'Heroism In Grendel And Beowulf'

“A monster is made by men,” a philosopher once wrote. In “Grendel” and “Beowulf” a monster named Grendel is doomed by his environment; unable to communicate with humans and built like a beast Grendel appears as a monster to men. The portrayal of Grendel as a hero differs in the novel and the epic, but they both portray Grendel as a monster in terms of society.
The novel and the epic differ in Grendel’s role as character and hero. In Gardner's story Grendel represents an anti-hero, so he has a heroic sense about him but he doesn't possess the usual qualities of a hero. He isn't nice, but the audience does not want him to fail. In "Beowulf" Grendel represents evil and a villain, he’s not portrayed as a hero, but a destroyer with, ” his heathen soul,” (Beowulf) and when he died, “there Hell received him,” (Beowulf). The ideas of evil and heroism are presented differently in both stories, because the anti-hero in one story is the villain in another. The stories differ in their portrayal of heroism, especially in what defines a hero. In “Beowulf” a hero is someone who saves the popular view or the majority, and overcomes anything that comes against humanity. In "Grendel" a hero cannot be defined with clear lines of good and evil; heroic deeds are seen through different perspectives.
In “Grendel” and in “Beowulf” Grendel is portrayed as a monster, and Grendel acknowledges that. For example in “Grendel” Grendel is seen as a, “Pointless, ridiculous monster crouched in the shadows, stinking of dead men, murdered children, martyred cows,”(Gardner) and in “Beowulf” Grendel’s a, “monster (who) stirred, (accused as) that demon, (and) that fiend Grendel,”(Beowulf). In both the novel and the epic Grendel portrays a monster of men and is convicted of destruction. He was a monster by destiny and he did not have any influences that could help him see the good in people. Both pieces agree that Grendel’s life directly represents that of a monster to men.
In conclusion, Grendel is portrayed differently in both writings; He is a hero in Grendel and a villain in another, his destruction is savage in “Beowulf” but a reaction in “Grendel”, but in both stories he is inevitably a monster.
The authors are discussing different things, Gardner is actually discussing that heroes are vague and good and evil cannot be defined, while the author of “Beowulf “completely defines good and evil. Gardner is trying to create the idea that modern monsters aren't necessarily monsters, and one person's opinion can't be wrong. These texts work together brilliantly because they show the progressiveness of the world and how everyone deserves the right to their own
beliefs.