Examples Of Grendel In Beowulf

Isolation Makes the Heart Grow Fonder Imagine having plenty of green Earth to roam, but being isolated so much that no place feels like home. A dark looming creature saunters around the green land. He silently lurks and spies on the mead halls he finds at late night hours, because the sunlight burns and the darkness accepts its child. When fate shows the monster to the people of the hall, the monster welcomes their violence instead of his isolation. Dying alone the monster is erased from existence. Grendel, a novel written by John Gardner does a great job of showing the monster’s (Grendel) isolation and his emotions. Though in Beowulf, translated by Burton Raffel, Grendel was a static character that did not have an abundance of background …show more content…
When he comes face to face with the dragon their conversation changes Grendel by giving him more knowledge. Knowledge tends to give way to sarcasm. Sarcasm is verbal irony or saying the opposite of what is meant to mock. Grendel uses his new found knowledge to tease the humans and express his point of view. The dragon once said to Grendel “You stimulate them! You make them think and scheme. You drive them to poetry, science, religion, all for as long as they last” (Gardner 72-73). This knowledge made Grendel who was a cynical, nihilistic, and sarcastic creature an even more depressing being. Before their talk Grendel was more innocent and immature with his emotions as stated on page 17 “Crafty-eyed, wicked as an elderly wolf, I would scheme with or stalk my imaginary friends, projecting the self I meant to become into every dark corner of the cave and the woods above” (Gardner). After meeting with the dragon, Danish warriors attacked him and he laughed because they could not harm him, but he launched his first raids and he felt glee (Gardner 79). The dragon was an influential being in Grendel’s life that made him crazier than he was before they had …show more content…
He was a keen observer of the little world around him. He loved hearing the Shaper, this is confirmed on page 54, where said he was addicted to the Shaper who was singing the glorious deeds of the dead men, praising war and fighting Grendel even though he knew it was all lies (Gardner). His isolation made him skeptical of humans and their behavior or cynical of humans. Isolated and unsure of people, he had a mistrust of them and what they did. Grendel watched the warriors and Danish fighting, he saw “Spears flying, swords whonking, arrows raining from the windows and doors of the meadhall and the edge of the woods. Horses reared and fell over screaming, ravens flew, crazy speeches, dying or sometimes pretending to be dying, sneaking off” (Gardner 36). He saw the Danish fighting and he didn’t understand their weird ways and behaviors. Grendel’s isolation was one of the biggest causes of him being so cynical, nihilistic, and