What Are The Similarities Between Grendel And Beowulf

In the poem Beowulf by Seamus Heaney and the novel Grendel by John Gardner both characters demonstrate characteristics of a monster, while also demonstrating human qualities. Such as their actions and thought processes making them both guilty for having some inner monster with a hint of being like a human.
Beowulf is represented as a hero throughout the book because of his action, but in other character eyes he’s consider a monster. Beowulf resembles a monster by his large body structure, height which cause Grendel to be scared of Beowulf. Beowulf wants to slay Grendel because of all the pain and suffering he has caused to the Danes. In Grendel eyes Beowulf symbolize evil because of the torture he is going to put him through before dying. Gardner …show more content…
This shows that Beowulf has some monster within himself because of the way he make Grendel suffer before dying, which has some monstrous ways behind it. Although Beowulf is a hero to the Danes, he strike fear in Grendel because of his monstrous characteristics. Gardner describes Beowulf as a very powerful man, “His chest was as wide as an oven, his arms were like beams…staring at his grotesquely muscular shoulders …sleek as the belly of a shark and as rippled with power as the shoulders of a horse” (Gardner 155). Grendel knows Beowulf is there to kill him but is scared of him because of his size, and know Beowulf is a rival and will be a challenge for to defeat for Grendel. This realization causes Grendel in shocked because he experience fear for the first time. Being that Beowulf was born a human, making him have the qualities already, which is expressed through him going to help the Danes with the monster Grendel that no one could defeat. “He announced his plan; / to sail the swan’s road and search put that king, / the famous prince who needed defender.” (Heaney