The Misunderstood Monster Essays - Beowulf, Monsters, Grendel

The Misunderstood Monster The Misunderstood Monster Grendel by John Gardner is a presentation of the dark, the misunderstood, and the ugly. Throughout the novel readers will come to understand the way grendels mind works, events that set him off and all of the different characteristic that make him the monster he is. In the novel Grendel by John Gardner, Grendel is presented to the audience as a coward, he would only attack at night when the guards of the mead hall were asleep, and he was an insensitive character and a monster. Grendel can be proven as a monster for multiple reasons. First and foremost, Grendel lived with his mother in an open cave at the bottom of a boiling lake. Second, Grendel was born and raised to be wicked; I was Grendel, Ruiner of Meadhalls, Wrecker of Kings! (Grendel, p. 80) he never had the chance to become good. All Grendel knew was how to be barbaric and monstrous, and he lived by what he was taught at a young age. Also, whenever Grendel came in contact with music and sounds of pleasure and joy, he would instantaneously be filled with anger and hatred. Grendel also seeks vengeance on the good rather than the evil mainly due to his familys history. Throughout the novel, the audience will come to notice that there were certain events that traumatically effected Grendel. The first event was the story of Cain and Abel. When Grendel hears the story of Cain and Abel from the Shaper, he is pleased, but also upset because he is skeptical about what he heard. Grendel is aware that the shapers songs are built upon a foundation of lies, but he knows that man cannot be as holy as the Shaper had suggested, because he himself has seen evidence of humankinds brutality. Grendel also feels that he was cursed by it and that he is a punishment from God for Cains actions of killing Abel. Grendel is a savage that can only join the humans by fighting them. The final event that had an effect on Grendel was the death of the Shaper. The shapers stories were Grendels gateway into history. The Shaper gave Grendel a sense of what was true and untrue in history. For Grendel the Shaper had legitimized Hrothgars rule and even his own ancestry. The Shaper cl aimed that Grendel was a descendent of Cain. It was the loss of historical content that saddened Grendel the most; it no longer had a meaning to him after the death of the Shaper. Throughout the novel, society has played a main part in the way Grendel thinks and acts. During the novel, the audience will come to notice that Grendels relationship with the humans is defined by his intellectual interest in their philosophies. It can also be characterized by his emotional concept of community. Grendel lives in a world where he attempts to communicate with the humans but constantly fails. His mother lacks the capacity for language and even if she could speak, she would probably be an unworthy conversational partner for Grendel. Grendel often finds himself talking to the sky wishing for a response he knows he will never get. "Why can't I have someone to talk to?" I said. The stars said nothing, but I pretended to ignore the rudeness. "The Shaper has people to talk to," I said. I wrung my fingers. "Hrothgar has people to talk to."(Grendel, p. 53)Throughout the novel, Grendel remains stranded between what he knows is true and what he wishes was true. Grendel understand s the world as a brute, mechanical place that follows no pattern or universal law. He also knows that all the things the Shaper has sung about are merely human projections on the universes chaos. At times, Grendel finds himself willing to accept the role of the evil monster, just so he can be granted a place in society.