Grendel Character Analysis in Grendel by John Gardner

In the beloved movie, Shrek, starts off with an ogre named Shrek, and lives all alone for one main reason. Shrek lives in a swamp because society thinks that all ogres are dangerous, violent, and man-eating creature, which affected Shrek at the beginning since he cannot change the mind of humanity and nature of who he appears to be. As a result, Shrek decides to scare off any living thing in his swamp for the rest of his life and the only person that can understand his communication of whom he seems to be is himself. Similarly, John Gardner describes in his novel Grendel, about a creature called Grendel who has trouble to communicate with humanity and nature based on his looks and the difficulty to communicate. In Grendel, Gardner conveys that one’s inability to understand someone leads to a negative impact of violence as seen through the miscommunication of Grendel and the Danes, Grendel’s contact with his mother, and the devious teaching’s the Dragon and Shaper give to throughout Grendel’s decision’s.

To begin, when Grendel was severely injured from his leg, he hears noises coming near him, and that is where he meets human (Hrothgar and his men) the first time. As soon as Grendel saw the humans, he pleaded for help, but they misunderstood Grendel for they only heard growling and took it as a threat: “‘Surround him!’ The king yelled, and suddenly I knew I was dealing with no dull mechanical bull but with thinking creatures, pattern makers the most dangerous things I’d ever met” (Gardner, 27). Grendel uses a kenning to describe Hrothgar and the Danes as “pattern makers the most dangerous things”, defining that human misinterpret anything that nature gives them, and destroy with violence in return. Grendel meant no harm, but wanted help from the Danes, yet they decided to go aggressive against a weak monster. In addition, another setting where Grendel tried to be peaceful with the Danes is when he went to the Dane Kingdom and entered to the mead hall: “Drunken men rushed me with battle axes. I sank to my knees, crying ‘Friend!” Friend!’ They hacked at me, yipping like dogs… Their spears came through it and one of them nicked me, and I understood, as shocked as I’d been the first time, that they could kill me” (Gardner 37). The simile “They hacked at me, yipping like dogs” describes how the Danes reacted again to Grendel’s final peace offering and see Grendel as a monster than a calm creature looking for someone to communicate with. With, the actions of the Danes influence Grendel to become what the Danes believed he was at the first place they met, which lead to many Danes to die at battles against Grendel in the mead hall at night. Moreover, as Grendel begins to massacre the Danes at the mead hall every night, he encounters a Dane warrior that stood out most of the Danes for his height, bravery, and passion to become a hero. As Grendel approaches to Unferth (Dane warrior), he yells at Grendel: ‘Monster, prepare to die! Unferth said… tell them in Hell that Unferth, son of Ecglaf sent you, known far and wide in these Scanian lands as a hero among the Scyldings’” (Gardner 52). This illustrates that instead of Grendel forgiving for his past murders and make another peace offering, Unferth’s only mentality is violence, which has transferred to Grendel’s thoughts on what is his authentic role in this world. The phrase “Monster, prepare to die!” has been the main vocabulary the Danes have used to describe the misunderstanding they received from Grendel. Also, Grendel himself believed what the Danes said about him, which made him a monster that people only remember him by. 

Through the violent influence of the Danes, Grendel also changes by having lack of communication with his mother in a negative way. Furthermore, after Grendel survives the attack from the Danes once again, he comes back to his cave attempting to communicate with his mother: “I tried to tell her all that had happened, all that I’d come to understand: the meaningless objectless of the world, the universal bruteness. She only stared, troubled at my noise. She’d forgotten all language long ago, or maybe had never known any” (Gardner 22). The text describes that Grendel can’t communicate with his mother anymore with words and emotions because the way he thinks and acts about the meaning of life separates him of the connection from his mother. The description “She’d forgotten all language long ago”, illustrates that Grendel’s mother doesn’t understand anything Grendel says because she has never been in the outer world and been treated in a negative way where Grendel has. Another example of Grendel’s contact with his mother is when he lays down on the ground in the cave and describes her how he feels around her when they both stare at each other: “When her eyes burned into me, it did not seem quite sure. I was intensely aware of where I sat, the volume of darkness I displaced, the shiny smooth span of dirt between us, and the shocking separateness from me and my mama’s eyes. I would feel, all at once, alone and ugly.” (Gardner 17). The lack of communication Grendel has with his mother makes him feel empty inside because he has no one to express his feelings, which angers him other people do such as the Danes. The personification “her eyes burned into me” depicts that Grendel feels uncomfortable around his mother because they both can’t communicate properly, which converts Grendel into a monster that has beliefs of nihilism. As a result, the lack of communication with his mother makes him jealous of people who do and attacks them to relieve himself from the broken relationship he has with his mother. In addition, Grendel struggles in attempting to communicate with his mother about the discoveries he finds outside the cave: “I talked on, trying to smash through the walls of her unconsciousness. ‘The world resists me, and I resist the world, that’s all there is, the mountains are what I define them as”’ (Gardner 28). The hyperbole Gardner uses “The world resists me, and I resist the world” portrays how Grendel is a lonely individual with his own thought to himself and he can’t share them with anyone else because of his shattered communication with his mother, humanity, and nature. The solution that Grendel finds through his obstacles of fitting in with the Danes and his mother is by being violent and being known as a man-eating monster that is full of anger and jealousy. 

Similarly, to the lack of communication of Grendel’s mother and the encounter with the Danes, he is also influenced under the nihilistic teachings of the Dragon and the judged stories of the shaper about Grendel.  As Grendel seeks out advice to the dragon on how to be recognized by nature and humanity, the dragon states: “My advice is, don’t ask! Do as I do! Seek out gold- but not my gold- and guard it!” (Gardner 62). The word “gold” is defined as power, which means what the dragon is trying to tell Grendel is to seek out power by being a menacing creature since not one thing in earth can comprehend what Grendel thinks or says completely. Grendel’s only response from the influential devious message from the dragon is creating violence to receive power for humanity and nature to fear him. Another malevolent teaching from the Dragon in the cave is when he says: "Grendel you have a lot of knowledge and power, use it in your advantage" (Gardner 75). The dragon influences Grendel that he can outsmart and overpower humanity by himself if he wanted to, and teaches Grendel of what he is capable of, which is wiping out humanity in one night. Finally, Grendel overhears what the Shaper describes him as: “And I, Grendel, was the dark side, he said in effect. The terrible race God cursed. I believed him. Such was the power of the Shaper’s harp!” (Gardner 51). In the text, Grendel finally gives up by attempting to be friendly to humanity. The metaphor, “The terrible race God cursed.” influences Grendel to believe that there is no other way for him to reconnect humanity any time soon, which is why his only answer is to return the favor of how Danes violently to his innocence. Through the teachings of the Dragon and the Shaper, it impacts Grendel to be known as a homicidal monster to humanity and nature for having the lack of communication with others on how he feels.

Overall, the absence of communication led to the disaster of Grendel’s brutal actions towards the Danes because of the teachings of the Dragon and the Shaper and the ignorance his mother gives him every time, he tries to communicate with someone close to him. With this being said, this led to the death of Grendel because of ignorance and isolation from others, which is why in the modern world communication is key to success, and if one fails to do so, they are led to the destruction of depression.