Compare And Contrast Grendel Vs Beowulf

The Grendel in the novel is more complex than the Grendel in the epic poem Beowulf because Grendel in the poem is more animal than man, Grendel in the novel debates philosophy, and the novel is in Grendel’s point of view. The Grendel in the novel is more complex than the Grendel in the epic poem Beowulf because Grendel in the poem is more animal than man. The poem paints a picture of Grendel as some horrific beast. “Conceived by a pair of monsters born Of Cain, murderous creatures banished By God” (Beowulf 20-21). The novel tells quite a different story and portrays Grendel as a “sad one, poor old freak!” (Gardner 6). It is clear to see that the poem is purposefully trying to make Grendel look like a cruel monster. If Grendel is a monster, …show more content…
Throughout the novel, Grendel ponders over some major branches of philosophy, such as Ontology. “I understood that the world was nothing; a mechanical chaos of casual, brute enmity on which we stupidly impose our hopes and fears” (Gardner 21-22). This is quite complex compared to the poems Grendel whose “Thoughts were as quick as his greed or his claws” (Beowulf 34-35). In the poem, they say Grendel is a killing machine, so it can be safe to assume that his greed and claws are pretty quick. If his thoughts are as quick as his claws, then there is no chance that he is bothering himself with questions on the existence of the world. This is why the novel’s Grendel is so complex when compared to the poem’s version. The novel’s Grendel ponders over questions such as that, and plenty more. In fact, in the novel, Grendel spends more time debating philosophy than he spends terrorizing humans, as the poem would have you …show more content…
We are able to know what Grendel is thinking, and we are able to know that when he is about to do evil “Some evil inside myself pushed out into the trees. I knew what I knew, the mindless, mechanical bruteness of things, and when the harper's lure drew my mind away to hopeful dreams, the dark of what was and always was reached out and snatched at my feet.” (Gardner 54) as opposed to “He slipped through the door and there in the silence Snatched up thirty men” (Beowulf 36-37). In the novel, we can see that Grendel knows the difference between right and wrong, and can appreciate the beauty in life, but since humans wont let him partake in their beauties, he takes his anger out on them by terrorizing them and killing them. This lets the readers actually feel a sense of sympathy for him as opposed to the poem where the readers get a narrator telling them that Grendel killed thirty people. That is really blunt, paints a simplistic view of Grendel that all he does is kill, and does nothing to show the reader what is going on through Grendel’s