Grendel is an innately evil demonic beast and his birthright is to be scorned by man as Cain’s evil offspring. As a result of this ostracism, he takes out his fury on the men in Heorot, killing whomever he can as his own form of warped vengeance stemming from a feeling of isolation as a born outcast. Despite Grendel’s misfortunes, which may garner sympathy from some, his actions are not justified by the situation he is in and, even in a violent, revenge-based society, Grendel is still the heartless beast the Danes see him as and his fate was well deserved. When Grendel is first introduced, he is actually described in a slightly sympathetic light. He sits outside Heorot, listening in on the merrymaking within the great mead hall, which he can
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During his first attack, he breaks in to Heorot in the middle of the night, a coward’s approach, and “grabbed thirty men / from their resting places and rushed to his lair / . . . / blundering back with the butchered corpses” (122-25). To begin with, the murder of thirty innocent men is enough to condemn Grendel to the fate Beowulf chooses for him. Such a mass slaughter defies any argument that Grendel is following the code of vengeance the Danes have set for themselves. After the initial attack, once again no effort is made to make peace with the Danes because he never wanted peace in the first place. Grendel had already decided that he wanted war and death and slaughter, not peace and companionship. He refused to “parley or make peace with any Dane / nor stop his death-dealing nor pay the death-price” (155-156). His attacks didn’t cease “for twelve winters, seasons of woe,” and by that time, it has become doubtful that his motives are anything more than bloodlust and mindless rage (147). If, in the beginning, Grendel killed for revenge to make up for being cast out from the moment he was born, that motive has long since been lost after twelve winters of murder have passed. He had mercy on no one; “all were endangered; young and old,” and killed anyone he could reach …show more content…
No amount of ostracism could excuse Grendel of his crimes, and he deserved his fate. He is as the Danes called him, a “God-cursed brute” and an evil monster who was right to be banished from birth and to be killed by Beowulf’s hands for his crimes (121). Grendel’s deeper motives matter far less than the murders he committed without mercy, because no amount of wrongdoing against him is enough to justify such cruelty. The Danes did not provoke his attacks; his envy of their happiness alone was likely enough for him to desire their deaths. While his ostracism is, at first, unjustified, his conscious choices make it clear that he is inherently evil and deserves no
During his first attack, he breaks in to Heorot in the middle of the night, a coward’s approach, and “grabbed thirty men / from their resting places and rushed to his lair / . . . / blundering back with the butchered corpses” (122-25). To begin with, the murder of thirty innocent men is enough to condemn Grendel to the fate Beowulf chooses for him. Such a mass slaughter defies any argument that Grendel is following the code of vengeance the Danes have set for themselves. After the initial attack, once again no effort is made to make peace with the Danes because he never wanted peace in the first place. Grendel had already decided that he wanted war and death and slaughter, not peace and companionship. He refused to “parley or make peace with any Dane / nor stop his death-dealing nor pay the death-price” (155-156). His attacks didn’t cease “for twelve winters, seasons of woe,” and by that time, it has become doubtful that his motives are anything more than bloodlust and mindless rage (147). If, in the beginning, Grendel killed for revenge to make up for being cast out from the moment he was born, that motive has long since been lost after twelve winters of murder have passed. He had mercy on no one; “all were endangered; young and old,” and killed anyone he could reach …show more content…
No amount of ostracism could excuse Grendel of his crimes, and he deserved his fate. He is as the Danes called him, a “God-cursed brute” and an evil monster who was right to be banished from birth and to be killed by Beowulf’s hands for his crimes (121). Grendel’s deeper motives matter far less than the murders he committed without mercy, because no amount of wrongdoing against him is enough to justify such cruelty. The Danes did not provoke his attacks; his envy of their happiness alone was likely enough for him to desire their deaths. While his ostracism is, at first, unjustified, his conscious choices make it clear that he is inherently evil and deserves no