Grendel's Word Analysis

335 Words1 Page

To begin with, Grendel’s last words “ Poor Grendel’s had an accident... So may you all.” is meant as a cursing because he is saying you are the ones who hurt me you guys will pay in debt of my hurting as well. Grendel’s words are meant to affect mankind because they are the one’s whom had hurt Grendel not the animal’s. It goes to the humans because they are the ones who hurt him. “ Any action of the human heart must trigger an equal and opposite reaction.” ( Grendel,113.) Humans can go to one mood to the other real quick. For example, when Grendel was stuck in the tree the humans had seen him and had thought he was a tree spirit. They wanted to please him so they gave it food, but as soon as Grendel spoke they were frightened. Since they

Show More
Related

  • Good vs. Evil in John Gardner's Grendel

    879 Words  | 2 Pages

    Like animals they are frightened of anything that is different from what they are used to.  When Grendel attempts to communicate they show their ignorance and simple-mindedness.  Instead of taking the time to understand. the anomaly in their world, they panic and decide to destroy it.  Without being able to view the story from Grendel's point of view the reader might assume that the humans had every right to attack.  Another example of the same type of simple-mindedness is their second premature attack on Grendel. After hearing the shaper's words, Grendel weeps, "'Mercy!  Peace! ' " ( ch.4 pp.50) in the hopes of salvation from the god of these men.  The men, in a drunken state, merely misunderstand Grendel's intentions and attack him. once again.  Instead of killing the men, which would have been an easy task. for the giant, Grendel escapes into the night.  This action alone defines.

    Read More

  • Literary Criticism In 'Grendel' By John Gardner

    1611 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Violence In Grendel's Misunderstood

    92 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Isolation Theme in Grendel

    656 Words  | 2 Pages

    Grendel and the humans share a common language, but the humans’ disgust for, and fear of Grendel precludes any actual meaningful exchange.

    Read More

  • Grendel In Beowulf

    627 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Analysis Of 'Grendel'

    758 Words  | 2 Pages

    The presence of a bull prompts a shift in Grendel’s purpose in life from remaining obedient to his mother as a young child to being the creator of the world as he transitions into adulthood. As a young monster, Grendel motive’s coincide with his mother since she is the only person who Grendel is able to communicate with. He feels “Of all the creatures I knew, only my mother really looked at me...We were one thing, like the wall and the rock growing out from it… ‘Please, Mama!’ I sobbed as if heartbroken” (Gardner 17-19). His emotions demonstrate that as a child, he doesn’t consider himself as an individual but rather as embodying the same identity as his mother, which is further emphasized by the use of the simile. Additionally, Grendel’s use

    Read More

  • Grendel's Search For Meaning Essay

    1409 Words  | 3 Pages

    Humans look for some key equation through which they might tie all of the experiences of life and feel the satisfaction of action toward a goal, rather than the emptiness of which sometimes consumes the activities of our existence. However, humans may never find some great pure meaning beyond their mundane existences, because there is none. What there is to be found, however, is the life itself. Humans seek to find meaning so that emptiness will not pervade every thought, every deed, with the coldness of reality as seen by an unemotional eye. Without color, without joy, without future, reality untouched by hope is nothing more than an empty void. Man’s search for meaning is depicted in John Gardner’s Grendel, as Grendel’s perspective and philosophy

    Read More

  • Grendel's Argumentative Essay

    585 Words  | 2 Pages

    Grendel is a classic hero versus villain story, but it’s written through the perspective of the “villain.” In Grendel, a novel by John Gardner, The main character and narrator Grendel watches and gives his input as society advances in many different ways such as divisions of class and war. The book Grendel can also be seen as a first-hand account of the ruinous effects of labels on a malleable-minded individual such as Grendel. In the novel Grendel, John Gardner uses characterization by using the villain archetype to convey the central idea that heavily enforced labels in society can be detrimental on an individual's natural and unique persona.

    Read More

  • Grendel Is Not Evil, By John Gardner

    1406 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Grendel: The Outcast

    1429 Words  | 3 Pages

    Archetypes refer to the persistently recurring symbols or motifs in literature. The term itself has its origins in ancient Greek and continues to play a prominent role in analyzing literature. Archetypal images and story patterns encourage readers to participate ritualistically in basic beliefs, fears, and anxieties of their age. These archetypal features not only constitute the eloquence of the text but also tap into a level of desires and concerns of civilization. The Anglo-Saxon poem, Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney, integrates many of the common archetypes that still exist today. The outcast archetype is one that particularly expressed the desires, anxieties and values of the people who lived during the Beowulf era. Grendel, a character of monstrous appearance and hazily human emotion, is portrayed as the principal outsider in Beowulf. The incorporation of a banished character against his fellow society effectively expressed the anxiety and fears that the Anglo-Saxon culture felt towards seclusion and abnormality, caused by a societal absorption in family lineage and traditionalism.

    Read More

  • Beowulf: Grendel is Pure Evil

    485 Words  | 1 Pages

    Grendel is alone; he can not know God’s love and be comforted. He is an outcast, and the sins of his forefather have fallen upon him. Evil can not stand God being glorified just as the praising of God by the Danes angered Grendel.

    Read More

  • Religion In Beowulf

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    Contrary to the epic poem, Grendel does not have this vicious and evil appearance; he simply resembles a large feral man, and unlike in the poem Grendel is not killing for his own recreation, he is killing to avenge his father. When a viewer of the film Beowulf and Grendel is introduced to Grendel they do not think of him as some evil monster that is a descendent of Cain, but rather a primitive man simply trying to avenge the death of his father. Hollywood decided not to make Grendel a senseless killing machine, but rather something more of a man seeking revenge for the murder of his

    Read More

  • The Role Of The Monsters In Beowulf

    3014 Words  | 7 Pages

    87-91). Hearing all the jubilation that he cannot share in makes Grendel bitter. Because nothing that can be done to make Grendel’s resentfulness subside, he “[wages] his lonely war, inflicting constant cruelties on the people, atrocious hurt” (ln. 164-166) to make himself feel better. Every day he finds satisfaction in killing and eating the men who fall asleep in the hall after they have drunk and partied the evening away. Causing harm to human society is Grendel’s means of compensating for his loneliness.

    Read More

  • A Comparison of Beowulf and Grendel

    947 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...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.

    Read More

  • Beowulf And Grendel's Hymn Analysis

    849 Words  | 2 Pages

    It can be said that there is nothing more permanent than change throughout human history. This notion has prevailed throughout thousands of years as old beliefs and ways of life are replaced by the next logical step in humanity’s attempt to achieve some sensation of sureness or stability in life. Change is at the forefront of much of Old English literature, as the pagan, naturalistic religion of the Anglo-Saxons slowly shifted to Christian ideology. This clash of spiritualistic superiority is clearly illustrated in the episode of Grendel’s Mother from Beowulf, the Wanderer, and Caedmon’s Hymn, all of which display a shift of Anglo-Saxon society to Christianity through a demonization of nature, the passing of old tradition, and the power of God’s will over man.

    Read More

More about Grendel's Word Analysis

Open Document