The opposite of evil, in this passage and throughout the poem, is joy. The rare appearance of a woman creates a vivid image and a strong reality check on heroic sentiments. The evils that the old woman foresees are not created by hell-born monsters but by human beings.
The poet gives increasing emphasis to this idea—that humans create evil—as the poem progresses. SparkTeach Teacher's Handbook. Why does Beowulf want to fight Grendel? What warning does Hrothgar give Beowulf? Gardner twists us up in knots by endowing Grendel with fangs, claws and fur— and the ability to think, feel, and reason.
That was never part of Grendel's original contract, and it gives him a depth and complexity that can be pretty tough for us to make sense of.
On top of that, the reason he comes to act so badly is that the Shaper casts him in the role of villain.
Grendel feels that he has to be bad since that's the only identity given to him. So sure, the Grend may eat people okay, even children , but he's also a victim of human—and natural—brutality many times throughout the story. He suffers grinding loneliness and the burden of being hated and cursed, and all for nothing. It's hard to see any creature put through the ringer like that and not have a soft place in our hearts for him. It's surprisingly easy to overlook the fact that Grendel's a monster.
For one thing, he's got a wicked sense of humor that endears him to us immediately. We even agree with him a lot of the time when he mentally takes the humans down a few notches. Take Unferth, for instance. Who doesn't laugh when Grendel corners him and makes him pay for his "heroic ideals"? He lifted his sword to make a run at me, and I laughed—howled—and threw an apple at him.
He dodged, and then his mouth dropped open. I laughed harder and threw another. He dodged again. A forgivable lapse. And now I was raining apples at him and laughing myself weak. Since the "heroes" of the story are less than heroic, we don't mind joining the monster in laughter when he gets even with them. Part of our minds registers this behavior as bullying, pure and simple, but it doesn't matter.
Grendel's got us because he can show us how ridiculous and unworthy human beings are—and just how funny it is when he pulls one over on them. We don't even seem to mind when part of the "joke" is swallowing people whole:. His wife, looking in behind him, makes a scene. The thanes in the meadhall blow out the lights and cover the wide stone fireplace with shields.
I laugh, crumple over; I can't help myself. In the darkness, I alone see clear as day. While they squeal and screech and bump into each other, I silently sack up my dead and withdraw to the woods. Grendel's got a diabolical sense of humor, one that's designed to make us betray our loyalty to our own kind. Humans look kind of like petty little mice scurrying away from a superior being.
It can also be really hard to see Grendel for what he really is since his observations are truthful and interesting: his razor-sharp commentary about humankind—in particular humans' religious and political practices—is clear-sighted and just. He's kind of like the Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert of his time, with the difference that he, you know, eats people and stuff. So we've got to keep up our guard. Who is to say that the death of millions is any worse or better, for that matter, than injuring a cockroach.
And in the case of an existing power in the form of God, who is presumed to be all which is good, presiding and ruling an organized universe, why then does evil exist? The prosaic response of "without evil, there is no good" no longer holds any validity in this argument as the admitted goal of good is to reach an existence without evil.
And if humoring those who would answer the previous question with the response that there can be no good …show more content… That is, to say, not good or evil. It is life which shapes his beliefs and therefore life which dictates ethics, whether dependent on fate or not.
Within the society which humans have created and live in, there are certain ideals which are reinforced actively by written law and organized religion. Since there is no evidence that any omniscient, eternal being actually organized a faith dedicated to itself and especially for the fact that no such being exists in the society of a creature such as Grendel with no society within which he belongs ; I will say that no God has any power over Grendel he has not been told that one even exists.
For Grendel, there is no reinforcement of which ethics, good or evil, he should abide by and therefore he is able to make a more honest decision of which way to live.
Since the world which he sought to embrace, rejected him, he is forced to make a decision. He must choose between a self-exile in which he would live a life separate from the humans with which he shares the ground which they walk on, or to take form as a God himself and seek punishment for those who wronged him, essentially, Hrothgar the King of the Scyldings. His meeting with the mystical dragon is what helps to guide his decision towards the side of what is defined as evil.
The dragon is Grendel's guide to the gateway of evil beliefs and also. Get Access. Read More. Grendel : Evil Essay Words 4 Pages In the novel, Grendel by John Gardener, Grendel is a human-like creature capable of rational thought as well as feeling emotions. Essay Words 10 Pages then does evil exist? John Gardner's Grendel As Evil Words 3 Pages When writing a paper about one being evil, the true definition of evil must be considered. Is Grendel Truley Evil?
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