A Meaningless World 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. In Grendel, each character tells of his or her view on philosophy, theory, and life. Grendel is a monster who is not sure where he fits in life. “Grendel is not just searching for one philosophy; he is just searching for the best way to live in the world” (Simmers 183). He goes to extreme limits to discover his character. Grendel shows a self-centered approach to the world as he exclaims, "The world resist me and I resist the world" (Gardner 28). Nothing in the world is going right for Grendel. Grendel feels resistant to life. Therefore, if society does not need him, then he does not need the society. The Dragon also views the world negatively, as a result of his praiseworthy perception of himself. Out of all the characters in the novel, the Dragon is one of Grendel's closest companions greatly impacting Grendel. The Dragon’s destructive philosophy views the world as meaningless. The dragon shares his selfish approach of life with Grendel telling him, "My advice to you, my violent friend, is to seek out gold and sit on it" (Gardner 74). The dragon portrays a selfish act because all he cares about is hoarding his treasure. The Dragon pushes Grendel to focus on the more tangible things in life such as money. Grendel's negative view of the world stems from the Dragon due to their close compani... ... middle of paper ... ... being a hero. Unferth comes in contact with Grendel as he says “You think I came without a hope of winning- came to escape indignity by suicide!” (Gardner 89). Grendel does not believe Unferth is a heroic figure because he believes Unferth is not facing his fears. Unferth believes highly in his heroic ideals; however, Grendel crushes Unferth’s beliefs as he denies him to die a hero. Grendel feels like an outcast in the society he lives in causing him to have a hard time finding himself in the chaotic world. He struggles because the lack of communication between he and his mother. The lack of communication puts Grendel in a state of depression. However, Grendel comes in contact with several characters with different philosophical beliefs, which allows his to see his significance in life. Their views on life influence Grendel to see the world in a meaningful way.
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
Grendel varies from the simple, childish tone of "'Why can't I have someone to talk to? The Shaper has people to talk to'" (53) to the dense philosophical metaphors and complex diction of Grendel's conversation with the dragon. Gardener gives Grendel a purposefully guileless voice to illustrate both the monster's feelings of lost youth as well as his progression into a more sentient being.
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.
It bears mentioning that Grendel was strongly influenced by the idea of nihilism, which means that he believed that nothing has meaning and everything in life was an accident. “Nevertheless, it was
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.
After taking a closer look, he can be considered an anti-hero because of his noble and also realistic traits. Grendel expresses some of his humanlike qualities when he says, “Why can’t I have anyone to talk to?” (Gardner, 53). Grendel is lonely because no one can understand him. His mother does not speak his language and although he understands English, the villagers do not know what he is saying. Additionally, Grendel is an outcast because of his appearance. “The doe in the clearing goes stiff at the sight of my horridness” (7). He is misunderstood because he is a beast. Grendel looks so terrifying that it is emotionally challenging for him to always have that awful first impression with others. Furthermore, when Grendel would hear the harper’s beautiful music he would often begin to daydream joyful thoughts. When his mind would wander, he would be quickly pulled back into darkness because evil was his reality (54). Grendel lives a difficult life because he is constantly reminded that his only choice is to live a life of evil. Because he has such relatable feelings of being lonely and an outcast, this causes the reader to consider his point of view as an
“I wanted it, yes! Even if I must be the outcast,” (55). This is after Grendel has listened to the Shaper’s story about Cain and Abel. Grendel learns that he is the cursed descendant of Cain and is forever destined to be a monster. At first, he didn’t want to believe that is was true but after a while, he gladly accepted the role thus creating his own meaning. “I was Grendel, Ruiner of Meadhalls, Wrecker of Kings!” (80). This is when Grendel is experiencing his newfound invincibility to the humans and their weapons and he is tormenting them. After he visits the dragon in Chapter 5, Grendel has a renewed sense of confidence of who he is - which is a monster. In Chapter 6, he continues to terrorize the Danes and pursuing his monstrous desires. Grendel is acting upon his role as the monster because after speaking to the dragon, he realizes that nothing can stop
One of the prevalent themes John Gardner mentions in the story of Grendel is that perceptions of reality between people are different. Gardner reveals to readers throughout the novel that words, events, experiences, and beliefs forge character’s realities. In Grendel perception of reality greatly affects people’s actions, their viewpoints towards life, and decisions. For example, Grendel’s perception of reality is that the world is solely mechanical and is created with his words.
In short, the dragon is saying, "You are evil and they are good, but the only thing that makes them good is you." In this statement, it is apparent that good and evil have inseparable, yet undefinable boundaries, and are actually two in the same. Grendel's evilness motivates the fearful people to work, to strive, to think, and to overcome their problems. In this, however indirect or abstract it may seem, Grendel is actually producing good. Amazingly, he manages to be both evil and good at the same time.
... by murdering Grendel, this action is expressed as moral. This idea is reconfirmed when the Dragon explains to Grendel how he is “the brute existent by which they learn to define themselves” in reference to men (Gardner 73). This further suggests that society requires evil to present them an explanation for their life and actions.
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
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
...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.