Example Of Grendel Theme Essay

In the story Grendel, there are a lot of different themes and lessons one of the main themes in this story is isolation. Grendel is a very isolated character who is looking for his purpose in life. Grendel has a lot of hate in his heart, but there is also a lot of love in it at the same time. So throughout the story, there are a lot of moments when Grendel has a battle within his self. For example when Grendel first hears the Shaper playing in chapter 3 it starts to make Grendel think different about what he knows is true and what he wishes were true. Grendel understands the world as a brute, emotionless place that follows no meaningful pattern or laws. He knows that all the beautiful concepts of which the Shaper sings about heroism, religion, love and beauty are merely human projections on how the humans would like to see the world. Grendel views throughout the story are very similar to a poem by William Blake called The Mental Traveller. The theme and story of the poem is about traveling the mind, it is a cycle history of relations between society and idea
That is Grendel’s main role throughout the story, it all started when he was just a child and as he gets older. He experiences more torture and pain, both physically and emotionally. In chapter 10 he repeats, “Tedium is the worst pain” and chapter 12 brings the physical torture exerted by Beowulf, reducing him to “bawl like a baby” (172). Grendel continues the cycle of torture through his own actions and seasonal killing of the Danes, the attack on Wealtheow, and that cycle continues, just like the cycle that is going on in the Mental Traveller. Therefore, the theme of the poem is on full display throughout the entirety of the story and even though the events are different in both. The two stories cycles are very