The Better Monster Is Grendel just a monster, or is there more to him than what one's mind portrays? Grendel is a protagonist and definitely the best one. There are more reasons being said behind the actions he makes, detail from his past, more emotions are brought out and thoughts being shown in ways that makes one really understand him. The story shows Grendel encountering a loop hole of major emotions and thoughts towards himself and the things happening around him Grendel’s emotions and thoughts are being shown throughout the whole story, towards himself and others in several situations. Grendel doesn't deny he can be pointless and ridiculous at times. He seems almost depressed and two sided, yet smart for a monster; “Pointless, ridiculous monster crouched in the shadows…”(Gardner 6). Grendel is mindless and immature, but mature at the same time. Grendel feels like he is alone and ugly, he feels as if no one understands him, no one takes the time to get to …show more content…
He killed dozens of people throughout the night in the mead halls. They would have parties in a mead hall which bugged him as he attempted to sleep and he eventually grew tired of them being pest and took things into his own hands. These humans annoyed him, didn't care for him, they wanted to kill him so what was the big deal about him being a killer if they were just as bad and even worse? This is his justification for his awful actions but what was theirs? He looked hideous and they thought he was a monster; “And suddenly I knew I was dealing with no dull mechanical bull.”(Gardner 27). Grendel justified his actions even if those justifications couldn't be understood but thats the problem; humans wouldn't try to understand him, they judged and it drove him mad. Grendel couldn't deal with these foul creatures any longer and handled things in his own
“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
He derives a satisfaction from his interactions with the Danes that he cannot get from interactions with any other creature. violent outbursts and antagonistic relationship with humans can be seen as the result of a lonely creature’s misunderstood attempts to reach out and communicate with someone else. Grendel was amused by the humans, observing of their violence that (ch 3) He was sickened by the waste of their wars, all the animals killed but not eaten. Ashamed of his monstrousness, what better that to be like the thing you envy the most.
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, 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 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
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.
The fact having Grendel as the main character makes it even more interesting because is almost kind of unknown. I describe him as the unknown because you really do not know what he really is. At one point he is kind of confusing because he is both characterized as a human and a monster who kills and eats humans. How awful is that? Grendel can be scary but at the same time who feel sort of sorry for him when he describes being lonely with the desire of companion. For example, I felt kind of sorry for him because he is being alone in situations that seem kind of tough. But in the other hand Grendel eats humans and that is kind of scary. Although Grendel would eat humans, I do not blame him because that is what he was thought to do in a way. It’s like following the same step you are thought to do. That is Grendel’s case. He was not really thought it was wrong to do so, he was in a way confused and all he wanted to do was to understand his place in a potentially meaningless
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
In both stories, Grendel became the murderous being that the humans made him out to be. When he first attacked the hall after his confusion over the actions of humans on behalf of Wealthow being forced to go with the tribe, he finally snapped saying, “I would kill her and teach them reality. Grendel the truth teacher, phantasm-tester! It was what I would be from this day forward—my commitments, my character as long as I lived—and nothing could change my mind”(Gardner 110). Once Grendel lost faith in humans, he was forced to kill as he was disappointed and disgusted by their actions. With the lies of the Shaper, their murderous ways, and flawed beliefs, he has turned too far away from goodness and believed the only way to fulfill his life is to kill the ones who confuse him. This showed the complexity of Grendel as in Beowulf, the attacks by Grendel were seen as pointless acts of violence and evil when in reality the humans had pushed him to this point. One main reason for his violence was his constant fight with his belief of human religion. He was constantly questioning why God made him an evil creature and tested humans and their belief through violence. He framed himself as a god and wanted to feel the same power when calling himself the truth-teacher and phantasm-tester in order to make sense of the lies of humans and tried to understand his own purpose and situation. By the end of the novel Grendel had become completely untrusting of the people and finally decided that his role in life is instead to kill and torment the Scyldings because as he became more existential, he realized that his actions would not have an effect on the outcome of the universe, so filled the void in his life with rage on the people of the Hrothgar’s meadhall. As he goes to fight Beowulf and the Geats in the hall, he seemed to have accepted his role as, “[Grendel] seized up a sleeping man, tear at him hungrily, bite through his
Contrary to the epic poem, Grendel does not have this vicious and evil appearance; he simply resembles a large feral man, and unlike in the poem Grendel is not killing for his own recreation, he is killing to avenge his father. When a viewer of the film Beowulf and Grendel is introduced to Grendel they do not think of him as some evil monster that is a descendent of Cain, but rather a primitive man simply trying to avenge the death of his father. Hollywood decided not to make Grendel a senseless killing machine, but rather something more of a man seeking revenge for the murder of his
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
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
Grendel, a large ugly beast, plays the antagonist in the legendary story, Beowulf. His actions towards the townspeople are directly affected by his appearance. The size of Grendel is almost unimaginable. When Grendel dies, four men must carry his skull because of his extremely large build. During one of his raids on the mead-hall, Herot, Grendel picks up thirty men at once. The story portrays Grendel as being larger than life in order to show the supernatural aspects of the poem. The whole village considers Grendel to be a savage. He lives under a swampy lake in a cave. The villagers have little interaction with Grendel because he lives in an isolation in the swamp. Rarely do the townspeople see Grendel which leads them to
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 story Beowulf by Seamus Heaney, Grendel is a slimy green swamp monster that has human emotions but is portrayed as a hideous beast and an outcast of the Anglo-Saxon society.