Beowulf: Psychologically Complex

Grendel exhibits human feelings and characteristics in many ways. Although Grendel is a monster “forced into isolation by his bestial appearance and limited imagination” (Butts) he yearns to be a part of society; he craves

When readers are introduced to Grendel, he is a melodramatic creature who has no one to truly understand him. His emotions contribute to Grendel is caught in situations where he tries to interact but there is a barrier. When he encounters humans they fear him because of how violent he is or seems to be, but they retaliate with the same violence. The irony in this passage is that humans are attacking him because

            There is a stage in everyone’s life where they feel they are not accepted by someone or something. Whether it is because of one’s age, appearance, or emotional and mental stability, a sense of disproval and isolation appears to be glaring through the eyes of society. Throughout Grendel’s life, he is shunned from humanity for he was viewed as something of destruction and harm. However, not one person ever took the time out to see Grendel’s true personality or really discover what he was all about. When facing the realities of the cruel world, Grendel found himself severely struggling with some psychological deficiencies. After performing multiple psychoanalysis tests on Grendel’s behavior, his

Beowulf: A New Telling is a book for people that need reassurance that light will overcome darkness and that we need to accept that we have some darkness inside of us, then our weaknesses can become our strengths. Beowulf has to face many faces of evil, including Grendel, the cruel slimy creature who murders Beowulf’s friends and She, the wife of Cain and malicious monster that lives at the bottom of a pool of blood. He becomes king of Geats and is famous all throughout the land.

He feels he is destined to be cursed and shunned by humanity. As the chapter goes on, Grendel becomes to be angered at the humans and at God. “It was a cold-blooded lie that a god had lovingly made the world and set out the sun and moon as lights to land-dwellers, that brothers had fought, that one of them was saved, the other cursed” (pg 55). This “presence” was beginning to consume Grendel. Thoughts of confusion and rage were going back and forth in his head.

In the novel, Grendel, the images of isolation and darkness enhanced the character development of Grendel as he encountered loneliness, developed hatred, and became evil. Isolation and darkness were two important images used throughout the novel. In the beginning, baby Grendel was an innocent being. Initially, he did not kill humans for fun, and he only killed animals for food. With each image of isolation and darkness being portrayed, Grendel began to transform into a lonely, depressed, hateful, and ultimately evil character. The primary burden that Grendel had to endure was that he had nobody to develop a relationship with and nobody to love him in return. Therefore, he became consumed with his own loneliness, depression, and

people for only the reason of that they were having a good time, and he wasn’t. He is

Grendel was initially curious by nature, not cruel or vicious. He sought to explore and understand his world and the creatures in it, including the humans. Grendel

In the novel, Grendel by John Gardener, Grendel is a human-like creature capable of rational thought as well as feeling emotions. Early on in the story Gardener depicts Grendel as being very observant, critical and somewhat spiteful of the world around him. He describes himself as a murderous monster who smells of death and crouches in the shadows. Grendel watches the humans from the shadows of the trees and at first it seems as though they are the real monsters, slaughtering and pillaging all for the sake of their leaders and for power. This light that the humans are put in gives Grendel a certain charisma about him, making him seem like the one to side with in this novel. Later in the story, however, things change. Grendel seeks out the

The story of Beowulf is a heroic epic chronicling the illustrious deeds of the great Geatish warrior Beowulf, who voyages across the seas to rid the Danes of an evil monster, Grendel, who has been wreaking havoc and terrorizing the kingdom. Beowulf is glorified for his heroic deeds of ridding the land of a fiendish monster and halting its scourge of evil while the monster is portrayed as a repugnant creature who deserves to die because of its evil actions. In the epic poem, Beowulf the authors portrays Grendel as a cold-hearted beast who thrives on the pain of others. Many have disagreed with such a simplistic and biased representation of Grendel and his role in the epic poem. John Gardner in his book, Grendel set out to change the

Epic Motivations vs. Epic Hero (Analysis of Beowulf's Motivations) Motivation has a funny way of pushing people beyond their limits, allowing them to succeed even more than they previously thought possible. Everyone's motivations are different; some people are motivated by other individuals while others are motivated by goals. A common appearance of motivations is seen in the epic poem Beowulf as well. This ancient epic piece of history was originally told orally for numerous years, captivating audiences long ago as it still does today.

First, in both pieces of literature, each main character experiences an external conflict in order to complete their quest and return home. The external conflict in the poems involve a struggle with man, nature, or both. In Beowulf, the external conflict is man versus man. Beowulf fights Brecca, Grendel, Grendel’s mother, and the Dragon. As he progresses on, Beowulf’s opponents become less and less human, meaning that the risk of death is greater. He expresses this emotion when he addresses his men before the final battle with the Dragon. “I would rather not use a weapon if I knew another way to grapple with the dragon and make good my boast as I did Grendel in days gone by. But I shall be meeting

This leaves Beowulf as the monster, when we believe him to be the hero. For the rest of the poem this leaves us an opening to judge him on character. Because of this fault, one can believe that he is a faulty king and ruler, even though he does what a king is suppose to do; he gives gifts to his Geats.

As opposed to the primitive monster in Beowulf, there is not much that separates Grendel from humans. Grendel is intelligent, capable of deep rational thoughts, “I understood that the world was nothing: a mechanical chaos of causal, brute enmity on which we stupidly impose our hopes and fears” (Gardner 21). This is from his younger years when he was going through a very traumatic experience that resulted with him having philosophical thoughts. He is without a doubt intelligent, to the extent that those philosophical thoughts adapted quickly. Grendel goes from believing that existence was pointless, to believing that he alone existed and created the universe. He is also temperamental, as he often cries and goes through outbursts of emotions. For instance, when he first hears the shaper’s words and when he is overcome with the beauty of Wealtheow. If not for his hideous appearance and eating of humans, he could be seen as a human. Grendel’s violence and brutality is not all that special, as it is often stressed how violent humans are. Through this portrayal of Grendel, it becomes obvious that he was misunderstood. His first encounter with humans is the perfect example. When he was trapped in between trees, the humans found him and because they were scared by the sounds he made. They tried to kill him, even though he was only asking for help, “The king snatched an ax from the man beside him and, without warning, he hurled it at me” (Gardner 27). This Grendel is a monster but not like the one in Beowulf, he is a lonely outcast that did not want to be alone, “Why can’t I have someone to talk to?” (Gardner

The project is was to use the Beowulf story for inspiration on a artistic project that would give depth or modernise the classic tale. Originally we planned on filming a modern take on the scene where Beowulf confronts and kills Grendel's Mother. We thought this was one of the easier projects to do, because it simply had to be a minute long film with a more modern perspective on the scene. I was to be in charge of the story board and the script while Alyssa did the paper. Unfortunately I was dissatisfied with multiple iterations of the script I eventually abandon it for our back up idea of the newspaper. This was your backup because Alyssa has experience with writing newspapers and neither one of us is artistic enough to do the any of the