Preview

Grendel's Point Of View In The Epic Of Beowulf

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
396 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Grendel's Point Of View In The Epic Of Beowulf
In Grendel, the main character narrates the story from his point of view. This shows his emotions and his childlike nature. As the reader goes through Grendel's life, they become sympathetic towards him. Since it is told from the first person perspective, the reader can get a clearer picture into Grendel’s life and see that each story has two sides
Grendel telling the story makes readers feel sympathetic towards him . In the epic of Beowulf, Grendel was a monster who was pure evil but in this, he is almost childlike which makes the reader pity him. When he was being attacked by humans, "he bellowed for his mother” just like how a child would call out for his mom when he is hurt.
I think the reason Gardner chose to tell it from Grendel's point
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Comparing Grendel And Beowulf
    • 305 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Comparing Grendel And Beowulf

    Grendel was strong and powerful monster. (line 1) He was so strong that he could rip men apart. Most men in the kingdom feared him. He was the most evilest monster in land.(line21-24) Even though many of the men in the kingdom didn’t know about his mother.…

    • 305 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Comparing Beowulf's Grendel The Monster With Feelings
    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Comparing Beowulf's Grendel The Monster With Feelings

    In the book Grendel, the author made the decision to use the character Grendel as the narrator. He knew that the readers would understand more about Grendel’s feelings. To know the real Grendel, you need to read it from his point of view, not anyone else’s. The story made more sense because it was written in stream of consciousness. Stream of consciousness means that the author writes down everything that he is thinking. In Grendel we got to read everything from his heart, his true feelings about everything. The story would have been really different if we hadn’t gotten to see who he was and what he was all about.…

    • 610 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Grendel's Difference In The Epic Poem 'Beowulf'
    • 351 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Grendel's Difference In The Epic Poem 'Beowulf'

    How many people have watched or read about Beowulf? Could you tell the difference between the two? The movie and the poem are very different. Do you know how? Could you name them? There are many differences in the epic poem Beowulf, such as being awaken, being invisible, and being muscular.…

    • 351 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    John Gardner's 'Grendel In Beowulf'
    • 406 Words
    • 2 Pages

    John Gardner's 'Grendel In Beowulf'

    It gives the reader the feeling that he does not possess the same thought processes as humans do; therefore, he is characterized as a monster. However, in this novel, Grendel’s point of view and thoughts are more developed and deeper than how he is portrayed in Beowulf. The readers get a glimpse of the story through his eyes and it may change their view of Grendel. He is a solitary and disoriented creature who is misunderstood by humans and all those around him. He looks for a place to belong and his quest is to know who and what he…

    • 406 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Comparing Beowulf And Grendel's
    • 530 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Comparing Beowulf And Grendel's

    Beowulf is the main character in his own Epic, with Grendel being the first obstacle to overpower. A Simple description for a simple book. For this reason Grendel is a cliché character that the readers will dismiss with hast; Grendel is a straightforward, but horrifying, monster. “So mankind's enemy continued his crimes, Killing as often as he could, coming Alone, bloodthirsty and horrible” (79-81). Grendel is not as plain in Grendel the novel, he is every bit as gory though. “I lift her by the armpits as though she was a child and, gently, I set her aside” (147). This tells a many great things, first is Grendel’s…

    • 530 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Compare And Contrast Beowulf And Grendel
    • 393 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Compare And Contrast Beowulf And Grendel

    Beowulf, an epic poem written in England in the 8th century, introduces us to a character known as Grendel, a vicious beast who terrorizes a village in Denmark. In 1971, an American author named John Gardner reintroduces the character, this time re-telling the story from the monster’s point of view. In both stories Grendel is portrayed in many similar, but also many different ways.…

    • 393 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Beowulf And Grendel's Relationship
    • 386 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Beowulf And Grendel's Relationship

    Grendel mother is an ugly, smelly beast who Grendel resents and yet loves in a dependent, childish way. She cannot speak; she tries to communicate with his son by caressing and holding him. And at times she would go too far and suffocated him. She helpless at times she has to wait for him to bring her food, but when Grendel needs her, he cries like baby, and usually she saves him. She is also fierce and terrifying. Grendel sets himself apart from his mother according to him she does not think coherently. He believes he above her. He thinks of her as a fool. “Life-bloated, baffled, long-suffering, hag. Guilty, she imagines, of some unremembered, perhaps ancestral crime.”…

    • 386 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Grendel's Attack In 'Beowulf'
    • 997 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Grendel's Attack In 'Beowulf'

    In the story of Beowulf, there is a monster named Grendel, who ravages king Hrothgar and the town of Herot. Beowulf isn’t your typical villain. He isn’t brash and is almost unknown. His identity remains a mystery throughout the story, and he uses slyness to elude detection by performing his grueling tasks at night. This villain has striking similarities to that of the recent terrorists attacks. The following quote shows how Grendel’s attack correlates with that of the terrorists. “He found them sprawled in sleep, suspecting nothing, their dreams undisturbed. The monster’s thoughts were as quick as his greed or his claws: He slipped through the door and there in the silence snatched up thirty men, smashed them unknowing in their beds and ran out with their bodies.”…

    • 997 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Grendel's Injustice
    • 61 Words
    • 1 Page

    Grendel's Injustice

    In the poem Beowulf one of the characters Grendel has displayed evil among others and injustice throughout his life which has lead Beowulf to want to defeat Grendel and end him once and for all. His powers although scary, are plain. His background unknown, until the book begins and we find out who the real Grendel lying beyond the shadows is.…

    • 61 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Compare And Contrast Grendel And Beowulf
    • 545 Words
    • 3 Pages

    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.…

    • 545 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Grendel's Ideas On The Balance Between Good And Evil
    • 698 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Grendel's Ideas On The Balance Between Good And Evil

    Grendel, generally seen as a monster or giant, is one of the main antagonists in the popular Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf. Portrayed as the epitome of evil, Grendel brutally attacks the meadhall of the Danes for twelve years before being defeated by the epic hero Beowulf. Gardner, through his book Grendel, creates a new point of view of these events through Grendel eyes, as Grendel learns about the humans and how they seem like wild animals in their actions. In Grendel by John Gardner, Gardner reveals that “Man must have evil so that he may have good to balance…” through the use of juxtaposition and aphorisms (Gardner 6).…

    • 698 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    How Is Grendel's Mother Portrayed In Beowulf
    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages

    How Is Grendel's Mother Portrayed In Beowulf

    Beowulf, written by Seamus Heaney, is narrated by a Christian poet and directed towards an old English audience. The text reveals to have a reflection of the patriarchal society in which the story was written. The story shadows a hero named Beowulf while he embarks on many adventures and vanquishes monsters. This quote takes place after Grendel’s vengeful mother makes an appearance and murders some of the villagers. Despite these murders, Grendel’s mother is belittled because of her lady-like demeanor despite having a more of an impact on the king and proving to be harder to defeat than Grendel.…

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Theme Of Grendel In Beowulf
    • 639 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Theme Of Grendel In Beowulf

    Grendel was not human, he was an animal that eats anything he sees around him. Grendel was a lonely beast, he did not have any relationship with any human being. His Mother was the only person he knew since he was a little child. Grendel’s mother loved him is some different ways, but he was not sure about that. “I understood that, finally and absolutely, I alone exist. All the rest, I saw, is merely what pushes me, or what I push against, blindly as blindly as all that is not myself pushes back.” (P.22). He feels like his mother and he was the only being exist, but he also feels that he was separate from her. When he was crying, she would hold him against her. “Thus I fled, ridiculous hairy creature torn apart by poetry crawling, whimpering, streaming tears, across the world like a two-headed beast, like mixed up lamb…

    • 639 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Is Grendel Truley Evil?
    • 1119 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Is Grendel Truley Evil?

    In the epic of Beowulf, one of the warrior’s biggest adversaries is a creature from the swamp named Grendel. Although the character of Grendel is present for only a short portion in the story of Beowulf, Grendel signifies one of the important messages in the text about humanity. In Beowulf, Grendel is called a ‘monster’. However, if observed closely, analyzing the meaning behind the story, it is easy to see that Grendel is not a typical monster, in fact, it doesn’t seem like he is a monster at all. There is much evidence within the short period of the text where Grendel is present, which indicates he is not a true monster. In observing the relationship with his mother, his circumstances of his given situation, and his own actions it is obvious that the character of Grendel is extremely complex and is much more than just your typical ‘monster’.…

    • 1119 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Compare and Contrast How Grendel Is Portrayed in Grendel and Beowulf
    • 878 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Compare and Contrast How Grendel Is Portrayed in Grendel and Beowulf

    In Grendel, the story is told from Grendel's point of view. Therefore he is not viewed as a killing machine. In Beowulf however, it is the exact opposite. Grendel is seen as a monster who is terrorizing Hrothgar's people. The way Grendel is portrayed in Grendel is different from the way he is portrayed in Beowulf regarding his initiative and purpose. Grendel is portrayed the same in both stories when it comes to his actions and his nature.…

    • 878 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More