Grendel: Predestined to Evil?
The poem Beowulf suggests that Beowulf is the hero and Grendel is a villain, or the “bad guy.” Some try to sympathize with Grendel as a victim of circumstance, a lonely outcast. Yet the poet himself shows no sympathy for Grendel, even when he is hurt and killed. The poet seeks to present Grendel as pure evil. He lives by a force that governs his will and gives rise to constant wickedness and sin. His evil is the source of sorrow and distress within himself and within Hrothgar’s kingdom. In my view, the poet is correct in presenting Grendel. Grendel is an unfortunate and suffering creature by his own free will. Angry and irritable at everything good, he murders innocent men. Neither the poet nor I sympathize with these actions. Though he is a very complex and mysterious creature as a descendant of Cain, nevertheless he is human and he freely chooses to be evil. Grendel is first introduced as mankind's enemy and the physical embodiment of evil, of humanity gone wrong. Grendel's massacre of the Danes extends beyond his bloody hunger. Seeing as, he attacks the Danes because he does not understand them and the core values of civilization among them: allegiance, honor, and commun
His (Hrothgar’s) misery leaped the seas, was told and sung in all men’s ears: How Grendel’s hatred began, how the monster relished his savage war on the Danes, keeping the bloody feud alive, seeking no peace, offering no truce, accepting no settlement, no price in gold or land, and paying the living for one crime only with another. (lines 151-157) Grendel never allows himself to understand God’s love and chose to fight against him. He became even angrier with God when goodness prevailed. After Beowulf defeats Grendel, a sense of relief and peace returns among the Danes, as hell receives Grendel's body. And then as now warriors sang of their pleasure: so Hrothgar’s men lived happy in his hall till the monster stirred, that demon, that fiend, Grendel, who haunted the moors, the wild marshes, and made his home in a hell not hell but earth. He was spawned in that slime, conceived by a pair of those monsters born of Cain, murderous creatures banished by God, punished forever for the crime of Abel’s death. (lines 98-108) And his heart laughed, he relished the sight, intended to tear the life from those bodies by morning; the monster’s mind was hot with the thought of food and the feasting his belly would soon know. (lines 730-734)
Some topics in this essay:
Grendel Grendel,
Herot Grendel,
Hrothgar Grendel,
Angry Danes,
Predestined Evil,
God Grendel,
Grendel’s Cain,
Cain Abel,
Grendel Beowulf,
Beowulf God’s,
grendel grendel,
poet tells,
grendel choice,
murder grendel,
brings misery,
descendant cain,
misery danes,
understand love,
god chooses,
evil grendel,
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Approximate Word count = 1278
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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