It is shown in the epic poem Beowulf, that the evil of exclusion can result in complete ruin and disaster. After being ostracized by the townspeople, Grendel seeks revenge by killing the people of Heorot every night for twelve years. Society tends to judge and ostracize people based on their appearance and heritage. The poem reveals through Grendel’s revenge that the human inclination to exclude people hurts not only the ones being excluded, but also those who exclude them.
Grendel does not understand and is deeply hurt by his exclusion from the people of Heorot. In the poem, Grendel is referred to as a demon and a “fiend out of hell” (Heaney 100). He is also thought to be “malignant by nature,” and one of the creatures that “the creator ha[s] outlawed as [an outcast]” because he descends from Cain, the first person to commit murder (137, 106 / 107). These descriptions show the people’s feelings towards Grendel; they believe him to be a monster. However, Grendel is never told why all of the people treat him differently. This confusion and uncertainty as to why the people hate him provokes a lot of sadness, and eventually, rage in Grendel. People
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Grendel is confused for a long time as to why the people ostracize him, and eventually he turns to violence to cope with it and to feel better. The chaos when Grendel arrives is described as: “a panic after dark, people endured raids in the night, riven by terror” in which “all were endangered” (192 / 193, 159). The mere reason for Grendel’s raids on the people of Heorot is because they ostracize him and make him feel like an outcast. Grendel’s revenge on the townspeople shows that exclusion never does anyone good, it can only harm people. This demonstrates the consequences of society’s inclination to judge people, and how it can hurt the one judging more than the one being
...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.
I am Grendel who once lived at the Danish neighborhood ruled by the righteous king Hrothgar who was just and fair in his kingship. I came from Cain’s ancestry. According to the bible, Cain is popularly known by Christians as the first person to commit murder. I was in isolation from humans because I came from a cursed lineage. I could not change the perception Hereots had about me as an evil monster. I did not prefer to be from Cain’s bloodline. People thought I was evil because I came from Cain’s lineage and as a result, they deemed me an outcast and did not want to associate with me.
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
Soon afterwards however, Grendel meets man. While they first mistake him as being a part of the tree, they immediately give a violence to him when they assume that “the spirit’s angry” and that “it always has been… [and] that’s why it’s killing the tree” (Gardner 26). In his very first instance with man, they tell Grendel that he is inherently angry and murderous. This starts the evolution in Grendel to feed the violence within him. Before he interacts with man, he knew his place in the world and he would never kill without a justified purpose. Even after observing man for some time, Grendel “was sickened, if only by the waste of” (Gardner 36) the countless animals and men that they would kill and leave to rot. Grendel still has a sense of worth to the creature’s life around him, if only if it is to keep a sustainable food source. After however, he begins to become infatuated with man’s ways and their views. Scott Kenemore states, “Grendel's encounters with humans … present him with a colorful variety of worldviews and ideologies”.
Grendel watches the humans commit unnecessary acts of violence, and he uses them to justify his war with Hrothgar. He watches human tribes fight with one another, and is appalled by how they waste livestock, burn villages, and slaughter people. He finds himself “sickened, if only by the waste of it.” (Gardner, 36) Grendel doesn’t understand why the humans kill unnecessarily, but he is viewed as a monster when he kills for his own survival. Hrothgar becomes the most powerful king in the land, and Grendel has watched him waste and sin more than anyone else. Grendel sees himself as better than Hrothgar, which justifies attacking him for punishment. A similarly influential event occurs when Grendel steps on a dead man one night while listening to the Shaper sing. The Shaper says a
Grendel is born a neutral being, perhaps even good, but nevertheless, without hate. The transition which he undergoes to become evil is due to misunderstandings between himself and humans and also meeting with a dragon who is questionably evil. As a young “monster”, Grendel knew nothing other than the cave he lived in and his mother who could not speak any distinguishable language. He was a playful creature who seemed to be like a “bla...
Grendel then began to show even more human traits than before. He became envious their happiness and starting becoming the cruel one. He started torturing and killing humans quite frequently. He starts to enjoy being cruel during his first raid. “I felt a strange, unearthly joy. It was as if I’d made some incredible discover, like my discovery long ago of the moonlit world beyond the mere. I was transformed” (79). This kind of cruelness came easily to Grendel, not unlike the humans had watched for so long. Grendel slowly becomes more and less human. He starts to lose his humanity but shows off just how human he is. Grendel becomes what he hates the most, cruel and pointless. Though Grendel enjoys the human’s suffering, it only makes him feel worse. “I feel my anger coming back, building up like invisible fire, and at last, when my soul can no longer resist, I go up - as mechanical as anything else - fists clenched against my lack of will, my belly growling, mindless as wind, for blood” (Gardner 9). Grendel falls into the trap and start to enjoy the suffering of others. While this isn’t a problem at first, Grendel eventually realizes just how pointless this is. How pointless everything is. Grendel sees that the world doesn’t do anything for anyone. He won’t be given anything and he probably won’t ever be happy. As a result, Grendel learns to live with this hatred and continues
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.
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
While the classic battle between good and evil forces is a major theme of the medieval epic Beowulf, one may question whether these good and evil forces are as black and white as they appear. Scholars such as Herbert G. Wright claim that “the dragon, like the giant Grendel, is an enemy of mankind, and the audience of Beowulf can have entertained no sympathy for either the one or the other” (Wright, 4). However, other scholars such as Andy Orchard disagree with this claim, and believe that there is “something deeply human about the ‘monsters’” (Orchard, 29). While Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon are indeed portrayed as evil and violent foes, there are parts within Beowulf that can also lead a reader to believe that the “monsters” may not be so monstrous after all. In fact, the author of Beowulf represents the “monsters” within the poem with a degree of moral ambivalence. This ambivalence ultimately evokes traces of sympathy in the reader for the plight of these “monster” figures, and blurs the fine line between good and evil within the poem.
Grendel is a creature of nightmare archetype, a desecrate form of human, thus the humans do not understand his ways nor his reasoning to kill. Grendel goes to the mead hall every year killing sleeping soldiers in gruesome ways, because of the hate he possesses toward Hrothgar and his people. The Danes, who are already afraid of death, fear Grendel because he himself is bringing the deaths of many with
Through Grendel's own hatred and anger, he brings his own downfall. The "sin-stained demon" has his roots in the vile creature Cain. Since Grendel is spawned from Cain, he can never feel the love of God or of people: ". . . God, / Whose love Grendel could not know." (84-85). It is because of this, that Grendel hates every mortal being he lays his eyes upon. Hatred leads to anger, constant anger, ". . . bearing God's hatred, / Grendel came, hoping to kill" (393-394). Fear is Grendel's other major flaw, "His mind was flooded with fear . . ." (435). Through his hatred and fear, Grendel seals his own fate.
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.
It's after the making of Heorot that is threatened by "a powerful demon, a prowler through the dark, / nursed a hard grievance. (86-87) The use of imagery emphasizes the threat that Grendel imposes, with this, the reader is able to perceive that Heorot is outstanding in this society as its "meant to be a wonder of the world forever" (70) and when a "demon" who is "a prowler through the dark" (86) it emphasizes the differences between Grendel and Heorot. Heaney's translation of Grendel's introduction into the poem implies that Grendel is the other, suggesting evil. This is evident were Grendel "dwelt for a time/ in misery among the banished monsters." (105-106) The notion of 'the other' is the alienation of a person. The utilize of allusion to Christian and Pagan explains why Grendel is viewed as the other in terms of nature and religion. The monsters are outcasts because of Cain's clan whom God "had outlawed" because "for the killing of Abel the Eternal Lord." (107-108) Due to the killing, it reveals the seven deadly sins are
Present in this poem are certain forms of evil. The greatest of these is the descendent of Cain’s evil against his brother Abel. After Cain killed Abel God punished him by exiling him from the kingdom of God. From Cain’s soul came evil monsters, one in particular, Grendel. He was a demon; a fiend who haunted the moors, the wild marshes and made his home in “hell” (actually earth). King Hrothgar finished a great mead hall for his warriors to relax and reside in when away from war. Grendel, amused by the sound of drunkenness coming from the hall, kills all who reside there. This punishment and evil went on for twelve years. The people turned to the worship of pagan Gods, hoping they would take the demon back to the pits from whence it derived.