Similarities Between Grendel And Frankenstein

In both Novels of Grendel and Frankenstein , the one theme that stood out the most was Family vs evil . This theme clearly shows the struggles and the battles that the characters go through regarding inner personal things . Those little or major things are the ones that shaped the characters to who they are . Although there are situations where the characters are trying to do good things for their own and for other people's benefit . it sometimes backlashes and evil is the outcome of that situation . Yet , some people do not know that evil can start in families . In the novel , Grendel is portrayed as an evil demon . It showed how he resents mankind's fight against God . It states “ The demon Grendel , who represents the ultimate evil in medieval Scandanavian culture , is the descendant of Cain , the man who killed his brother “. (Grendel 102) This just proves that Grenel was so jealous and he let it get to him that he went to the depths of killing his own brother . Later on in the novel , Grendel realizes that it was not worth being evil because he started to pay attention that humans were rejecting him . It was stated as “I sank to my knees crying, Friend! Friend! They hacked at me , yipping like dogs '' . ( Grendel 52 ) It also portrays that bonding that Grendel had with his mother in saying “ Please , mama! I sobbed…. Then, some thirty feet away , there was a bull “ . ( Grendel 19 ) It shows how Grendel always depended on his mom whenever he was in a time of need . In the Novel , Frankenstein is portrayed as the good in evil because of his childhood . Losing a mother was not easy for him nor was talking/expressing his feelings towards it . He also created a monster to use it as revenge . His reaction was “How can I describe my emotions at this catastrophe ….. With such infinite pains and care I had endeavoured to form ?” ( Shelly 58 ) Although Frankenstein also known as Victor was devastated with the death of his mother , he wanted revenge for it . That led to his creation of the monster and forbidden him to have no mother and no love . Victor does not have full control over the monster because he knows that the monster can bring harm to him and his family which is where Victor starts to regret his creation by stating “When I reflected on his crimes and malice , my hatred and revenge burst all bounds of moderation“. ( Shelly 103 ) Instead of Frankenstein feeling proud of his creation , he felt guilty and angry because he created a monster that killed his happiness and others . These novels had very different themes with Family vs evil and self conflicts like Frankenstein with himself . These novels show a good representation on how evil will sometimes come in a ‘good’ disguise . One novel shows how evil can sometimes come from your own battles or from your own creations . While in the other novel , the evil can be frightened away from the realization of what you are becoming and to start creating good intentions . Although at the end of Frankenstein , it started with evil but the creature helped him heal from his mothers death , even if it was six years later . Both novels showed the readers the impact of evil can be mixed in with family and both novels dealt with the loss of a loved one or have an only parent.