Beowulf And Grendel Relationship

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In Grendel by John Gardner, we meet Grendel a creature outcasted by humans. Although made out to be a vicious killer, we are shown sides of Grendel that allow us to be sympathetic towards him. Grendel wants to be like the humans he watches, Grendel was an innocent creature turned into a monster. In the beginning, as we get to know a younger Grendel. He is a curious child who ventures out and has his first experience with the human world. Grendel is always alone as a child, as the other creatures in the caverns are strange and don’t speak. Therefore, he never has any interaction other than with his mother. When Grendel enters the human world and becomes trapped in a tree and the bull attacks him, he realizes that he alone exists. “I understood …show more content…
One night, Grendel finds himself watching the meadhall and listening to the Shaper’s song. The song has a different effect on Grendel now: instead of feeling loneliness, or shame, he feels anger at the listeners’ ignorance and self-satisfaction. This is when a guard arrives and Grendel kills him. As more Danes arrive he kills them all despite the fact that he didn’t mean to cause them any harm, but they had attacked him again. This is when Grendel realizes how gleeful he is after killing them and his first raid happens a few nights later. When Beowulf arrives, Grendel becomes intrigued by him. Grendel is excited upon their arrival, he believes he will no longer be bored which Grendel describes as the worst pain possible. The night Grendel decides to attack, he encounters Beowulf who later manages to rip out Grendel's arm, realizing that he will die, Grendel flees. He calls out for his mother one last time who obviously does not come. Glendel realizes he is left all alone and voluntarily falls off the …show more content…
Grendel's curiosity for the human world made him realize he only had himself. All Grendel wanted was to be a part of the human world, despite never admitting to it. He enjoyed watching the humans, but their lives upset him at the same time. This all led to killing sprees in which Grendel believed he enjoyed doing, Grendel wasn’t born a monster, but was turned into one through being outcasted and living a lonely life. Grendel didn’t want to hurt anyone deep down, but it’s all he experienced that led him to it. In Grendel by John Gardner, the reader is meant to feel some sort of sympathy for Grendel. Watching the humans for so long are what led him to commit such horrible deeds towards them. Grendel was not a monster, but a creature that was turned into one.
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