Compare And Contrast Grendel And Beowulf

The novel Grendel by John Gardner portrays the main character, Grendel, into a different prospective compared to the poem, Beowulf by Burton Raffel. While in both texts, Grendel has been displayed as an ugly beast whom everyone runs in terror, in the novel, the author explains how much Grendel thinks like a human. Grendel from the novel is immensely different from Grendel in the Beowulf poem because of how these two characters are portrayed, their morals and the way they handle their death.
In both texts, they both are portrayed as ugly beasts, however they are depicted differently by the writers. In the poem, Grendel is constantly being shown as an animalistic beast that reacts by instinct. In this scene, “By morning; the monster's mind was hot. With the thought of food and the feasting his belly, would soon know. But fate, that night, intended Grendel to gnaw the broken bones. Of his last human supper.” (Beowulf lines 414-418) it shows how much Grendel is acting more like an actual animal. Unlike the poem, the Grendel from the novel is
In the poem, the readers see a cowardly monster, running away in defeat. “Grendel escaped, But wounded as he was could flee to his den, His miserable hole at the bottom of the marsh, Only to die, to wait for the end Of all his days.” (Beowulf lines 500-504) Grendel is portrayed in fear for his death which is the complete opposite in the novel where Grendel feels relief to no longer suffer being alone in life. "Poor Grendel's had an accident," I whisper. "So may you all." (Gardner pg. 174) In this scene, the animals surround him, unafraid and calm. Grendel states without fear that what Beowulf did to him was just an accident. He is actually happy to die because at least, he feels at peace. Between these two versions, the novel had more character development in Grendel due to his progression in life, finding his purpose, and battling his