Compare And Contrast Grendel And Beowulf
In both stories Grendel is portrayed as a bad guy. In Grendel, Grendel can talk and basically just wants a friend to torment, while in Beowulf he doesn’t talk and is defeatable when fought. In the story Grendel, you can tell by the way he talks that he is fueled by killing. It gives him a certain rush that serial killers get while killing. I was able to understand Grendel in a way because he was lonely, scared and found something to do, which excited him; but all he really wanted was a friend.
In the story about Grendel he hides in his cave from people so they won’t kill him. He comes out when he is hungry and had killed seven men from the Mead Hall a night until Unferth came along. Grendel was very scared of humans at first, but then one
day while watching the Mead Hall he heard a song. This song fueled the fire within him and enforced his drive to kill people. The song enraged him.
Stories of Grendel were told from two completely different points. Beowulf, who is full of himself, wanted to kill Grendel for the fortune and fame. Unferth, someone who is a good fighter, wanted to kill Grendel or try killing Grendel to be a hero and/or legend. He said that if Grendel didn’t kill him, he was going to kill himself. Grendel wasn’t having that, so he carried Unferth to the front steps of the Mead Hall and lay him there. He was already sleeping before they reached the Mead Hall so Grendel had to kill a couple guards so they wouldn’t think that he killed Unferth.
I think Grendel is an anti-hero. Grendel could be thought of as an anti-hero because he spared Unferth's life, he didn’t do what ‘traditional devils’ do. He had a thrill from/for killing, but he was lonely and wanted a friend. Unferth wanted to be a hero to prove it to himself while Beowulf was going more for the fame, fortune and to have the big name. I think that there is an importance of having heroes today. ‘Heroes’, as we call them, are the ones that people look up to. The people we look up to have a lot of pressure on them because everyone is watching their every move; listening to everything they say and learning from them and their mistakes. Everything they do sets an example for how people can choose to react.
I can’t justify putting any single person or character down to be one of our heroes from today, because everyone's hero(es) are different. Especially based on beliefs and how someone can relate to their hero(es). Our heroes today are men and women of the past, present and future; such as soldiers, police officers, fire fighters and even just your common doctor. They could be local or even famous, but they are still our heroes. We value their opinion over others and act upon things as we think they would/should. In both situations Grendel was the bad guy, but he was also super knowledgable. Grendel talked in the story of Grendel; while in Beowulf he kept quiet. In the story about Grendel, he was trying to find importance or meaning in his life.
In the story about Grendel he hides in his cave from people so they won’t kill him. He comes out when he is hungry and had killed seven men from the Mead Hall a night until Unferth came along. Grendel was very scared of humans at first, but then one
day while watching the Mead Hall he heard a song. This song fueled the fire within him and enforced his drive to kill people. The song enraged him.
Stories of Grendel were told from two completely different points. Beowulf, who is full of himself, wanted to kill Grendel for the fortune and fame. Unferth, someone who is a good fighter, wanted to kill Grendel or try killing Grendel to be a hero and/or legend. He said that if Grendel didn’t kill him, he was going to kill himself. Grendel wasn’t having that, so he carried Unferth to the front steps of the Mead Hall and lay him there. He was already sleeping before they reached the Mead Hall so Grendel had to kill a couple guards so they wouldn’t think that he killed Unferth.
I think Grendel is an anti-hero. Grendel could be thought of as an anti-hero because he spared Unferth's life, he didn’t do what ‘traditional devils’ do. He had a thrill from/for killing, but he was lonely and wanted a friend. Unferth wanted to be a hero to prove it to himself while Beowulf was going more for the fame, fortune and to have the big name. I think that there is an importance of having heroes today. ‘Heroes’, as we call them, are the ones that people look up to. The people we look up to have a lot of pressure on them because everyone is watching their every move; listening to everything they say and learning from them and their mistakes. Everything they do sets an example for how people can choose to react.
I can’t justify putting any single person or character down to be one of our heroes from today, because everyone's hero(es) are different. Especially based on beliefs and how someone can relate to their hero(es). Our heroes today are men and women of the past, present and future; such as soldiers, police officers, fire fighters and even just your common doctor. They could be local or even famous, but they are still our heroes. We value their opinion over others and act upon things as we think they would/should. In both situations Grendel was the bad guy, but he was also super knowledgable. Grendel talked in the story of Grendel; while in Beowulf he kept quiet. In the story about Grendel, he was trying to find importance or meaning in his life.