Grendel And Frankenstein Comparison
Though their stories are different, intertwined in their own ways, their stories, when stripped to their underlying strands of text, are quite similar. Two separate beings, forged by the hands of a creator long gone, find themselves in a cold, cruel, world where their differences cast them out. They are neglected by their creators and rejected at every turn by all they come across. Without guidance and without discipline, these beings are made to grow in a world they do not know, to fend for themselves. The beings, Grendel and the Monster of Frankenstein, charge their way through a world that despises them, searching for companionship, for acceptance, and for their self-worth. Try as they might, they cannot succeed and their sorrow turns to
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The monsters squash, strangle, and kill those who defy them, those they hate. Grendel murders every night the humans in the mead hall, but only some. He leaves several humans alive so that his fun might continue, to keep himself company. He shouts in triumph, “I was Grendel, Ruiner of Mead halls, Wrecker of Kings”. (Gardner 80) If the humans saw him as a monster, then a monster he would be. The Monster of Frankenstein had no reason to exist, no purpose in his life. The emptiness in his life angered and his rage soon turned to Victor and his family. If Victor did not make him a mate, someone to share in his fate, he would disappear and cause no harm to anyone. Victor accepted, at first, but found he could not go through with it and so, “my mind turned towards injury and death”. (Shelley 99) The Monster went on to murder and cause the deaths of all those Victor loved, leaving Victor as alone as the Monster. Victor would now share the same fate as the Monster, a life of solitude. The deaths brought some peace to both Grendel and the Monster, but in the end it resulted with their deaths. Grendel was killed at the hands of Beowulf, an unnamed hero in the story, and the Monster, after Victor had passed, disappeared off into the distance to accept his death. A bitter sweet ending for the tragic heroes of both stories, but to think it could have all been avoided if they had been accepted by their
The monsters squash, strangle, and kill those who defy them, those they hate. Grendel murders every night the humans in the mead hall, but only some. He leaves several humans alive so that his fun might continue, to keep himself company. He shouts in triumph, “I was Grendel, Ruiner of Mead halls, Wrecker of Kings”. (Gardner 80) If the humans saw him as a monster, then a monster he would be. The Monster of Frankenstein had no reason to exist, no purpose in his life. The emptiness in his life angered and his rage soon turned to Victor and his family. If Victor did not make him a mate, someone to share in his fate, he would disappear and cause no harm to anyone. Victor accepted, at first, but found he could not go through with it and so, “my mind turned towards injury and death”. (Shelley 99) The Monster went on to murder and cause the deaths of all those Victor loved, leaving Victor as alone as the Monster. Victor would now share the same fate as the Monster, a life of solitude. The deaths brought some peace to both Grendel and the Monster, but in the end it resulted with their deaths. Grendel was killed at the hands of Beowulf, an unnamed hero in the story, and the Monster, after Victor had passed, disappeared off into the distance to accept his death. A bitter sweet ending for the tragic heroes of both stories, but to think it could have all been avoided if they had been accepted by their