Compare and Contrast: Beowulf and Grendel

People think of evil and danger when thinking of Grendel. Grendel is one of the enemy’s Beowulf has to destroy. But in the novel Grendel he is shown more advanced his personality is shown while the killing sprees happen. Grendel is shown to have a vast hold on his existence. In the book Grendel and Beowulf Grendel is a big hairy monster. He is known as the spawn of cain. He is evil and a narcissist. He murderers the innocents. In both stories they seem to have Grendel the bad guy and Beowulf the murderous ruthless hero. The characteristics of murder don’t really change between grendel’s character in the book Beowulf and the book Grendel. They both show him hurting humans for food and for the thrill. Both novels are based on the idea of Beowulf killing Grendel. While some differences between Grendel in Grendel and Grendel in Beowulf. As in Beowulf he shown as a big monster that hates humanity and kills them yet in Grendel he is a misunderstood organism that doesn’t seem to know his purpose in life and even know killing people is a bad purpose it still gave him purpose even being a negative one. Also the similarities are evident as in both books he’s a monster both explain him being a killing machine just one shows a reason and the other doesn’t.

In Grendel the character Grendel is explained. Grendel gives us a front row seat to identity struggle several centuries in the making. From the second baby Grendel steps outside his lair and encounters other beings and animals figuring out who he is and what his purpose is to the outside world becomes an issue of his continuity. He is shown to not like the humans in the beginning of the book but when you read along further. In the chapters it explains why he is so deemed on hating the humans. The hatred grows over time as Grendel grows up but It’s directed mostly to the king Hrothgar.”So childhood too feels good at first, before one happens to notice the terrible sameness, age after age.” So he grows up feeding on human flesh. He doesn’t understand why the king has people to communicate with but he does not. He shows jealousy that their not alone but he is since he mother can’t speak and no other monster knows language. “Don’t ask!” (She never speaks) pg 11. Grendel is just trying to find his purpose in life. In Grendel’s book he is able to speak english but the humans don’t understand. In Grendel he is shown that the humans can’t understand what he’s saying no matter what he does so all they do is judge him for his looks mostly. And the actions he shows when he can’t express himself through speaking but instead gets angry and kills people. Grendel’s perspective is more god hates him because of him being the spawn of Cain and being evil. He talks about how the world is meaningless and unfair. Grendel illuminates on the miserable life that Grendel is circumscribed to. While some differences between Grendel in the book Grendel and Grendel in Beowulf are clearly evident as in Grendel has no purpose in Beowulf but in Grendel his purpose or so he thinks is to kill since he is a monster. A similarity would be no matter how he is shown in either book the citizens treat him with hatred and want him killed.

Unlike Beowulf Grendel which is unexplained. Of why he does those actions instead of speaking to them or trying to be friendly. Just shows him being a big hairy monster that wanted to kill. Kill innocent people for fun and food. His hatred for people isn’t explained. It’s never shown why he acts the way he does. All we really get is he is jealous of something that humans seem to have that he could never. Beowulf is more about the heroic and more positive world Beowulf lives in. Grendel is defeated by Beowulf in the book by fighting him butt naked and ripping his arm off by his shoulder. In Beowulf Grendel’s perspective or so how he thinks is not really shown he’s just an emotionless murderer with no purpose or no motives why he kills besides for food. It doesn’t tell if Grendel has purpose in the book Beowulf. We just know he is the evil guy here and must be destroyed as soon as possible. While some differences between Grendel in the book Grendel and Grendel in Beowulf are clearly evident as Grendel was a harmless child in the book Grendel but the humans attacked while he was stuck in a tree helpless.

One aspect as a similarity is the way the creäture acts in both stories he is a natural born killer doesn’t kill humans as a child in Grendel but in both stories he murders them in cold blood as a grown up which he does very brutally I might add. Well I don’t love this topic exactly because I couldn’t really see why no one could understand him if he talked English but in beowulf never really explains if he can talk or just make noises. Yet every human was scared of Grendel seemingly even as a child they thought coldly of the poor creäture but overall I think Grendel was a misinterpreted creäture that no one paid attention to or even tried to make peace with.