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Grendel perspective of beowulf
Monsters and the other beowulf
Grendel perspective of beowulf
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Grendel is a very complicated character some people believe that he is a monster and others believe that he is a human with a couple of personal problems. All of these confusions are because Grendel as a character changes so much throughout the story . For example, he kills humans to eat them, however he feels bad after he is done, but can not stop himself when he is doing it. To start of Grendel's mother affects grendel's change a lot in this story mainly because she raised him. As a result, she raised him just how she wanted and made him just how she wants him even if he didn't want to be that person. Since she made him how she wanted he doesn't appreciate her he feels “she was pitiful, foul, her smile a jogged white tear in the” ( grendel 50) Grendel is describing his mother . …show more content…
He feels that she is worthless he looks down to her pitiful and waste is what she is.
He can now do whatever he wants with her to pay back with everything she has done to him. This has affected the way Grendel thinks of his mother in many different aspects. Although it seems that Grendel dislikes his mother he once had a beautiful relationship with her. Grendel is just disgusted with his mother and doesn't want anything to do with her. its sad to think of it from the mother's point of view because she cannot talk and communicate with him and tell him how she's feeling . Grendel doesn't have any patience to deal with her and understand
her. Even though his mother did not understand him, he however had several people that did understand him in the other hand. One of them was the dragon he actually listens to him and made Grendel think in different ways with their daily talks. “They only think. No total system, merely schemes with a vague family resemblance, no more identity than bridges and say spider webs. But they rush across chasms on spider webs,and sometimes they made it, and that they settle that ! i could tell you a thousand tiresome stories of their absurdity.”(grendel 64 ) This shows how the dragon doesn't like how the humans think and their belief. The puff the magic dragon feels that the humans are somewhat ignorant of their knowledge because he has the ability to see the future, and present and so he knows more than them,. This causes Grendel to change his thought process about the human morals and values. He begins to take on characteristics of the dragon. Lastly a character that influes Grendel also is Unferth. Resulting this . “And the awful inconvenience.” i said “ always having to stand erect, always having to find novel language! Must wear it on a man “ Grendel talks down to Unferth, the hero in the meadhall . Unferth, who bravely stands up to Grendel, believes he can defeat him. Grendel finds this to be entertaining and mocks him constantly as Unferth circles him from thirty feet away. After that, Grendel proceeds to bombard Unferth with apples.
For ages, humanity has always told stories of the classic struggle between man and monster. The battle between Beowulf and Grendel is a prime example of this archetype, but is Grendel only purely a monster? In his article “Gardner’s Grendel and Beowulf: Humanizing the Monster”, Jay Ruud makes a point that Grendel is a hybridization of both monster and man, particularly in John Gardner’s novel Grendel. In the poem Beowulf, Grendel is depicted as a purely evil monster who terrorizes Hrothgar and his people, but the novel provides a more humanistic backstory to the fiend. Throughout the novel, Grendel tells of his internal struggle between his thoughts of filling the role of the monster versus attempting to make amends with the humans. This conflict
Perhaps he would actually like to live a normal life with the humans. “Some evil inside myself pushed out into the trees, I knew what I knew, the mindless, mechanical bruteness of things, and when the harper’s lure drew my mind away from hopeful dreams, the dark of what was and always was reached out and snatched my feet.” (Gardner 54) It seems as though Grendel would like to change things if he could, but some outside force will not allow it. Even if this is true, Grendel is still inherently evil. Despite whatever dreams he may have. The reader simply cannot ignore the fact that he still does evil deeds with evil intentions. He is seemingly unable to feel love, or at least disinterested in it. He enjoys torturing and killing humans and rarely shows mercy. Due to these facts, it is impossible to say Grendel is a hero in this
Grendel had changed drastically from all the way from the start of the book all the way to the end of the book. Grendel began very immature almost child like from the beginning of the book. The way he talked and viewed all things such as plants and animals was very child like. The difference between him and a human would be his monstrous height and strength. Grendel’s first major change was when Grendel heard the words of the Shaper. Grendel would evaluate the Shaper as he would tell his stories in the mead hall, he would do so for many nights. Many times though Grendel would not agree with the stories the Shaper would say and tell to the others, sometimes he felt as if the Shaper was trying to manipulate the others around him. This would anger
The book Grendel, written by John Gardner, and the poem Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney, both have very distinct opinions on what role each character plays. The translator of Beowulf and the writer of Grendel follow the idea that everyone has a story. A story is the writer’s perspective on a character’s personality, the way people in the story see and treat the character, and the way it ties the ideas together. There are many examples in these two writings of this concept, but the main instances connect with the lives of Grendel, Beowulf, and Unferth.
Since the beginning Grendel is very confused with why he can’t talk or get along with people or animals. He starts off wandering through the forest when he gets caught in a tree. Grendel cries out for his mom but is disappointed to be without her arrival. He later encounters a bull that nearly kills him but instead ends up wounded. Grendel could not communicate with the animal and out of this encounter he perceives life in a nihilistic way. After waking up from his sleep humans wearing armor surround him and believed him to be a tree spirit. Grendal tried to speak to them but again he had failed to do so. Finding out he wasn’t, they became hostile but fled after hearing Grendel's mother.
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
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
He does not act like the blood hungry beast he is seen as in Beowulf. In
Even if, at first, Grendel seems almost kind, and the reader is pleased with his character, he soon becomes more and more evil, and his actions bring about a feeling of uneasiness, to say the least. Before, the killing of people for no apparent reason disgusted Grendel. However, when he brings Unferth home, he kills the two guards "so I wouldn't be misunderstood" (90). Later, in probably the most disturbing scene of the book, we see how meaningless killing has become to Grendel. He brutally attacks the queen and is determined to kill her.
Grendel’s first impression was to ask his mother about the meaning of life and what was his part in it. After Grendel’s first encounter with man, he immediately told his mother what had happened. “I tried to tell her all that happened, all that I had come to understand: the meaningless objectiveness of the world…She only stared troubled at my noise”. However, she had lost her ability to speak years ago and only responded with gibberish, not once giving him an answer. Instead when he said, “the world is all pointless accident…I exist nothing else”, she hurried over and seized him pulling him close to her. Realizing that his mother probably doesn’t understand, Grendel was forced to turn to some one else for the answers he needed, so he turned to man.
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.
Despite her limited involvement in his life, Grendel’s mother indubitably impacts her son. Because she cannot speak to Grendel in a way that he understands, Grendel becomes very lonely. He wonders, “Why can’t I have someone to talk to” (Gardner 53)? This lack of communication causes Grendel to feel very distant from his own mother. As a result of his increased solitary time, he begins to isolate himself and becomes alienated. Grendel cries, “I shake my head, muttering darkly on shaded paths, holding conversation with the only friend and comfort this world affords, my shadow” (Gardner 8). Rather than looking to his mother for advice, the outcast is forced to rely on himself, thus, making him more independent and free to do as he pleases. One time Grendel asked his mother, “Why are we here” (Gardner 11)? His mother’s blank response enabled him to formulate his own austere answer to the question, resulting in his adverse and destructive ways of
This illustrates an inner problem of a suppressed evil side to society. Beowulf and other men that battled Grendel had trouble defeating him with weapons. They all had to tussle with Grendel and everyone except for Beowulf failed at this challenge. Symbolically meaning that that evil side to society will always be there no matter how much people try to fight it. Grendel also plays the role of envy. Imagine him being an outcast with no joy in his life hearing the mead-hall at night and all the laughter, he must have felt envious and longed to be a part of that world. Another symbolic role is revenge. Upon learning that Beowulf has hurt her only child Grendel’s mother becomes angered and seeks revenge. Her and Beowulf battle it out and the mother loses the battle. Relating this back to Cain, Grendel’s mother wants to kill Beowulf and get revenge and just like Cain, she faced her punishment, for her it was
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.
In the poem “Beowulf,” Grendel’s mother, a monstrous creature, is one of the three antagonists Beowulf, the main character, fights against. The battle against Grendel’s mother appears to be the strangest of the three battles. The main reason for its strangeness is that Grendel’s mother is the mother of the monster Grendel, who was killed by Beowulf in the first battle. Another reason for its strangeness is that Grendel’s mother is the only female-type creature. An alternative reason for this strangeness in the battle is due to the fact that Grendel’s mother is not a true monster, aside from her physical form. Through the explanation of kinship, the understanding of the missing words from the original text, and the comparison of Grendel’s mother to other mothers in the poem, specifically Welthow and Hildeburh, it can be established that the intentions of Grendel’s mother are not monstrous even though she has the appearance of a monster.