The Antagonist In 'Grendel' By John Gardner

Antagonists are characters that are represented as evil, bad, and the opposite of morality. They commit crimes and their story is usually not told. In the book by John Gardner, the antagonist’s story is told from beginning to end, giving the reader a chance to see the underlying true story of the villain and how it can impact the reader’s ability to sympathize for the villain.

When the word evil comes to mind, the word murder comes to mind as well. Grendel has committed murder dozens of times and has shown no remorse for his actions. Without the context of Grendel’s perspective, Grendel presents himself as purely evil, with no part of him being remotely good or innocent. Moreover, the book is a first person narrative that gives Grendel’s

The flashbacks present memories and stories of Grendel’s life and the way he grew up. He is envious of humans because he grow up alone, with no love or friendship, even from his own mother. The Danes society experienced this while he had to sit by and stare as the ugly monster that no one wanted to be around. Another example is how Grendel deals with an existential crisis, always questioning his and human’s existence and morality. In one of the chapters, a dragon even states to him that instead of caring too much about useless things he should just live life searching for peace and wealth; thus showing how Grendel, as monstrous as he is, had anxiety and insecurities. This does not excuse his actions, but this does give the reader a chance to sympathize and understand why he committed such crimes and why he envies everything around him. Grendel chooses to be bad when he can be good, just like how most humans in real life, tend to choose to be mean and malicious because of how easier it is to be mean rather than heal from past trauma and become a better person from growing from past experiences. Grendel is a character almost any reader can relate