John Gardners Grendel as Hero? Essay -- Grendel Essays

John Gardners Grendel as Hero? I cry, and hug myself, and laugh, letting let on salt tears, he he till I fall mow gasping and sobbing.1 With these words the ratifier is introduced to the hero of Gardners Grendel, and the mood is set for the orgasm pages. How is one to interpret this ambiguous, melodramatic narrator, whose phrases mix seemingly heartfelt mad outbursts with witty (if cynical) observations, and ideological musings with ironic commentaries? Perhaps this is what makes Grendel such an extremely spicy narrator. A confounding juxtaposition is established in the first pages, in which the reader must somehow reconcile a hideous, murdering monster, with an apparently philosophical, intelligent, ironical and thoughtful being. It is clear from the outset, that if Grendel is to be the hero of this novel, then he provide not be so in the conventional sense of the word. The Macquarie vocabulary defines a hero as, a man of distinguished courage or performance, admired for h is noble qualities.2 Grendel, Ruiner of Meadhalls, possesses no readily apparent noble qualities, so how then is he to earnings over the reader? As the question suggests, Grendel has many elements of character that can nevertheless win over his audience, such as his humour, and his intelligence and self-consciousness. In addition to these own(prenominal) qualities, there are several external factors which elicit sympathy in the reader, and tend to illuminate Grendel by a more favourable light. These implicate his indoctrination by the dragon (who encouraged him to believe him that it was his natural role and craft to harass the Scyldings), and his imposed immortality (his view of which can be summarised in his comment, So it goes with me day by day and ... ...tical Review of Long Fiction. Vol. deuce-ace 4 vols. Pasadena, California Salem Press, 1991, p 1273 _______. Critical Review of Short Fiction. Vol. III 4 vols.. Pasadena, California Salem Press, 1991. Rebsamen, Frederick. Beowulf A Verse Translation. New York HarperCollins, 1991. wipeout Notes 1 Gardner, John, Grendel, New York Vintage, 1989, p. 6. 2 Delbridge, A., Bernard, J. R. L., Blair, D., Peters, P., Butler, S., Eds., The Macquarie Dictionary, Second Ed., Macquarie Macquarie, 1995, p. 826. 3 Gardner, p. 8. 4 Ibid., p. 6. 5 Ibid., p. 14. 6 Ibid., p. 85. 7 Ibid., p. 46. 8 Ibid., p. 51. 9 Ibid., p. 52. 10 Ibid., p. 100. 11 Ibid., p. 74. 12 Ibid., pp. 72-3. 13 Ibid., p. 75. 14 Ibid., p. 9. 15 Ibid., p. 146. 16 Ibid., pp. 21-2. 17 Ibid., p. 24. 18 Ibid., p. 173. 19 Ibid., p. 92.