How Grendel's Character Changes

Grendel changes throughout the book in many different ways. His personality is affected by the way his surroundings act around him. The characters in his presence are one of the greatest influences toward his self image. Other than the environment itself there are three characters that impact his personality greatly. Grendel’s mother being one of the three, is an influence to grendel in a questioning way. He tends to look up to his mother when he needs her, but feels that she is lost making him skeptical about how the world tends to function around him. This makes him inquiry about how is to find a true meaning in his own world. In this quote on page 11 grendel talks about his mother, “She clutches at me in her sleep as if to crush me. I break …show more content…
He begins to try and understand the shaper’s songs due to the songs having a sweet tone for grendel. Grendel tries to explicate the meaning of his lyrics when he sings, but he is lead to misunderstanding of the true meaning of his songs. “Thus i fled , ridiculous hairy creature torn apart by poetry crawling, whimpering, streaming tears , across the world like a two headed beast , like like mixed up lamb and kid at the tail of a baffled, indifferent ewe-and i gnashed my teeth and clutched the sides of my head as if to heal the split, but i couldn’t.” (Gardner 44) This clearly explains how Grendel’s feelings are mixed by the way the shapers music messes with his emotions. He is changed by the way he tries to make sense of the Shaper’s words, he fights internally to try and find what his meaning is for. This moves him to think about how his life is nothing but confusion. “ I sucked in wind and screamed. The sound went out, violent, to the rims of the world, and after a moment it bounced back up at me- harsh and ungodly against the sigh of the remembered harp-like a thousand tortured rat-squeals crying:Lost!” Grendel, the monster he is, letting his anger out by screaming, not knowing why everything didn’t go out as he wanted it to go. His personality changes greatly as he grows ill of the world that surrounds him, producing a perception of questions. The questions that he …show more content…
Grendel over looks the concept of the world he believes that there has to be more than what the dragon has to say, but in short he captivates the overall questioning of the world. “You said fiddlesticks, I said . Why is it fiddlesticks if i stop giving people heart attacks over nothing? Why shouldn’t one change one’s ways, improve one’s character? I must have been an interesting sight.” “The dragon shrugged, Whatever you like. Do as you think best.” “But why?” “Why? Why? Ridicules question! Why anything? My advice to you-” Grendel clenched his fists, though absurd, of course. One does not swing at dragons. “NO why?” Grendel is changed by the dragons conception on how he views the world, this makes Grendel feel like there is infact more to it than just being in spot his entire life. Grendel observes the way that the dragon is complaining and looks toward setting a new concept for his characteristic. He is changed in a way where he doesn’t see things as without purpose, instead he accepts the fact that there is change in everything else in the living and that everything has a significant meaning. Grendel than exclaims, “ Let me tell you what the Shaper said,” “Spare me i beg you” He covered his ears with his claws, gave a hideous grin. “He said that the greatest of gods made the world, every wonder-bright plain and the turning seas. He said-” “Ridicules.”