A Character Analysis: Grendel's Illuminating Incident

Jonathan Han

Ms. Marchand

AP Literature & Composition

2 May 2023

Grendel’s Illuminating Incident

Grendel’s very first encounter with the human world can be seen and defined as an illuminating incident for the novel. Grendel originally hopes to befriend the humans, as he is filled with joy at the human’s proposition of feeding him pigs when they find him hopelessly lying down in the forest and in need. However, the human’s misinterpret Grendel’s efforts at communication as signs of anger and irritation which leads to the human’s attacking and wounding Grendel. These acts of hostility and violence towards Grendel lead to him feeling lonely and isolated as he proclaims that “‘the world resists me and I resist the world’ . . .’ The

When Grendel hears the Shaper’s harp and stories, he is so overcome with emotion that he enters the mead hall and “sank to [his] knees, crying, ’Friend! Friend!’” (Gardner, 52). The Shaper was singing of the divide between darkness and light within the word, and Grendel associates himself with the darkness of the world and the rest of the world with the light of the world. Because of this, Grendel feels intense desolation as he feels separated from the human world. Grendel tries to close this separation by entering the mead hall and attempting to communicate to the humans that he wishes to be their friend. His desperation is shown by him sinking to his knees, indicating that he is begging for the humans to show kindness and affection towards him. This desperation demonstrates Grendel’s intense longing for connection and friendship with the humans, which is not returned by the humans as they respond by attacking and chasing him away back into the forest. Grendel later attempts to reestablish contact with the humans, but this time in secret. Grendel approaches the blind priest Ork in the middle of the night and “declares that “‘It is I’ . . . ‘The Destroyer,’” (Gardner, 130). Because Ork is blind and

Grendel ultimately ends up resorting to intense and gruesome acts of violence after his failed attempts of friendship with the humans. When Grendel launches his first raid on the humans, he is delighted as he feels “as if I’d made some incredible discovery, like my discovery long ago of the moonlit world beyond the mere,” (Gardner, 80). Grendel is delighted at his murderous actions upon the humans, so delighted that he compares it to his discovery of the human world itself. Grendel’s thrill of killing is derived from his failed attempts at establishing any meaningful connections with the humans, so he redirects his frustration and anger towards killing them instead. He is so aggrieved by the human’s lack of fondness towards him that he himself begins to reciprocate the same lack of fondness towards them. However, unlike the humans, Grendel acts on these feelings by choosing to raid and attack them. The fact that Grendel is ecstatic after his first raid also indicates he is more than content with his bloodthirsty actions and lacks any remorse for the humans at all. In one of Grendel’s multiple encounters and raids on the humans, he brutally chooses to “seize up a sleeping man, tear at him hungrily, bite through his bone-locks and suck hot, slippery blood,” (Gardner, 168). Grendel’s extreme