Grendel: Villain Or Tragic Hero?
In Beowulf, Grendel is Portrayed as nothing but a monster. He swoops into the hall, murders and pillages the place, then returns to his evil underground underwater lair. He is described as nothing more than a villain that Terrorizes the community. None can stop him but the famed Hero Beowulf, who selflessly fights and defeats the beast. Grendel is said to be strong and immune to blades and that he eats his victims.
Other versions of the story however, depict a different picture. The book Grendel, by John Gardner depicts the monster as more of a sad misunderstood character. He is shown to be incredibly lonely with no one to converse to, and upon his first interaction with humans, they are the initial aggressors, not he. Grendel constantly frets over the meaninglessness of his life and becomes quite discontent and irritated with his life and loneliness. He doesn't believe in true hero chivalry, and fails to see the point of being a hero at all. Grendel suffers horribly from his near constant isolation and for much of his life, the only thing he interacted with was his mother, who cannot speak.
Grendel''s first interaction with humanity sets the tone for the rest of his life. Grendel is attacked by Hrothgar, and is never shown anything but violence by them. Can we really fault him for turning against humanity and terrorizing them the way he does?
All of Grendel's life, he is isolated, with nothing to do except wallow in his own misery with absolutely no one to talk to. the first time he meets humans they almost kill him, and his visit with the dragon doesn't help facilitate good feelings towards others. It could be said that almost anyone in Grendel's situation might decide to become a "Monster" of sorts and terrorize others. Grendel simply does not know better and when he is essentially goaded by the dragon it becomes hard to really fault him.
In the original Poem, we simply do not know enough about Grendel to determine if he is a true villain, we never see his point of view. Grendel certainly appears to be the villain, he merrily murders people regularly, and theres a lot to be said that upbringing or not, Killing is still killing, and Grendel's actions are still not justifiable no matter the consequences. I can agree with that statement, but its hard not to empathize with Grendel when the story is told from his point of view. I'm not saying i think Grendel is justified in his actions, he isn't but i definitely cannot say that in his shoes i would act any differently than he does. Isolation and violence are a recipe for disaster, and Grendel was the perfect combination, I do not condone his actions, but i do think that we shouldn't judge too harshly after viewing things from his side of the street.