Grendel Character Analysis Essay

Grendel remains in an inner conflict with his beliefs throughout the entire story. He is directed by two compelling desires in which play a role in introducing him to the divergences between good and evil. The Shaper convinces him with his meaningful music, whereas the dragon persuades him through his ideology of nihilism. Both the Shaper and the dragon play a part in influencing his views on the human society.

In chapter 11, Grendel feels some sort of feeling and sensation of somebody arriving which eventually happens to be Beowulf. Grendel watches as Beowulf and his men arrive and hears their intentions of their arrival while Beowulf is talking to the Danish coastguard. Later on Beowulf arrives to the meadhall, and Grendel listens to Beowulf’s plan on helping Hrothgar kill Grendel. As Grendel continues to eavesdrop, he learns more Beowulf’s characteristics and his stories that express him being a hero and a man of pure courage. Even though Hrothgar admires the great Geat, Unferth questions him and brings up an ancient story about Beowulf losing to a man named Breca in a swimming race. Calmly, Beowulf expresses that he

Up until the end of Chapter 7, Grendel’s actions are influenced by the dragon.  He believes nothing matters, there is no good or bad, and everybody eventually dies. The people of Heort know Grendel as a monster and a killer and he lives up to his reputation. He says he can crush all the men in meadhall in a single night. Grendel states, ”My enemies define themselves...on me” (91).  But Grendel starts to question himself and realizes he needs humans as much as they need him.  Grendel thinks, “What will we call the Hrothgar-Wrecker when Hrothgar has been wrecked?” (91). While Grendel is thinking about what life will be like without him and the men of the meadhall, Wealtheow’s beauty charms Grendel. He says, “She was beautiful, as innocent as

John Gardner gave Grendel emotions that the reader was able to see and hear through his own words. Grendel told tales of his childhood causing the reader to become invested in Grendel’s past giving the feeling of a connection. As in the way he describes instances of his imaginative play, “I use to play games when I was young…explored our far-flung underground world in an endless wargame of leaps onto nothing…quick whispered plottings with invisible friends” (Gardner 15). Consequently, this information gives the feeling of sympathy for Grendel, for his lonely childhood and circumstance. Gardner continues to play on the sympathies of the reader after Grendel’s first interaction with the Danes. As he is back in his cave he says to his mother, “the world is all a pointless

Grendel is mortified with his purpose in life and driven by emotions which makes him plead for his purpose. “I had determined at the time that the memory of these evils should die with me; but you have won me to alter my determination” (14). He has to face the purpose he was told to behold since he was born and lived in Dane Kingdom. Ever since that he roamed around killing, “But deer, like rabbits and bears and even men, can make, concerning my race, no delicate distinctions. That is their happiness: they see all life without observing it. They're buried like crabs in mud. Except men, of course” (8). When Grendel reference how he gets to experience this but somehow he doesn’t get his purpose.

Grendel's self image changes throughout the story because the effect that some characters that they take upon Grendel’s personality. Grendel’s mother has had an effect on him through the story, he's had a soft spot when it comes to his own mother. For example, “ Of all the creatures i knew, in those days only my mother really looked at me” (Gardner 17). Grendel is hideous, no one really pays attention to him. He's too ugly too look at, people get scared when they see him because of the way he looks. Although, he feels loved by his mother, that's always there for him when hes has no one to turn too. He says “ She loved me, in some mysterious sense I understood without her speaking it” (Gardner 17). She the only person that helps him when he's

In Grendel there is many different main themes in the story. They all share their own important part on how Grendel is view by the reader and the people in the story. Most of the main themes make you feel more sympathetic with Grendel; than you did in Beowulf.

Grendel takes his loss out on the people, by hurting them. His actions speak for his words, “two nights later I went back. I was addicted. The Shaper was singing the glorious deeds of the dead men, praising war. He sang how they'd fought me. It was all lies” (Gardner 54). It is obvious Grendel suffers the physical pain of being alone, and he gets addictive to hurting others due to his sadness. The more Grendel hears about people getting along he hates them and wants to fight them, because he can not have that. Grendel actions speak louder than his words when conveys his anger against the world. In the quote Grendel portrays this is what he does when he says, “It's all I have, my only weapon for smashing through these stiff coffin-walls of the world” (Gardner 123). Grendel’s only thing he has is his power to beat things up and kill things that are happy unlike him. He is an upset person who is jealous of people that are

In the epic poem Beowulf, the protagonist, Beowulf, faces three “monsters” at different times in his life. The poem begins with Grendel, a monster who attacks only in the dark of night, tormenting the kingdom of Hrothgar. The last two sections of the epic detail the conquering by Beowulf of Grendel’s mother and the dragon. The battle between the monsters and Beowulf represent the theme of good versus evil in the poem, as well as the fusion of pagan and Christian ideals in the changing Germanic society. Grendel’s mother’s actions directly juxtapose the role of a woman in this time period, and the greediness of the dragon with his treasure contrasts with the virtues of what would be considered a good king.

Comparing society in Beowulf and society in Frankenstein is like comparing a simple farm to the processing plant; futuristic and totally dissimilar. Although, the core ‘monsters’ are unchanged; grotesque, horrifyingly pagan-esque beings of the dark that strike terror in to the hearts of even the stoutest of fighters and the sanest of men. In the Christian and Medieval world, monsters were human beings with an unnatural birth or a birth deformity (Stitt, 2003). The term ‘monster’ derives from the Latin term ‘monere’ which means ‘To warn’ or ‘to advise’ and ‘monstrum’ which is ‘a sign or portent that disrupts the natural order as evidence of divine displeasure’. The aspect of ‘Divine Displeasure’ is attributed almost perfectly to Grendel, the monster of Beowulf and the terror of Hrothgar. Both authors paint a grotesque picture of their creations and how they both desire to destroy beauty; Aesthetic Iconoclasm, that is shared between the two figures. However, both authors present their monsters separate to one another in philosophy; with Grendel being a mindless savage and the Monster being more contemplative and questioning the nature of its own creation.

Throughout John Garder’s novel and the poem Beowolf the reader can tell that Grendel is a complex character that does not relate much to anyone else in the novel or the poem. Grendel in Garder’s novel is also different compared to the Grendel in the poem Beowolf by many different standards. Grendel in Garder’s novel is more a complicated character then the Grendel in Beowolf because the novel is set in first person point of view, the reader can have a deeper understanding of Grendel in the novel, and there is more modern philosophy in Grendel the novel.

Beowulf: A New Translation for Oral Delivery, translated by Dick Ringler, utilized the dark and the ominous to foreshadow or to portray the impending savagery of mankind. Darkness could be defined either by the absence of light or by the lack of intellectual enlightenment. The monstrous creatures are shrouded within the darkness or associate with the ominous. Throughout Beowulf the theme of violence and darkness are intertwined, which is manifest by correlating the darkness with the unknown through Grendel. The unknown generate fear among the mass through their inability to control and understand the existence of inhuman beings. Therefore, ultimately resulting in the use of violence and brutality to restore order and peace once again.

This time however, he is swept away by a person name the Shaper, who Grendel is ultimately scared of, because of the fact that the shaper is very good at changing the view of people very easily. During this same period, Grendel started to become more violent as well, first by attacking the humans. Grendel didn’t like the way Hrothgar lived and made the Mead Hall and in response, Grendel started to attack it at night. He killed anyone and everything that came into his sight, and even ate the humans. Grendel now became a real threat to the humans, which inevitably changed his status from sinister to pure

Though their stories are different, intertwined in their own ways, their stories, when stripped to their underlying strands of text, are quite similar. Two separate beings, forged by the hands of a creator long gone, find themselves in a cold, cruel, world where their differences cast them out. They are neglected by their creators and rejected at every turn by all they come across. Without guidance and without discipline, these beings are made to grow in a world they do not know, to fend for themselves. The beings, Grendel and the Monster of Frankenstein, charge their way through a world that despises them, searching for companionship, for acceptance, and for their self-worth. Try as they might, they cannot succeed and their sorrow turns to

This reinforces the idea that Grendel’s mother is also a monster, since put in the same position as the prior one. The two monsters, Grendel and his mother are also associated with the night as a time for action. This reinforces their animal-like behavior, and the monstrosity of their actions because they are not giving fair warning to the humans. The monstrosity of Grendel is also seen through his savagery when killing the men. He is carnivorous and feeds on human flesh. He does not seem to have a limit when killing “(…) greedy and grim, he grabbed thirty men from their resting places and rushed to his lair, flushed up and inflamed from the raid, blundering back the butchered corpses” (ll.120-125). Finally, Grendel does not seem to have emotions about those he kills, he is "insensible to pain and human sorrow” (ll.119-120) and he never showed remorse”(l.137). By his beast-like physical appearance, as well as his gruesome actions and his lack of emotions, the monstrosity of Grendel becomes evident throughout the