The Formation of Grendel’s Character The novel Grendel is one of the most profound and controversial works of contemporary American author John Gardner. Being a very versatile creative personality- novelist, specialist in study of literature, and critic; Gardner’s work is distinguished by its versatility. As a professional researcher of medieval English literature, Gardner had a particular interest in Anglo-Saxon poetry of the eighth century, especially the epic Beowulf. The novel Grendel was created in the literary material of this epic.
The author uses a part of the story presenting the events from the point of view of the monster Grendel. The latter stands for a symbol of individualism which plays the dominant role in the worldview of modern Western man. Given the fact that the novel is a continuous monologue of the protagonist, Grendel, the author was obliged to make him a personality, which is the main difference between the novel and the epic. This means that Grendel has reason, feelings, and the ability to suffer and to empathize with other people’s suffering as well as to speak.
His personality is profound in its spiritual quest, capable of making, those that do not contradict his personality, moral decisions. With the ability to speak and to understand, the reader does not only see what is happening in the novel through Grendel’s eyes, but they can also witness the emotional turmoil, painful doubts, acute moral contradictions, and witness the process of gradual aging of the whole person. Gardner’s Grendel is a creature with a powerful spiritual potential. The surrounding reality interests him, and he believes that a man is the only related entity.
The main feature of the people he discovered at the very first meeting and at that moment he realized that was dealing with “no dull mechanical bull but with thinking creatures, pattern makers, the most dangerous things I’d ever met” (Gardner 27). Grendel carefully and open-mindedly watches over people’s lives, but his attitude towards them remains ironic, but he treats himself the same way. Only some people, in particular, to the old King Hrothgar, bring out respect and compassion; few were able to have his admiration. Among them, the blind storyteller and Valteov, the wife of Hrothgar.
Contemplation of continuous wars between tribal people leads Grendel into confusion. Being a teen, which is almost immortal, and due to his exclusivity has no natural enemies so, livin constant fear for the survival of the tribe are difficult to understand. Neither passion for enrichment, nor the desire to extend the power and influence to neighboring areas do not exist for him. Grendel is essentially asocial: intense struggle of the vital interests between various human tribes, the political history of the people, keeps him curious. Therefore human wars he perceives as senseless and immoral.
Comparing the behavior of people in relation to their own kind he concluded: “no wolf was so vicious to other wolves (Gardner 32), he sees that the moral laws are different from animals in human sense. In the early stages of understanding the world, Grendel naturally comes with an idea of some kind of curse, gravitating over him and his mother, related to this curse his own abandonment by God, and sometimes even that this abandonment was spread throughout the world. The young hero accuses God of injustice, f which considers the overwhelming loneliness and apparent meaninglessness of existence.
The clearer Grendel realizes the potential power of his spiritual, mental and physical strength, the greater is his frustration that makes it impossible to find a good use for them and determine for himself the meaning and purpose of its existence. In fact, Grendel has two mentors: the dragon and storyteller, philosopher and poet. Dragon appeals to the reason of the hero, the poet appeals to his heart. First, the position of the dragon and the narrators in relation to its purpose and place in the world Grendel sees as mutually exclusive.
This is explained later, into the deeper meaning of the novel: the essence of the same phenomenon of philosopher and poet usually expressed in different ways. At some point, two different concepts: to be meaningless, sacrificed without his own understanding and voluntarily give himself as a sacrifice for the sake of high and clear goals merge together in Grendel’s mind in a painful dream of existence. The purpose of which is inaccessible, and the long-awaited reality implies a supernatural order.
A mythological situation is imaginatively presented in Gardner’s philosophical novel and returns to the tragic human moral problem when the choice is excluded that the fully conscious accept moral decision. In such circumstances, moral position can occur only in the acceptance or rejection of the dictates of fate or “wyrd”. Grendel willingly sacrificed his life for the sake of the proper implementation of the eternal plan (if there is no beast, there is no hero). The absence of choice does not negate the voluntary nature. Self-sacrifice is the result of awareness of their responsibilities and represents the highest moral achievement.
In the mind of the dying Grendel an ambiguous but giving hope thought is born: “Is it joy! feel? ” (Gardner 173). Gardner singled out these words in italics. In Gardner’s opinion, Grendel doubted his feelings because a special kind of joy, a comforting joy, spiritual satisfaction associated with the performance of duty that he actually never experienced, and so he is not sure whether it is joy. In the form of a novel, Gardner introduced an alternative to the modern “self-centered” civilization: the united society is not based on an isolated person, but every person in an integral links with the community of people.
