John Gardners Grendel as Hero? Essay -- Grendel Essays

ass Gardners Grendel as Hero? I cry, and hug myself, and laugh, letting out salt tears, he he till I fall down gasping and sobbing.1 With these speech the reader is introduced to the friend of Gardners Grendel, and the mood is set for the coming pages. How is one to depict this ambiguous, melodramatic narrator, whose phrases mix seemingly heartfelt emotional outbursts with witty (if cynical) observations, and ideological musings with ironic commentaries? Perhaps this is what makes Grendel such(prenominal) an extremely engaging narrator. A confuse juxtaposition is established in the first pages, in which the reader must somehow reconcile a hideous, murdering monster, with an appargonntly philosophical, intelligent, wry and thoughtful being. It is clarify from the outset, that if Grendel is to be the hero of this novel, then he will not be so in the conventional sense of the word. The Macquarie Dictionary defines a hero as, a man of distinguished courage or performance, admir ed for his distinguished qualities.2 Grendel, Ruiner of Meadhalls, possesses no readily apparent noble qualities, so how then is he to win over the reader? As the fountainhead 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 personal qualities, there are several external factors which elicit sympathy in the reader, and tend to see the light Grendel by a more favourable light. These include his indoctrination by the calculus (who encouraged him to believe him that it was his natural role and duty to harass the Scyldings), and his impose 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. III 4 vols. Pasadena, atomic number 20 capital of Oregon Press, 1991, p 1273 _______. Critical Review of Short Fiction. Vol. III 4 vols.. Pasadena, California Salem Press, 1991 . Rebsamen, Frederick. Beowulf A Verse Translation. youthful York HarperCollins, 1991. End 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.