"Grendel" and "Beowulf"

Paper Summary:

Examines the two different interpretations, found in "Beowulf" and "Grendel", of man killing a beast, looks at the causes of the conflict in each story, discusses whether the two main characters in each story receive what they want, and explains what it is each of the main characters is actually looking for.

From the Paper:

"Gardner's Grendel contradicts Beowulf's belief that killing Grendel is the right thing to do. Grendel "understood that the world was nothing: a mechanical chaos of casual, brute enmity on which we stupidly impose our hopes and fears. All the rest, I saw is merely what pushes me, or what I push against, blindly-as blindly all that is not myself pushes back" (Gardner 21). Grendel has logic as opposed to his brute counterpart in Beowulf. He logically explains that world has no point or meaning, as he states, "The mountains are what I define them as" (Gardner 28). Gardner portrays Grendel as logical and gives Beowulf as well as the rest of the people an identity and a philosophy. By killing the people of Denmark, Grendel demonstrates that life is short."

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