Comparing Grendel And Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Throughout John Gardner’s Grendel and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, it is evident that the main characters represent the same figure in each novel. Although Grendel is a figure from an old epic, Gardner’s novel depicts the bitter war with Hrothgar from Grendel’s modernized position. Similarly, Shelley’s novel recounts the monster’s plot to make Frankenstein suffer with a detailed emphasis on the monster’s prior experiences and feelings. The focus on, or inclusion of, the antagonists’ point of view in both Grendel and Frankenstein enables readers to feel sympathy for them because of their permanent outcast from society. The character of Grendel in the novel Grendel bears striking similarities to the monster in the novel Frankenstein because they …show more content…
This predetermined position is described in chapter four of Gardner’s novel when the character Grendel discovers that, “[he], Grendel, was the… terrible race that God cursed” (Grendel 51). This statement functions as Grendel’s forlorn acknowledgement of his permanent role as the villain of society. Throughout the remainder of the novel, it is evident that this predestination is the reason behind Grendel’s exile and, thereby, the source of his agony and hatred for the human race. After a similar realization about his own creator, the monster tells Victor Frankenstein, “You, my creator, abhor me; what hope can I gather from your fellow creatures, who owe me nothing” (Frankenstein 186). This statement, the serves as the prelude to the monster’s coming request for a companion. When the monster’s wishes are not complied with, he vows to bring endless suffering to his creator and, thereby, remain the villain of Shelley’s novel. Because Frankenstein is analogous to God when gives life to a creature, his hatred for that creature corresponds with Grendel’s birth as an enemy of