Preview

The Emotions of Grendel the Monster

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
516 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Emotions of Grendel the Monster
The Emotions of Grendel the Monster

Emotions are not just for humans. Animals have emotions too yet do we dub them human? No, we don’t, even though they too feel anger, sadness, and pain

Grendel, thou he is a monster, has emotions. Would anyone consider him human? No, we all consider him a bloodthirsty monster. Animals, when they lose someone in their group they mourn. We feel their pain. Grendel takes away our family for food and fun. He feels joy from our pain and suffering. We should not feel sympathy for him, but hate. Emotions or not, he is nothing but a monster. A killing machine. He feels no sympathy for anything or anyone. He enjoys the pain he brings us. He kills many of us just to feed himself miserable. Yes, we kill animals, but we feed many with one. We feel sorrow for those we kill, we are sorry to take them from their families.

He is neither human nor animal. Humans and animals care for one another, even if they’re out of their species. A cat can care for a bird. A dog can be a mother to kittens if their mother dies. Miniature horses and pigs help blind humans. We try to save one another when we’re in danger. Fire men rescue cats from trees. Dogs give us warning of seizures. He cares for nothing; he cares for no one but himself. He will kill anything and everything, in his way or not. Be it human or animals, he doesn’t care, to him killing is killing and killing is fun. Every day when he wakes, he looks forward to slaughtering anyone and everyone he can.

He’s a lot like John Wayne Gacy, the killer clown who killed 33 boys and men. They both only kill for pleasure. And just because they have emotions does that mean we should sympathize with them? Would you sympathize with a serial killer? Unstoppable killing machines

should be killed the same way they kill their victims. They shouldn’t live just because they have feelings. Would you want John Wayne Gacy free just because he had feelings? No, you would want him behind bars

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Women in the Anglo-Saxon society have be viewed as having a very derogatory status, and although the Anglo-Saxon society did not necessarily have certain expectations of women ‘set-in-stone’, what they did have was a precise terminology for the words ‘man’ and ‘woman’.…

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The story focuses on Grendel’s different philosophies of thought. He observes the local humans, the Scyldings’ development as a civilization and as individuals. His first encounters with the outside world are both bewildering and melancholy. His encounter with a bull and humans leads to his search for personal meaning and his desire to torment the humans. All these things show that Grendel is not a monster, but a non-human who possesses human-like qualities, such as emotion and thoughts.…

    • 406 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    He, a descendant of Cain, has been exiled into darkness: “Conceived by a pair of those monsters born/ Of Cain, murderous creatures banished/ By God, punished forever for the crime/ Of Abel’s death” (20-23). Therefore, as a foe of God, Grendel is angered at the fact he cannot exist in light. Given that he cannot enact his revenge upon God himself, Grendel enacts his revenge upon God's people. Other reasons why he may attack humans is that the text also specifically says that he can't stand the noise of the "harp’s rejoicing"(4) in the mead hall. Grendel is perhaps attacking because the joyful camaraderie reminds him each day of his own isolation -- owing to his connection to the Biblical Cain. He is described as child-like. Young children will lash out when they are frustrated or don't like what is going on. If a noise is too loud, they might just cry, but they might hit the person making the noise. Of course, children don't react this way out of violence or evil, but rather out of a lack of self-control. Grendal is both child-like and evil. He is unable and unwilling to control himself. His reaction to the joyful noises he hears in the hall begins as a lack of self-control and continues as an evil act of anger and vengeance against the…

    • 1078 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    As Grendel is trapped in the tree he learns that not everyone will be there, especially when you need them the most. “Please, Mama!’ I sobbed as if heartbroken.” (Gardner 19) As Grendel stands with his foot trapped he is utterly hopeless and yells for his mother however she is nowhere to be found. Grendel learns that he must be by himself and be his own person, even in the most dire of times. As the bull rushes in too pulverize Grendel the bull hits too low. “But that was all. The tree shuddered as he banged it with his skull,” (Gardner 21) Grendel physically learns how to dodge a bull but most importantly he learns that he can handle things on his without the help of anyone which furthers this belief that he can be his OWN person, not one…

    • 235 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Gardner's novel, Grendel speaks from a first person point of view and we discover that he is not so much the brutal and heartless beast that everyone believes he is, but rather a perpetually misunderstood, lonely creature. In this story the monster is given more of a personality and humane quality. He struggles to understand the human race, when every attempt is instantly shot down because of the fear he instills into every creature he comes across. In Grendel, Grendel is nothing more than a misguided being who is trying to find a purpose in life and acts violently as a result of fear. Readers are able to more closely identify with Grendel in this story and cannot help but to empathize with the monster whenever he is victimized by others. In this novel he is considered as the protagonist of the…

    • 393 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Grendel’s goodness is continuously suppressed by the misunderstanding of humans. When Grendel first encounter’s humans, the humans immediately mistake Grendel for a bloodthirsty monster because of his appearance. In the beginning when Grendel is still developing his moral and spiritual understandings of the world,…

    • 659 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Both characters, Grendel and the monster, can’t be associated with people. Both are grotesque, alarming creatures. Both are sentient, they cannot become a fellow comrade to their surrounding societies despite their depression and loneliness. Both want nothing more than companionship with someone other than Grendel’s mother and Victor Frankenstein, but they are aware of how utterly impossible…

    • 747 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Grendel mother is an ugly, smelly beast who Grendel resents and yet loves in a dependent, childish way. She cannot speak; she tries to communicate with his son by caressing and holding him. And at times she would go too far and suffocated him. She helpless at times she has to wait for him to bring her food, but when Grendel needs her, he cries like baby, and usually she saves him. She is also fierce and terrifying. Grendel sets himself apart from his mother according to him she does not think coherently. He believes he above her. He thinks of her as a fool. “Life-bloated, baffled, long-suffering, hag. Guilty, she imagines, of some unremembered, perhaps ancestral crime.”…

    • 386 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the first chapter of Grendel, I believe that Grendel is more animal than human. In Grendel he is portrayed as a sensitive, intelligent, and immature creature.Grendel is more animal than human because he does act like an animal. For instance, When Grendel states “I cry and , and hug myself, and laugh, letting out all the salt tears…”(Gardner 6). Even animals have feelings. I feel Grendel is not welcomed within society. He feels as though he has worthless. As an example, “Pointless, ridiculous monster crouched in the shadows...”(Gardner 6). He hides in the shadows as he looks for his prey not being welcomed by anyone else. Grendel feasts upon other animals and humans. He eats more cattle than anything. For example, “Cows have more meat and,…

    • 146 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Poor Grendel’s had an accident, I whisper. so may you all” (Gardner 174). I think it is Grendel’s hatred of the society of mankind that develops throughout the novel, leading to his ultimate curse he lays upon them with those words. “I knew I was dealing with no mechanical bull, but with thinking creatures, pattern makers, the most dangerous things i'd ever met” (Gardner 27). This quote is an example of why I think Grendel's last words refer to a curse to mankind. Grendel believes mankind are the most dangerous and terrifying creatures out there and deserve to be cursed as they have treated him so bad. For example “But they were doomed, I knew, and I was glad. No denying it. Let them wander the fogroads of Hell” (Gardner 53). Grendel wishes…

    • 318 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To begin with, Grendel’s last words are “ Poor Grendel’s had an accident,” I whisper. “So may you all” (Gardner 174). Grendel is cursing the animals around him. For instance, when Grendel illustrates that he doesn’t like animals. This is when he has several incidences with the animals. Likewise, Grendel yelled “I smile, threatened by an animal already dead, still climbing” (Gardner 140). Grendel felt threatened by the animal, therefore he had to kill the goat. The goat trespassed on Grendel’s rock, making Grendel dislike the goat because the goat wouldn’t leave his rock. Also, Grendel implies “Why can’t these creatures discover a little dignity”(Gardner 6). The animals bother Grendel a lot of times. Grendel is just trying to be alone. He doesn’t…

    • 199 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Grendel, when first meeting the wise and old dragon learned how the humans felt when he had confronted them. The Dragon explained that the fear is "how they feel when they see" him (Gardner 60). Grendel felt a little shame, so for the first time, considered how they, the humans, must have felt after seeing a strange creature. Out of guilt, he wants to no longer wants scare them for pleasure or for sport; he only wants to eat the occasional few, so they will not starve from overpopulation. His brief thoughts and consideration of the human's feeling reveal how sensitive and "humane" he really was. Furthermore, early in the novel, Grendel learns of a man, known as the Shaper, who sings to entertain the folks in the Mead Halls. The Shaper sings of all sorts of stories and myths to give the people hope of something greater in the next life. He also sang of Grendel's kind, which is "the terrible race God cursed" (Gardner 51). Grendel desperately wanted to believe this; he wanted to be part of the cursed creatures that are offsprings of Cain. This may give him some sort of purpose in life. Additionally, the human that he had a "relationship", which that affected him the most, was with Hrothgar's wife, Wealhtheow. Grendel had seen Wealhtheow when her brother, Hrothgar's rival, wanted to make peace, so he offered Wealhtheow as his peace offering. There was no real relationship that developed between them, but, like with the Shaper, Grendel got obsessed. Her beauty made him temporarily stop the slaughter of innocent humans. Her presence made him rethink about what he was doing. He felt that she was on a higher class and was greater than himself. All he wanted, at least for that moment, was to do anything to please her. His whole psyche changed for, and he began to stalk her constantly because he was hypnotized by her beauty.…

    • 521 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Grendel was not human, he was an animal that eats anything he sees around him. Grendel was a lonely beast, he did not have any relationship with any human being. His Mother was the only person he knew since he was a little child. Grendel’s mother loved him is some different ways, but he was not sure about that. “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.” (P.22). He feels like his mother and he was the only being exist, but he also feels that he was separate from her. When he was crying, she would hold him against her. “Thus I fled, ridiculous hairy creature torn apart by poetry crawling, whimpering, streaming tears, across the world like a two-headed beast, like mixed up lamb…

    • 639 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Grendel: a true hero

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages

    A hero is a person noted for their act of courage and nobility of a purpose. In the novel of Grendel by John Gardener, there is a hero but he is not who would think it is. The issue of who the true hero is illustrated through the conflict between Grendel and Unferth. Grendel is treated as a monster that killed villagers and considered embodiment of evil. Unferth goes after the “monster” in order to have his name live forever in history and, apparently, to save his people. While they both share the same primal instinct of survival, there are several major differences between them. Grendel is the hero of the story because he is proud, intelligent, and strong under fire.…

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Nonhuman Animals

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Most people associate feelings and emotion with only human beings, not with nonhuman animals. Less than 41% of people believe that nonhuman animals have emotions and are capable of displaying and acting on them, similar as to what humans would do (Livescience). There are many signs pointing towards the conclusion that nonhuman animals are also sentient beings. Specifically, scientists said that all vertebrates are in some way sentient beings, ranging from birds to fish, and reptiles to mammals. Animals are able to express their varying emotions through audible sounds, body gestures, and animal-specific stereotypical behaviors.…

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays