Grendel And Beowulf Comparison Essay

In John Gardner’s novel and Beowulf, they portray Grendel as two very different characters. In Grendel they make the reader feel sympathy, show Grendel having compassion, and show how he grows into his character that we see in Beowulf. In John Gardner’s novel Grendel, he shows Grendel as having no one or being an outcast. Grendel shows us just exactly how he feels “I was, I her eyes, some meaning I myself could never know and might not care to know; an alien, the rock broken free of the wall (Gardner 23). In his eyes he thinks very little of himself and doesn’t feel like he doesn’t deserve companionship. He’s starting to view myself just like the way the rest of the world sees him, as a monster and nothing more. The way Grendel is shown in Beowulf is the complete opposite. He seems completely fine the way he lives “The monster relished his savage war on the …show more content…
Grendel shows that he does have a heart and does have emotions “I could see myself leering from my high tree and running on all fours through the crowd to her, whimpering, throwing myself down, drooling and groveling at her small, fur-booted feet “Mercy” “(Gardner 101). Grendel is evoking sympathy in the reader by showing that we is sorry and just wants to be loved but is unable because the way people react to his appearance. He is also showing that he does have emotions and wants to be just like everybody else. In Beowulf he is depicted as a ruthless/heartless monster with so remorse. It tells of a ruthless event of his “He slipped through the door and there in the silence snatched up thirty men, smashed them” (Beowulf 36-37). Grendel only concern and instinct is to kill and have bloodshed. He doesn’t want to be friends all he wants is to have a nice meal and kill the Danes for sport. Grendel in both stories have to very different attitudes toward man, one is in want of attention and the other wants to