How Grendel’s Status as a Monster Affects the Way He Tells the Story
In the original Beowulf, Grendel is portrayed as an evil monster that terrorizes King Hrothgar and his thanes in the mead hall. Although the portrayal of Grendel in Beowulf makes readers sympathize with King Hrothgar and the Danes, Grendel is not evil because he wants to be, but because he is driven by humans to become evil. In Grendel, readers sympathize with Grendel because, in the beginning, Grendel tries to coexist with humans, but the Shaper influences the humans to disgrace Grendel because Grendel is born from Cain. However, the young and naïve Grendel doesn’t know that he is evil, and he is still trying to figure out who he is and where he belongs. Grendel takes on many different philosophies in order to figure out who he is and what he believes in, and when Grendel meets the dragon, the dragon influences Grendel into believing that importance doesn’t exist, and if Grendel is looked at as a monster in nature, then Grendel should just be that. Grendel, realizing that the humans will never accept him, takes the dragon’s advice and becomes the monster that he is claimed to be. Even though Grendel knows that the Shaper’s stories about him are false, Grendel is willing to accept these words because it gives him a sense of truth about himself that he’s been longing for. Gardner’s choice to use Grendel as the narrator of the story shows readers the innocence of Grendel from the beginning of the story and how his innocence is taken away from him, when the humans treat him badly and compel him to become the monster that readers see him as in the epic of Beowulf.
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