Examples Of Evil In Grendel

Chapter two illustrates a flashback to Grendel’s early years. Grendel was in the woods searching for food and accidentally wedged himself in a tree. The human civilization eventually found him and attempted to identify what he was. They thought he was a fungus or

Grendel’s self image changes throughout the story because the effect of some characters that is taken upon Grendel’s personality. Grendel’s mother had an effect on him through the story he had a soft spot when it came to his mother. For example, “ of all the creatures i knew, in those days only my mother really looked at me.” (Gardner 17). Grendel is hideous, no one really pays attention to him.

Without the context of Grendel’s perspective, Grendel presents himself as purely evil, with no part of him being remotely good or innocent. Moreover, the book is a first person narrative that gives Grendel’s

When Grendel is first presented, he is described as

1. What exactly makes Grendel a monster? The story of Grendel promotes both sympathy and empathy to the reader, instead of the idea of him being a monster from the perspective of Beowulf. With Grendel narrating the story, his behavior and thought processes can be logically explained and justified.

Grendel is delighted with his evil actions, cannot comprehend the pain he just inflicted upon the men. Grendel’s lack of empathy is the reason why he gave into his evil impulses. Grendel is unaware and unaffected by the pain and suffering which he causes upon others. He was born to “murderous creatures” (23). This means he was surrounded by evil his whole life, driving him to be and carry out acts of evil.

There are many examples from the story that make Grendel look even more monstrous than he already was, but that’s because the story is at the point of view of the monster. So, we’re able to see the natural habitat of the monster Grendel. Although, the young life of Grendel may be barbaric and monstrous to us, it’s not to Grendel, because that’s his life. As you can see, there many valid reasons why I believe John Gardner wrote Grendel to help us understand the monster’s mind. Grendel expresses his thoughts and emotions throughout the whole story, so we’re able to see how Grendel is feeling.

Grendel tries to close this separation by entering the mead hall and attempting to communicate to the humans that he wishes to be their friend. His desperation is shown by him sinking to his knees, indicating that he is begging for the humans to show kindness and affection towards him. This desperation demonstrates Grendel’s intense longing for connection and friendship with the humans, which is not returned by the humans as they respond by attacking and chasing him away back into the forest. Grendel later attempts to reestablish contact with the humans, but this time in secret. Grendel approaches the blind priest Ork in the middle of the night and “declares that “‘It is I’ . . .

Grendel and his mother are the only two who exist of his kind and she is the only one he can confide in. However, Grendel’s mother cannot speak like Grendel can which leaves him even lonelier with no one to talk to. In attempts to communicate with humans Grendel ends up scaring them which causes their lashing out towards him. The fact that humans don’t understand him causes more of his rage to be thrown at them. His beastly actions are only in spite of their misunderstandings.

Readers can learn some things about Grendel in Beowulf but in order to dive deeper into the character and who he is, people go to the book Grendel. The book takes a closer look at Grendel and how he discovers the order and disorder of people and the world (Sanchez). Grendel is thought to symbolize the dark side of humanity, or the sins of man (Farrell). It’s easy for readers to sympathize with Grendel at points because he is a natural outcast of society. He is said to be the son of Cain and because of that he was labeled from day one (Sanchez).

In Chapter two Grendel wondered all the way to the human world where he ended up getting stuck in a tree. At this point Grendel calls for his mother and to his surprise, she is not there to rescue

After Grendel’s death, she channeled all that hatred and grief towards the people that harmed her child. Her love for her child lead her to commit these acts. Even though her actions are considered evil, it is natural to feel some sort of pity and sympathy for Grendel’s mother after her loss. Unlike Grendel, Grendel’s mother doesn't kill or destroy randomly. It is clear that she only wanted to take revenge for her son and targeted those that harmed him.

As a child, he wants someone to talk to, but it is too near and too far away. According to Grendel, of all the creatures, “only my mother looked at me … stared at me as

Throughout the novel Grendel by John Gardner, Grendel comes across as a ruthless monster who takes pride in murdering others. His actions give the impression that he is an evil figure, but in hindsight he is not as evil as he appears to be. Gardner makes the readers feel sympathy for Grendel because Grendel lives a lonely life, is consistently treated poorly, and attempts to make peace. If Grendel was truly evil, readers would have difficulty having sympathy for him. Therefore, Grendel is not evil and is no different than the rest of humanity.

Don’t ask!” (Gardner 11). This shows how Grendel would question his mother and he would never get an answer back from her. This leads Grendel to not know things about the world. Another character that had a huge effect upon Grendel’s self image was the dragon.