Beowulf Cocky Quotes

Grendel’s violence stems from his belief that all things in the universe, including people, have no reason to exist. After meeting the dragon, an omniscient creature with knowledge of the past and the future, Grendel tries to change his own ways by repressing his animal nature and not harming the humans. The dragon asserts that everything that the humans do in the search for meaning, including religion and art, is pointless. During the talk, the dragon suggests to Grendel that he should find something tangible in the world and hold on to it, saying “my advice to you, my violent friend, is to seek out gold and sit on it.” (Gardner 74).

Like many whom suffer the same disorder, Grendel completely changed his mind, extending from one topic to the exact opposite. He goes against his own ideas as if he were two totally opposing characters. He also always thought the dragon was near. Grendel allowed the ways and beliefs of the dragon to get in his head. He would claim he could “smell the dragon’s scent” whenever something sinister occurred. All of these symptoms, in addition to the isolation from Hrothgar’s people lead to the overall cause in withdrawal from society. Grendel’s emotional disturbances caused him to react completely unreasonable and rather foolish many times within his life.

Throughout the history of man, humans have been faced with the decision to either follow the path of morality or the path of evil. Especially in the case of choices, fortitude becomes necessary, as one cannot give in to their inner demons. In the book Grendel, by John Gardner, the quote, “My advice to you, my violent friend, is to seek out gold and sit on it” (74) shows the true purpose of the Dragon - to demonstrate the path of malice: the path of disinterest. Also, the Dragon shows little to know caring for others, especially in the case of overall interest in the happenings of the world. This idea of indifference plays tricks in Grendel’s mind, which makes sense, as dragons through literature represent evil, greed, and violence, making this character the perfect foil for Grendel.

In the 21st century, there are several key points in which our society believe masculinity stands for some would include being active, non-emotional, and independent. Although this may be the case for our people today it doesn’t for Beowulf. In Beowulf a man has to prove himself as masculine to earn others respect and to be looked up upon. It also seems to be a disgrace to the individual and the community if you can not prove that you have conformed to the standards that society has settled upon. To be a man is to be accountable for everything that he does. Beowulf represents, for this text, the ideal of what a man should be. The reader can see through his actions what traits the author believes a man should have to prove their masculinity. Thus, based off of Beowulf, masculinity is represented through actions, weaponry, and bravery. These different factors that define masculinity in beowulf are not bad however, they can be very limiting especially because everyone is born with a different built and different talents. With this said it can be assumed that the author purposely disregarded this fact. In Beowulf because of these limited views on what man should be there is a high chance of rebellion or some sort of revenge culture. If man can not conform to certain standards there is a way for them to prove everyone else that these so called traits to be a man is completely inaccurate, to prove this, revenge is a possibility. The non-masculine man would definitely take revenge

"The sky says nothing, predictably. I make a face, uplift a defiant middle finger, and give an obscene little kick. The sky ignores me, forever unimpressed. Him too I hate, the same as I hate these brainless budding trees, these brattling birds (Gardner 6)." He also developed a hatred toward humans after getting stuck in the tree. On that dark night, he learned that humans were dangerous because they tried to hurt him instead of helping him. "It wasn't because he threw that battle-ax that I turned on Hrothgar. That was mere midnight foolishness... It wasn't until later, when I was full-grown and Hrothgar was an old, old man, that I settled my soul on destroying him—slowly and cruelly (Gardner 30).” The humans were not as innocent as the Shaper perceived them to be. Grendel lurked in the darkness and watched them as they battled and destroyed their own kind. Ultimately, the dragon with the dark scales made an immense impact on Grendel’s character. Grendel was not sure of his purpose in life, and the dragon confirmed that he should be evil by killing the humans. At first, Grendel resisted. However, hatred led to Grendel’s determination to punish mankind.

Through his eyes are shown the futility of a romantic outlook and the destruction of a dream. "If the Shaper's vision of goodness and peace is a part of himself, not idle rhymes, then no one understands him at all," thinks Grendel, recognizing the divergence between reality and the heroic ideal. His defeat of Unferth marks the symbolic destruction of heroism, at least in his head; "So much for heroism," he concludes. Even Grendel's existence would seem to disprove the notions of the Shaper, who preaches the virtues of honor and courage. If the world is based on right and wrong, how can Grendel continue to survive? How can he kill senselessly every night, bring so much grief and torment to humans, and yet nothing come of it? "It's all the same in the end, matter or motion, simple or complex," whether he kills or not. In the beginning, Grendel decides that life must be devoid of meaning. Nihilism is, of curse, a rather depressing, if liberating, way to go through life, but such would seem to be the conclusion of the book.

Being that Grendel is a ridiculous child-like character there are two points of view in this analysis. The analysis of Grendel, and his actions against humanity that is

Whenever grendel is around people, he has a natural inclination to dislike them because they do not Grendel as he is. Grendel’s mother can speak and understand little amount of the human language and due to the unfair treatment from society, Grendel hates his mother. He thinks she is going to become like society and deep down, feels she will leave him too. This is why he is always picking fights with her, yelling at her, or showing disgust. Due to the isolation he creates, Grendel suffers from attachment issues and a lack of connection. This lack of connection to the public, leaves Grendel with his thoughts and self doubt. He is left alone. “I understand that the world was nothing: a mechanical chaos of casual, brute enmity on which we stupidly impose our hopes and fears. I understood that, finally and absolutely, I alone exist. all the rest, I saw, is merely what pushes me, or what I push against, blindly - as blindly as all that is not myself pushes back. I create the whole universe, blink by blink.” ― John Gardner, Grendel

Grendel's tragic downfall of his death by Beowulf is cause by his self-belief. He believes no one can hurt him so he approaches Beowulf instead of running away. If he was aware of Beowulf, and realized that he was not like the other men, and instead of thinking, nothing can hurt him, he might have survived.

When the bull is trying to attack him, he notices “He’d struck too low, and even in my terror I understood that he would always strike too low: he fought by instinct, blind mechanism ages old” (16). While wanting to deny it, Grendel first realizes here his ongoing theory that all living things are mechanical, driven only by what they are programmed to do. Here is where he first loses a large part of his innocence, finding himself having to face the split down the middle of his mentality, between skepticism and believing that life has significance. This begins his downfall to ultimate nihilism.

"The mountains are what I define them as.... What I see I inspire with usefulness... and all that I do not see is useless, a void." [28-29] Grendel then sees that the world is how he views it, and his senses make up everything: reality is dynamic. This important conclusion leads him to begin to look around him and form thoughts and opinions on all that he sees, as well as placing him at the first step down the road of the cynical death he suffers. His first impressions

After meeting with the Dragon and being given an immense amount of knowledge, Grendel walks away with only one thing, he must be the monster humans need to survive, "Whatever I may have understood or misunderstood in the dragon's talk, something much deeper stayed with me, became my aura. Futility, doom, became a smell in the air, pervasive and acrid as the dead smell after a fire" (Gardner 75). The dragon sought to assist a lost soul, yet when he realized Grendel was not understanding his lessons, he took an opportunity to create a monster. Grendel finally accepts this answer to his question of "how should I live", yet it sinks him deeper into a Nihilistic way of thinking. He begins to understand that life had no real value, neither do the humans surrounding him, " It leads gradually to his increasing isolation: he finds fault with all the great human values (and the fault is legitimate; nothing in this world is perfect...)" (Gardner's Letter). However, this life of destruction is pointless and begins to bore Grendel. Both of his encounters with Unferth demonstrate how "over it" Grendel has become. Rather than entertain Unferth and fight, he decides to have fun and mock him instead, " And now I was raining apples at him and laughing myself weak." (Gardner 85). This interaction with a man who is supposed to encompass all human values, leads Grendel to doubt the words

After being trapped in between two trees, Grendel finds himself contemplating about the importance of his existence and the existence of others. He has come to the conclusion that the world has no meaning and all the things he experiences are not true. He believes that the only thing that he can truly count on is his existence and the beliefs he alone possesses. When speaking about the overall nature of humans, Grendel speaks of how he disapproves of their values and how they view the world. He doesn't understand why they spend time admiring the different seasons, and shows no remorse over the fact that he is a murderer.

During the 12 chapters of Grendel's demise he meets many different types of character and with Grendel starting out as a young child-like naive mindset, he is easily manipulated by other too think many different ways. By Grendel starting out as a mind that can easily have others come into his life and change the way he sees life starts off a chain of reactions that makes him create beliefs and then even just after he will go against them. If Grendel took initiative as a smart intelligible mind then he would have never had to meet new characters in his life and try and hear what they have to say. Since that is not how he is, he is a person/monster who is in need of a leader. He has a mother but she is never entirely there for her own son.

The dragon pushes Grendel’s inherent existentialism to the more extreme philosophy of nihilism. Grendel now begins to see the world as very bleak and cold. He feels there is no love in this cruel world.