Grendel As A Monster In Beowulf

Monsters often taken on the from we project onto them. For Grendel he is taking the form of all of mankind’s unpleasant qualities. In “Grendel” by Gardner Grendel does not know who he is or where he stands in this world. He seeks guidance from everyones ideologies, from the dragon, to Hrothgar and his men, and even from his own mother. It ends up being what Hrothgar and his men constantly try to imbed into, that he is a monster. From the constant encounters with man he slowly becomes exactly what they want him to be. He does this because he knows not yet where he stands in this world. For example in Grendel by Gardner when the priest hears Grendel by the statues he asks who is there and Grendel replies by saying he is the “Destroyer”. The priest …show more content…
Nonetheless Grendel seems to caught up in the game to realize that he should have used this moment with he priest to try and change the way the Danes think. He could have tired to make them more accepting of thinks that they thought were It was a great opportunity missed on Grendel part but he was already so far into being brainwashed by the …show more content…
Mankind has a long history of criticizing someone else religion, we are projecting our own flaws onto him. Grendel does not realize that he is becoming exactly what he wanted to be. He is becoming human. Humans are monsters all on their own. They do not need a hideous appearance to make them monstrous. Grendel notices some of the flaws that mankind has, mankind’s viciousness towards not only other animals but to themselves as well. He also notices how badly they affect the environment around them, by cutting down forests. Grendel picks up on becoming vicious towards other animals, in the beginning of the book he only killed animals when he was hungry but towards the end he kills animals to be vicious. For example in “Grendel” by Gardner he says “He finds his feet the same instant that my second stone hits. It splits his skull, and blood sprays out past his dangling brains, yet he doesn’t fall.” (Page 140) the goat did nothing wrong and still Grendel is killing him just because he did something he did not like. Mankind is the only other animal to kill something just for fun or just because they wanted

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