Loneliness And Isolation In Grendel

Themes are an essential element to all works of literature and display as well help unlock greater meaning and intention of the author. Throughout John Gardner’s novel, Grendel, the tale of the monster Grendel in the years before the setting of the famous epic poem, Beowulf, there are many themes that greatly enhance the detail and overall meaning of the story. Throughout the entire novel, Grendel, the themes of the relationship between monsters and humans, the presence and impact of loneliness and isolation, as well as the abundance of discussion of philosophy, theory, and belief, all greatly develop a sense of greater meaning, both obvious and hidden, as well as detail within the story.
One of the main themes displayed throughout the novel …show more content…
Arguably, the previously discussed monster-like characteristics of Grendel are in part a direct result of Grendel’s great loneliness and isolation from the world (not entirely, however, considering that Grendel is inherently evil; the loneliness only helped inflame Grendel’s desire for blood). Early in the novel when Grendel first meets humans, he is intrigued by their ability to think and intellectually interact with their environment, and especially so with their ability to speak in the same language as him. Due to the fact that the humans could speak in Grendel’s language, and the fact that his mother could hardly communicate with Grendel at all along with the intellectually-lacking animals, Grendel attempts to communicate with the humans in an attempt to come out of his loneliness. The result was rather unfortunate as the humans misunderstood Grendel and branded him as a menacing monster of evil. Because of the fact that his only family member along with all of the animals could not speak with him, and that the humans had terrible misconceptions about him, Grendel was limited to only speaking to himself for all of the many years he roamed the earth, thus showing that Grendel had to live with what is described by John Gardner to be the worst possible pain, loneliness (Gardner ___). In response to this isolation that has plagued Grendel, he decides that the only way he can at least somewhat quench his thirst for purpose would be to go on occasional massacres against the Danes. In doing so, he would at least receive responses from them, and he even decided that it was perhaps his purpose in life to be the monster or the “wrecker of mead halls” (Gardner ___). Strategically, Grendel never killed all of the Danes, specifically Unferth, considering that there would be none to kill if he wiped them all out. The only being that Grendel was able to intellectually