Similarities Between Grendel And Beowulf

Throughout history there has been controversy concerning whether evilness is a born or an acquired trait. According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, evil is defined as “being profoundly immoral and malevolent”. All through history different pieces of literature document various ways evil originates from. After reading multiple texts including Frankenstein, Beowulf, and Grendel one can conclude that evilness is created not born. In the novel Frankenstein, Victor Frankenstein is taken aboard a ship to the North Pole and tells an english explorer, Robert Walton, about his life’s story. Robert discovers that Victor is a man of science and his life’s mission is to bring death back to life, which he accomplishes by creating a monster. Unlike Frankenstein,

Beowulf, translated by Neil Gailman, is about the protagonist Beowulf’s life intertwining with the protagonist of Grendel, Grendel. Beowulf is a hero in his kingdom who is set to defeat the monster who terrorizes the Danes and Geats, Grendel. In the novel Grendel by John Gardner, Grendel is searching for a place to belong in his world. He is feared by the humans because of his appearance, which drives him against mankind. Grendel sets off taking revenge against all humans and animals which leads Beowulf to hunting him down. Although each character sounds completely different, as a juvenile all creatures are equal. All creatures are born equal however, evil traits are gained when there is an absence of love and acceptance in one’s society. As creatures who have bad beginnings become less innocent and gain more knowledge, they can become evil.
Evilness can be acquired from one's past experiences, along with society’s treatment. For example, Victor Frankenstein's science experiment, the Monster gains monstrous traits because he is an outcast in his society which in result made him isolated. In the book he exclaims that he is “an unfortunate and deserted creature; he could look around and have no relation or friend upon earth”. He is attacked by others due to his beastly looks, which even he found unattractive. Others assume that he is a monster not because they knew him but because of his appearance. Although Frankenstein is not always evil he starts to morph monstrous traits when he was treated badly by humans and his inventor, Victor. He states that “he would revenge his injuries; if he couldn’t inspire love, he will cause fear, and chiefly towards his arch-enemy, because his creator”. After the monster’s realization, he set out on a mission to murder most of Victor’s friends and family, attempting to gain revenge for his suffering. Similarly, Grendel from the novel Grendel turns evil because he is essentially born evil as he is a offspring of Cain. The bible claims that all of Cain’s descendants were punished by God because of Cain’s sin. Even though Grendel is essentially “born evil” the main reason he became evil is because of his surroundings. Being a social outcast is the biggest reason Grendel obtained negative tendencies. Just like Frankenstein he is judged for his appearances and is never seen for who is truly is.
In contrast to both Grendel and Frankenstein, Beowulf from the novel Beowulf becomes evil from just society’s treatment. Beowulf has a high ego and humans stated that “nor have I seen a mightier man-at-arms on this earth than the one standing here: unless I am mistaken, he is truly noble." His motive for his good deeds are selfish, which leads him to constantly seek for glory and gifts. The King showers Beowulf with “the offspring of Healfdene offered to Beowulf A golden standard, as reward for the victory A banner embossed, burnie and helmet; fore the hero.” Unfortunately, Beowulf leads himself to his own demise from his desire to be the best.
Almost two centuries ago, Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein. In the novel, Victor Frankenstein creates a monster in result of his desire to defeat immortality. When the monster becomes more knowledgeable about his past and his inventor, his evil tendencies evolve. The monsters discovery of being hideous along with causing fear and devastation to others including his inventor caused a deep wound in his soul. Overall, the monster felt that he is a disappointment to Victor and in result this pushes the monster to becoming an outcast. The monster states that the “increase of knowledge only discovered to me more clearly what a wretched outcast I is. I cherished hope, it is true; but it vanished when I beheld my person reflected in water, or my shadow in the moonshine, even as that frail image and that inconstant shade”. However the monster isn’t the only character in the novel to acquire evilness through gaining knowledge. Victor himself also becomes isolated from society throughout the novel as he goes into deeper depth in his experiments. His isolation from society combined with his corrupt experiments led him to also have evil tendencies. He is distant from others because they viewed him as "spending his time on studying nonsense'". Victor acknowledges that he created evil but is unwilling to deal with it until it is too late and the monster has taken the lives of his loved ones. He claims that he is “seized by remorse and the sense of guilt, which hurried him away to a hell of intense tortures, such as no language can describe.“ Unfortunately for Victor he became so caught up in creating the Monster that he ends up appreciating his wife, Elizabeth more once she passes and has to come to the self realization about what he lost. Although Victor drove himself crazy through his experiments he slightly came back to his senses once he saw the level of destruction the monster is causing.
In the novel Beowulf the protagonist, Beowulf never harmed humans he only utilized his supernatural abilities to fight off other monsters who pose a threat to the Geats and the Danes. However, Beowulf only did these good deeds of protection the Geats and the Danes for his ego because he thrives off of being respected by the humans. Beowulf exclaims that “times were pleasant for the people until finally one, a fiend out of hell, began to work his evil in the world”. Beowulf shows the reader that Grendel isn't just the enemy, he is also showing how Grendel is evil a "fiend out of hell," and a descendant of Cain. As a descendant of Cain, Grendel is cursed before he can make any decisions of who he wants to be. In addition to Beowulf, the Dragon is also a good example of how evil is created. The Dragon is perfectly fine living by himself until “ a slave steals one of the Dragon’s gold cups and steals it to buy his freedom. The Dragon states that “some man or other had discovered his gold” which makes the “dragon is infuriated. Fire-impelled and flaming.” In result of the robbers the Dragon lost trust in everyone and started attacking anyone. Beowulf becomes angered with the dragon taking revenge on villagers so he decides to challenge the Dragon. Beowulf's greed for materialisms has him hoping that he can defeat the Dragon and claim all his riches. Unfortunately for him it leads to his demise as he gets bit and gets infected by the Dragon's venom. Readers can conclude that both the Dragon and Beowulf were created evil from their societies actions.
In the novel Grendel, the protagonist Grendel attacks the Geats and the Danes during the night and entices Beowulf to attack him.

For example, he “tore off sly old Athelgard's head” and “ snaps at the late-winter sun like the heads of baby water snakes, here I killed the old woman with the iron gray hair. She tasted of urine and spleen, which made me spit.” Grendel doesn't understand other creatures ways of life whether it be a goat or a human. One night he is watching humans dance around a fire and it made him “shake with rage. The red sun blinded him, it churned up his belly to nausea, and the heat thrown out of the bone-fire burnt his skin. He cringed, clawing flesh, and flee for home”. Grendel hated human beings because they have a disgusting way of turning tragedy into triumph. Somehow, humans are always able to adapt their philosophies to suit the occasion and make them look good. He feels that no matter how much destruction he does he still will not be able to compare to humans disgusting way of living. Although the novel suggests that Grendel is born evil due to “an ancient feud between two brothers which split all the world between darkness and light”, Grendel’s isolation from society and knowledge led him to become monstrous. Grendel shows that he thinks of himself as God and that he has the power to kill and destroy whatever he wants because he doesn't have the same morals as them. This gives him a thinking that it is alright to kill people and animals because he is

unstoppable.
Juvenile minds are fragile and can be morphed into whatever their surroundings allow. Unfortunately as people age, become less innocent, and gain knowledge about life the more dangerous they can become. Since the beginning of time in all species there have been outcasts. It is our duty as one of the most intelligent species on Earth that we learn from past mistakes of isolating minorities and that we learn to treat others the way we want to be treated even if they are different from us. If we don’t change our paths now history will keep repeating itself and tragedy will continue to strike.
Although all creatures are born equal, evil is created when there is an absence of love and acceptance in one’s society. As creatures who have bad beginnings become less innocent and gain more knowledge they can become evil. Literature throughout the years continues to contribute to modern understandings of different ways evil traits evolve and in most cases it is because the individual struggles in some way. We see human errors in the news everyday examples include teenage bullies, ninety seven percent of bullies admit to being bullied at some point in their lives. Bullying as a juvenile seems rather harmless but it is proven that children who bully in high school are seventy five percent more likely to commit a crime such as a school shooting. As a society in order to decrease the percent of casualties we need to work together and not isolate or bully individuals the way the Monster is in the Novel Frankenstein. If Victor had given the monster the nurturing he desires instead of isolating him because of his appearance perhaps the monster would not have gone and killed Victor's loved ones. If future generations can’t learn from the past and present generations then history will continue to repeat itself and as a society we will continue to isolate people.