27)
Grendel is personified at this time yet he is still further misconstrued as a ferocious animal. Additionally, this demonstrates the divide between Grendel and the humans even though they have many of the same features. They both speak the same language and use logic to make decisions. Humans share a connection and should bond with this humanoid creature and communicate, but the humans are oblivious to the life around them. To sum up, Grendel is personified, but is not understood by the only people that speak his language, therefore leading him to being isolated in his childhood and his foreseeable demise later on. Also, Grendel uses brash imagery to catch the attention of his ‘audience’ and to express the severity of his viewpoint on the world he is living
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But that merely hints at what I mean. I had become something, as if born again. I had hung between possibilities before, between the cold truths I knew and the heart-sucking conjuring tricks of the Shaper; now that was passed: I was Grendel, Ruiner of Meadhalls, Wrecker of Kings! (Gardner 80)
Gardner paints a crystal clear picture in this quote, that Grendel has accepted his fate as what the humans portray him as, a monster. Grendel has been ‘shaped’ by the humans to be the monster that physical appearance portrays him as and in doing so realizes that he himself is animalistic and embraces it. To restate, Gardner uses crude diction to convey his point and add more character to Grendel. In conclusion, Gardner has Grendel use vivid imagery and personifies him to convey the idea misinterpretation may lead to isolation throughout Grendel’s self-journey. Imagery that spares no detail of the repulsive reality Grendel creates for himself is used. Also, Grendel is given humanlike characteristics to increase the likelihood of an emotional response from the audience and to add dimension to his character. Grendel is the result of the isolation he encountered his entire life from the inability to communicate his thoughts. He was treated like an animal instead of the thinking and rational creature that he is and because of this, embraced his animalistic side and murdered humans whenever the urge arose. {"The world
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.)
This ‘beast’, the protagonist of the story, fights an internal struggle, of which is a part of the Hero’s Journey. 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 the beginning of the novel, surrounded by mindless eyes, he states, “Poor Grendel’s had an accident. So may you all.” (Grendel, John Gardner, pg.174) Previous to this, he questions if what he is feeling is joy. The reader is lead to believe that Grendel must feel nothing but peace. This, is the concluding moment of his
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.
The Shaper, a harp-playing bard, tells righteous tales about Hrothgar, the ruler, and his society. The Shaper lies and spins a web of exaggerations that romanticize the violence that has given Hrothgar his power. Grendel witnessed the fighting himself and knew what the Shaper was saying was untrue. However, Grendel cannot help himself but falling for the optimistically distorted reality of the Shaper. Throughout time and across the world, figures similar to the Shaper work to twist the truth into a favorable picture. The human perspective can often be easily controlled. This shows the fragility of independence and humanity. In response to the Shaper, Grendel says I too crept away, my mind aswim in ringing phrases, magnificent, golden, and all of them, incredibly, lies" (Gardner 43), but he also says “I clamped my palms to my ears and stretched up my lips and shrieked again” (Gardner 45). The contrast between these responses to the Shaper show how Grendel is split. He is both charmed and repulsed by the lies. Both ways, the Shaper demonstrates to Grendel the artificiality of truth in this existence. This only furthers Grendel’s dissatisfaction towards
Grendel, surprisingly, adapts quite well to his society despite its detestation of his existence. Grendel live is a rattlesnake-guarded cave, which allows himself to detach from his society, giving him the necessary space to cope with the troublesome thoughts among his people about Grendel. Unlike Frankenstein, Grendel tries to associate with the members of his civilization but is rejected every time he tries to do so. Every night Grendel goes to Herot to listen to the Sharper’s stories because the history interests him. He is quite intrigued and appreciative of the tales he hears, but when he comes in contact with those from Herot, they do not reciprocate the appreciation of his presence in Herot. The ones he admires so much taunt and torture him to the point they try to kill him for “intruding.” As retaliation, Grendel fights back and raids Herot every night.
In the beginning Grendel’s perspective of himself leads to various encounters that help him discover the meaninglessness to his very own existence. From the beginning through many centuries of pondering Grendel has come to the idea that the world consists entirely of Grendel and not-Grendel. Thus Grendel begins his search for meaning of his very own life with an existential philosophy, the belief that emphasizes the existence of the individual person as a free and responsible agent determining their own development through acts of the will. While Grendel’s overall perspective of nature is that of mindless and mechanical machine, he believes that he is a separate entity from this machine. Furthermore he holds the philosophy that he himself is a god like creature that “blink by blink” creates the world. This philosophy undermined when Grendel notices that events occur before he can think them into existence. Grendel witnesses the death of a deer by the hands of humans: “Suddenly time is a rush for the hart: head flicks, he jerks, his front legs buckling, and he’s dead. He lies as still as the snow hurtling outward around him to the hushed world’s rim. The image clings to my mind like a
Many may contend that the novel’s main character, Grendel, is guilty of evil by virtue of his vile actions. However, Gardner’s description of Grendel’s resistance to evil impulses and capability of human emotions suggest that Grendel is simply responding to his environment. Furthermore, Gardner deftly accrues readers’ sympathies towards Grendel, making it difficult for the empathetic reader to condemn the monster ex officio. By forging connections between humanity and his protagonist, Gardner indicates that readers are equally as guilty of sin as Grendel. Through this implication, he insinuates that humans are unqualified to judge Grendel’s actions, and, perhaps, each other. After all, if Grendel can be called evil, can the same not be said of all of mankind? The novel’s ultimate truth seems to harken back to Tupac Shakur’s assertion that, “Only God can judge me,” (Tupac
John Gardner’s Grendel portrays a monster searching for his purpose in life. The characters know the meaning of their lives, but Grendel tries to discover his role and what life has to offer him. Grendel discovers his identity through other characters’ actions and beliefs. In Grendel, John Gardner illustrates the contrasting views of each character to show their view of society and the influence they have on Grendel.
...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.
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.
Is Grendel a truly fearsome, mindless monster? Or is he simply a misunderstood creature capable of thinking and feeling? Does he deserve to be deemed as an outcast or should society accept him? In the novel, Grendel by John Gardner, Grendel must deal with these questions reflecting his doubts on his identity after he is mistook for an evil, monstrous character. Though Grendel has an evil background in which he is the descendant of Cain causing him to be judged by how others perceive him to be rather than from his true incentives and though his ugly appearance may cause others to cringe, underneath it all, he is a harmless and misunderstood creature only looking to change his destiny. Throughout the novel, Grendel lives
Reading the Beowulf story again from Grendel’s perspective is totally different, in Grendel’s point of view, the wickedness of human nature exposes to readers that makes reasonable for Grendel to become what he is. From Grendel’s perspective, we as mankind start to recognize and see what we really are despite the hero figure describes in Beowulf. It arouses reader’s sympathy and compassion to Grendel by the fact that human is partial responsible for Grendel’s brutal behaviours.
Grendel portrays numerous symbols, themes, and motifs which add great meaning to the plot, thus helping the reader to capture a more thorough understanding of the novel as a whole. However, John Gardner presents the reader with three animals that eventually play a large role. These three animals come to epitomize Grendel’s understanding of nature as indifferent and mechanical.
...zes humanity in this scene by portraying them as the evil beings instead of Grendel who is the helpless victim of their savage assault. The men attack Grendel solely because they could not understand him and because of his appearance. Grendel makes no attempt to harm the men but to communicate with them while they are the ones that savagely tried to kill him. John Gardner portrays the men as the real monsters who mercilessly tried to kill Grendel while he was defenseless. Grendel has another revelation due to this attack in where he states. “The world resists me and I resist the world… “That’s all there is.”(Gardner, 28) Grendel makes this assertion as a means to organized the ways he perceives the world. While he once saw the world as a confusing array of frightening images, now he can separate the world into categories: those who do not resemble him and himself.