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What Is The Use Of Serpent Imagery Symbolize In Grendel

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Serpent Symbolism in Gardner’s Grendel The talk of dragon fangs, claws, wings, and fire has been used in literature for generations, dating back to the beginning of the Middle Ages, and this serpent imagery is typically associated with evil, malevolent events or entities; however, it is not exclusively entitled to these attributes. In John Gardner’s Grendel, the tale of Beowulf from the perspective of the monster Grendel, serpent imagery is used consistently, adding to the overall scheme of the novel, and simultaneously portraying significant themes which aid in the subtle metaphysical conflict of the main character’s existential perception of the world. As the novel progresses, the use of the serpent imagery is gently placed into key events, …show more content…

A clear interpretation for the symbolic meaning of the pool of firesnakes seems unclear, but one could interpret that it represents Grendel’s leap out of innocence, or a leap that will consequently bring him into positions that will strip him of his innocence. Shortly after this event, Gardner presents a large quantity of serpent imagery to enhance the visual interpretation of the scenes such as Grendel’s arms behaving like snakes hanging from a tree, but the significance of these devices are limited until the dragon imagery is introduced. The dragon is the focal point of Grendel’s serpent imagery, and embodies a philosophical conflict for Grendel as well as a major turning point in the novel. Grendel’s existential beliefs are encouraged and approved by the dragon; however,the dragon also advises Grendel to “seek out gold and sit on it,” illustrating the idea of finding a meaningless purpose to satisfy the desire within Grendel’s mind(74). Proceeding …show more content…

Beowulf is described as having hands “like a dragons claws” and fingers “like fangs with poison” and “out of his shoulders come fiery wings”(168-169). The imagery relates Beowulf with that of the dragon, emphasizing the iconoclastic conflict of both. Beowulf; however, is destroying Grendel’s existential perspective of reality and truth, while the dragon was destroying Grendel’s growing curiosity towards the shapers reason. When Beowulf and Grendel fight, their is a stronger appearance of a philosophical battle than that of a physical one as Beowulf whispers and “flames slip out at the corners of his mouth,” again showing the iconoclast relation and the web of connections with the serpent

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Philosophical symbolism in Grendel In the novel Grendel the shaper and the dragon both talk about life. The Shaper has a good view point of life and the dragon has a bad view point of life. The Shaper talks about what the universe and world around us has to offer through his stories.

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In this time, the dragon was attempting to convince Grendel to terrorize the humans, since they are already scared of him. However, Grendel can’t even comprehend what the dragon is saying because he’s so scared of how he looks. Shmoop.com says, “In short, Grendel's dragon is elemental, massive, invincible—totally scary. In an ironic twist, Grendel can hardly pay attention to the "wisdom" that the creature wants to give him, because he's so entranced by sight of the dragon's body. It's another way in which Gardner is trying to play with the idea of the monstrous: Grendel is too afraid of the dragon to listen to anything he has to say, just as the humans are too afraid of Grendel to listen to anything he has to say.”

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That technique that Beowulf used was something a ninja would do when he is waiting for his pray. Beowulf was able to bend back Grendel claws by using his hands instead of any weapons,that shows me that you sometimes don't need weapons to beat monsters,Also Beowulf by bending Grendel claws was able to scare Grendel so bad, that Grendel wanted to run away from him,so Beowulf put fear into Grendel that's a really good technique. The second battle that Beowulf fought in the epic poem was against Grendel's Mother who wanted to kill Beowulf for killing her son. In this battle Beowulf didn't not wait for Grendel's mother to come to him, he came to her. The weapon that Beowulf used in this battle was a sword and his hands.

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