Grendel : Evil

In the novel, Grendel by John Gardener, Grendel is a human-like creature capable of rational thought as well as feeling emotions. Early on in the story Gardener depicts Grendel as being very observant, critical and somewhat spiteful of the world around him. He describes himself as a murderous monster who smells of death and crouches in the shadows. Grendel watches the humans from the shadows of the trees and at first it seems as though they are the real monsters, slaughtering and pillaging all for the sake of their leaders and for power. This light that the humans are put in gives Grendel a certain charisma about him, making him seem like the one to side with in this novel. Later in the story, however, things change. Grendel seeks out the dragon to receive clarity. Rather than granting him clarity, this encounter instead changes Grendel for the worse, making him the monster and altering his personality to become more vicious and arrogant. This arrogance ends up being his fatal fault sending him to his own demise. In this way, John Gardener suggests that all evil will come to its end of its own doing. In the beginning of his novel Grendel, John Gardener portrays Grendel as a rational creature, not necessarily caring about the humans but just observing them from a distance. He murders humans as well, catching anyone unlucky enough to run into him. Even so, this does not take away from his charisma. Instead the humans seem to take on the role of the monster early on. They slaughter each other, pillaging and destroying neighboring villages in the name of their leaders so that they may gain power, and Grendel is frightened and confused by it. For example, "men staggered, gesturing wildly, making speeches, dying ... It was confusing and frightening, not in a way i could untangle, I was safe in my tree" (36) he cared not for the men dying, he was only disgusted by the fact that they shared a similar language. He was disgusted, and this is where his spite for the humans