John Gardner's Grendel provides us with an in-depth look at the personality and mentality of your monster regarded as an antagonist to mankind. The reader is seeing the entire world through the sight of Grendel, offering the reader the feeling of having a very close romantic relationship with him. Through this close romance that the audience creates with Grendel, it becomes obvious that Grendel undergoes a personality change throughout the novel as a dynamic character. Grendel's development throughout the book is highly affected by his communication with the Shaper, Grendel's mom, and the dragon.
The first human being to have a major effect on Grendel was the Shaper, a blind man who preaches to those around him. The first reference to the Shaper is at chapter one, when Grendel attacked Hrothgar's meadhall. During Grendel's harm, the defects of individual instinct become visible. Instead of jogging away at the look of a horrid monster, the individuals become frozen in terror like a dear in headlights. The only exception to these humans was the Shaper, who acted quickly and despite his blindness, was able to get away the building and run away from the risk. Grendel had adored the Shaper to be different from the other humans, and reacting properly and quickly, as well as for possessing knowledge Grendel wished he may have himself. Grendel's envy for a head like the Shaper triggers him to fill with jealousy, so he subconsciously attempts to mirror the ideology of the Shaper despite not being truly a individuals. The Shaper's music teach Grendel about just how that the humans live and function. To Grendel, it appears that everyone around loves and respects the Shaper, which is noticeable when Grendel clarifies that the folks, and "even the encompassing hillsides were hushed" when the Shaper spoke. This recognition triggers Grendel to wish that he could end up like the Shaper even more, so that he can finally lose the feeling of isolation and gain approval among the humans. As Grendel analyzes the attractiveness and appeal of the Shaper, he starts to realize why folks have are always jogging away at his perception. Grendel dives deep into himself to obtain a sense of the defects in his own persona, and subconsciously decided that he doesn't actually need nor care about getting the agreement of the humans because he isn't a individual and shouldn't have to reside in by the targets and standards that they have for themselves. (Gardner, notice) He was born much less a human, but as a monster that would never have the ability to live like the humans, and instead are required to follow his own role in contemporary society: to terrorize and eliminate humans.
Although it was obvious that Grendel looked after his mother, their romance wasn't always perfect. She was very controlling, and makes an attempt to keep Grendel at her part throughout the book, but she enjoyed him and was even considered a source of "comfort" to him (Grendel pg. 17). In section two of the book, Grendel views his mother as a body fat and sluggish brute who's to unintelligent to able to speak the same terms as the humans. As the mother tries to be more defensive and sheltering of Grendel, he will try to break from her more and snacks her as truly a monster or canine instead of an equivalent to himself. He realizes that she is just what he needs to avoid becoming, so he starts to spend less time with her and instead spend more time with the humans, which starts to make him are more like a individual than a monster. Grendel became more impartial as he seemed less to his mom for advice and commenced to believe for himself, using his own thoughts and observations as a guideline. He starts to build up philosophical thoughts, and begins to question the meaning and purpose of life. On the things in the novel where Grendel is giving or returning to the cave, his mind becomes restless with thoughts about the humans and what he should. The complexity of Grendel's thoughts is synonymous with the sophisticated design of the cave itself. Getting back in and out of the cave is not a simple process. Grendel represents the process as "swimming up through the firesnakes, hot dark whalecocks prowling the luminous green of the mere. ", and continues by declaring that he "gulped churning waves and smoke", which means that the mere is burning. (Grendel pg. 9) This particular is utilized as symbolic of the unconscious and feelings, which clarifies the thoughts that begin to bounce around in Grendel's head as he is on his way in or out of his cave. Grendel's thinking to himself is paramount to his development as an independent individual. He seems so dependent nearby the end of the book that he even ignores the warning of his mom. His mother wishes to safeguard him and warn him of the danger he is getting into, but her caution only comes out as "Warovvish". (Grendel pg. 145) Without attempting to comprehend what she was stating, he shrugs her alert off as gibberish and persists using what he originally designed. Instead of relying on the advice and opinions of others, Grendel tries to type everything out within his own thoughts. This triggers him to be less and less dependent on other characters, which allows him to become more of a person.
The final figure to have a major impact on Grendel's character was the dragon, who makes his first appearance in section five of the novel. Prior to achieving the dragon, the only real being that Grendel ever met stronger than himself was his mother. Grendel became so terrified at the website of the monstrous dragon that he could hardly even speak. Grendel hasn't really felt this level of fear, and it makes him realize that there tend to be fearsome creatures to walk the planet than him. This fear also rationalizes the sensation of the terror the human's display when encountering Grendel, so he now understands their concern with him. The dragon shows to be an incredibly smart philosopher, so when the dragon starts reading his mind, Grendel becomes even more scared of him. He never felt fear like when he saw the dragon, so he didn't understand why the humans would try to escape in terror even if he were to do nothing at all wrong. He instructs Grendel that "the essence of life is to be within the annoyance of proven order", so he should continue terrorizing the humans. (Grendel pg. 67) The dragon proceeds to tell him that being terror to all humans that is actually important with their development. He continues on to describe that humans are constantly endeavoring to destroy anything they consider to be bad, but evil is in fact very important to them because without bad, the world would not be well balanced. The dragon tries to make clear to Grendel that he "drives these to poetry, science, religious beliefs, all that makes them what they are for so long as they last" (Grendel pg. 72). This means that Grendel is in fact very important to human world, and without him, mankind would not be advanced as it is today. This confrontation with the dragon allows Grendel to rid himself of the concerns he previously about the morality of getting rid of humans, finally providing him with the reason and conformation he desired to continue with his role in modern culture.
Grendel has become one of the main and developed heroes throughout the annals of books, despite him being an antagonist. His thoughts often discord with each other, but by the finish of the novel, they become very profound and complex. After his confrontation with dragon, Grendel finally grows a knowledge of his role in society, and the importance that he takes on. Through the affect of Grendel's encounters with the humans and other important character types throughout the reserve, he was able to undergo a big change and become a more intelligent, advanced being. In the very beginning of the book, Grendel was portrayed to be an unintelligent monster, isolated from the humans, having no knowledge of his role and importance to world, but by the end of the reserve, Grendel is rolling out into a complex being with a greater understanding of the globe than the humans have even.
