Comparing Grendel And The Monster In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Gears operate properly when each particular section is correctly in place so, the smallest defect can cause the gears to malfunction and generate chaos within the entire system. Correspondingly, Grendel in the novel and the monster in Frankenstein resemble these defects. Their being amongst their surrounding societies makes them realize what outcasts they are. Grendel in the novel is somewhat similar to the monster in Frankenstein because both are pained to not being able to accommodate with people, both are rejected by people, and both compare their situations to the stories of those cursed in the bible. Grendel’s pain of being an outsider is understood in the scene where Grendel observes the Shaper’s performance in the mead hall. At first,
When Grendel came up close with men while hanging from the tree, he notes how their “sounds were foreign/ it was [his] own language, but spoken in a strange way” (Gardner 23). He catches the difference of how the men and he communicate. Even though Grendel understood the men’s words, he knows he falls short from belonging at all. The slightest difference in communication immediately proves Grendel is the odd one out. The monster’s interaction with people weren’t far from Grendel’s experience. Shelley says how “the whole village was roused; [while] some fled, some attacked [him]” (Shelley 90). The village scared away the monster with obvious intentions because he seems so foreign to their kind. The people would rather shut the monster out than cease their judgmental thoughts and open their society to him. To the monster’s dismay, he wasn’t even given a chance to introduce his true heart and wishful thoughts of becoming a member of the
He concludes that God hadn’t made a perfect world where “the brothers had fought, that one of the races [was] saved, the other cursed” (Gardner 55). However, Grendel believed the Shaper’s words brought truth to this claim. Grendel saw himself as the race of Cain, which is cursed. Grendel is aware of how destructive he is, unlike the people. Therefore, he accepts the fact that he may as well be a descendant of Cain. As the monster reads Paradise Lost he, too, made assumptions himself. In a way, he “was apparently united by no link to any other being in existence” like how Adam was first created by God (Shelley 110). However, the monster is “wretched, helpless, and alone” while Adam was given Eve to bond with (Shelley 111). The monster’s creator, Victor Frankenstein, abandoned him altogether with no one to support him. The monster’s existence is a mere tragedy since he doesn’t have a mate like Eve; he truly has no one at all for that matter, but his creator Frankenstein. Dealt with his forsake, he has no power to change his fate. 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