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Beowulf As An Evil Character In 'Grendel' By John Gardner

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Throughout the novel Grendel by John Gardner, Grendel comes across as a ruthless monster who takes pride in murdering others. His actions give the impression that he is an evil figure, but in hindsight he is not as evil as he appears to be. Grendel is not evil as he attempts to make peace and his actions are no different from the actions of others. Furthermore, the author makes the readers feel sympathy for Grendel because Grendel lives a lonely life and is consistently treated poorly. His lack of social relations and his past encounters lead him to resent others. This resentment motivates Grendel to commit some heinous crimes, however this does not make him an evil character. Early in the novel, Grendel listens to the Shaper and says “he …show more content…

However, the characters that are considered to be good, commit some harsh acts as well or have the intentions of doing so. In the later part of the novel, it states “They stab a calf and burn it, the corpse still jerking” (120). This was describing the actions of the Gods. The Gods are considered to be good people, however they are murdering innocent animals. Their actions are not so different from the actions of Grendel. Which leaves the audience to question, why Grendel is considered evil, but the Gods are not. Early in the novel, Grendel stated “Darts like hot coals went through my legs and arms” (27). When Grendel was stuck in a tree, the humans started attacking him with darts and arrows. Grendel did not do anything to them, meaning he was innocent. Although the humans did not kill him, those were their clear intentions. These humans are the ones that view Grendel as an evil creature, however they were committing the terrible acts that they were shunning Grendel for committing. If all characters are committing similar acts, it is not appropriate to call one character evil and the others good. There is no way to define what is evil and what is not, if the actions of everyone are the same. This proves that Grendel is not evil, as his actions are no different from the actions of those that are considered to be

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674 Words | 3 Pages

He did this because Grendel was influenced by the Dragon, reason being simply that ‘he can’, he had the choice to and simply chose to; And he followed this word thoughtlessly. Hannah Arendt, a political theorist, was sent to the trial of a Nazi soldier, after WWII, that was being tried for overseeing the killing of many Jewish people, and she expected to find this awful demon of a human being that would allow such a thing to happen, but she was surprised to see that the former Nazi soldier looked just like a normal person. She wondered what would posses such a normal looking person to do such horrible tasks, and she concluded that “it was thoughtlessness,” (Hannah Arendt) that he did what ever his chief officers or the Nazi party told him to do and never stopped to wonder what the consequences of his actions were, and “such remoteness can wreak havoc more than all the evil instinct taken together.” (Hannah Arendt) This shows how Grendel thoughtlessly did his actions due to influence of the dragon, without realizing what he was doing to the humans was really awful.

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336 Words | 2 Pages

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.

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535 Words | 3 Pages

For instance, in chapter four, Grendel talks about how “innocently” the humans are enjoying themselves at a party, when he finds a dead man’s body throat that had been slit and his clothes had been stolen. The humans may think that everybody around them, which are humans, are on the good side of the world, whereas humans can commit the same violence crime. The reason they refer to Grendel as a monster in their land is to compare themselves to Grendel and appearing to be more civilized, having morals, and blameless for their actions compared to

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633 Words | 3 Pages

Grendel commits heinous acts against people who have done nothing wrong. Grendel shows how evil he is when he “snatched at the first Geat he came to, ripped him apart, cut his body to bits with powerful jaws” and he even “drank the blood from his veins” (Beers II. 262-265). Beowulf also fights two other evil creatures. He goes into battle against Grendel’s mother. She is also very evil, seeing as she raised Grendel.

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321 Words | 2 Pages

At the end of Chapter 12, Grendel’s last words were “Poor Grendel’s had an accident … So may you all.” (Gardner 174). Such words are meant as a curse to affect mankind. To start off, Grendel’s relationship with humans are not great.

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703 Words | 3 Pages

His violent nature grew so much that he became crazy with the need to kill the humans. Therefore, Grendel’s actions reflect that his existence has drifted away from its partially civilized nature and into the barbaric. Grendel had no choice in becoming more beast than human because external forces constantly push him towards that fate. Whether it was the dragon, the actions of the humans, or Grendel’s own unconscious tendencies, he never really had the opportunity to make a choice, human or beast. What Grendel said and thought always clashed with the situations he encountered until there was simply no possibility of becoming the good in the way

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968 Words | 4 Pages

Argument Essay: Beowulf and Grendel Many people have read or heard of the epic poem of Beowulf, which spins a tale of Grendel, the monster, attacking the admirable Danes and their king, Hrothgar. Some may not be as aware of a book titled Grendel written by John Gardner in 1971. Gardner’s book tells a completely different account of the more familiar tale of Beowulf, from the perspective of Grendel, the monster. The narrator from Grendel portrays a more plausible, powerful story than the excerpt from Beowulf by drawing the reader in with a more emotional viewpoint from the character Grendel, making him more relatable by giving him humanlike qualities, and clarifying why certain events took place in Beowulf.

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840 Words | 4 Pages

With Grendel, he was imprisoned in Herot for years and felt the drive to plot against those that did him wrong. He had a long history of unhappiness for living “…in the land of monsters since the Creator cast them out as a kindred of Cain (103-06)” (Stitt). He was discriminated due to where he came from, and aggression overcame him when he was being mistreated by mankind. His aggressive behavior made him have a “…grotesque form” and always made him “greedy for human flesh” (Stitt).

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790 Words | 4 Pages

The film gives the viewer a misunderstanding of Grendel's sinfulness. The film shows Grendel as an innocent, naive, injured monster after the fight with Beowulf. This gives the viewer the thought that the real monsters in the film are those who seek to kill Grendel. The blame for Grendel's violence could be put in Beowulf's men's hands because they brought it upon themselves by being careless. After the killing of Grendel, Beowulf meets with Grendel's mother to defeat her and all the violence Heorot has taken.

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1066 Words | 5 Pages

This beast’s actions are similar to the story of Cain and Abel. Cain and Abel were the children of Adam and Eve who were given specific jobs. The difference in sacrificial offerings causes Cain to become jealous and murders his brother. This behavior generates anger within God to punish Cain, making him an outcast and wanderer for life, including his descendants (New American Bible Genesis 4.1-26). In Margaret E. Goldsmith’s article, Grendel is a descendant from Cain who is full of “envy and murderous hatred [intent] within” (74).

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980 Words | 4 Pages

Throughout the novel Grendel by John Gardner, Grendel comes across as a ruthless monster who takes pride in murdering others. His actions give the impression that he is an evil figure, but in hindsight he is not as evil as he appears to be. Gardner makes the readers feel sympathy for Grendel because Grendel lives a lonely life, is consistently treated poorly, and attempts to make peace. If Grendel was truly evil, readers would have difficulty having sympathy for him. Therefore, Grendel is not evil and is no different than the rest of humanity.

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637 Words | 3 Pages

To heighten the conflict between Grendel and religion, Grendel is described as “forever opposing the Lord’s will” (Heaney 28-29). In Anglo Saxon Culture, every aspect of society is focused around God. To be anti-religious is to go against all aspects of their society. Grendel is almost a physical manifestation of the devil, and nothing is able to “quench his lust for evil” (Heaney 52-53). The parallel between Grendel and one of the seven deadly sins strengthens his connection to sins against God, and thus more monstrous toward the Danes.

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1142 Words | 5 Pages

Grendel reacts with violence when he becomes enraged at the constant celebrating of the Danes, then sneaking into Heorot at night to murder the men in their sleep. His exile causes him to know no other way to handle situations outside of massacres, fear, and vengeance. His violent nature and actions that stems from his isolation ultimately creates his monstrous depiction from which the humans see him as remorseless and evil. These three ideas induce the fact that Grendel’s exile leads to his malevolent nature and in turn, a

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806 Words | 4 Pages

Beowulf vs Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the dragon all represent a creature from hell and Beowulf is a god-like warrior who ends up slaying evil. “Like a man outlawed/for wickedness, he must await/the mighty judgement of God in majesty” (Beowulf 976 - 978). This quote talks about Grendel and his demonic soul. Beowulf points out that he is an evil creature and no creature ever to exist is powerful enough to smite God. Once Grendel dies, Grendel will be in God’s hands and Grendel will regret ever being evil or committing any evil action to anyone or anything on Earth.

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752 Words | 4 Pages

Grendel in both stories is described as a vicious "Monster", but is viewed differently. The character of Grendel, in the novel by John Gardner, portrays a different visualization than that of Grendel in the epic poem Beowulf. In the novel the story is told in first person point of view which gives Grendel human qualities while Grendel in Beowulf is told in third person point of view not giving Grendel his standpoint. In both works, the authors give two different perspectives of Grendel. Grendel in the novel is not seen as a "Monster", but as a human that has emotions and is very sympathetic about everything that comes his way.

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