Grendel - John Gardner

In Grendel, John Gardner seeks to comment on the human condition and the destructive nature of biological urges to fight. There are two important aspects that establish the criticism of human nature. First is Grendel's position as a monster and outsider develops him as an external actor to the situation ensures that he cannot be categorized under human nature, thus having the ability to comment on these ideas. An important aspect of the novel is also the ideas the Grendel develops either watching humanity or even theorizing on humanity.

            In Grendel, Gardner takes the villain from the epic Beowulf and turns him into a nihilistic protagonist, who is not living in the world, but rather is on the outside looking in. From the beginning of the novel, Gardner portrays Grendel as a creature that is quite different from not only humans but all the other creatures in general. Being a creature that has no real agency or empathetic views towards the world, Grendel is a commentator on the human condition. Gardner does this through multiple examples. Firstly, he portrays Grendel as a victim of his own circumstances. Born into a hard life of loneliness and despair, Grendel is forced to turn toward the dragon for help,  but yet it causes him to go into further depression over his situation, the dragon agonizes Grendel by claiming,  “’I know everything, you see,' the old voice wheedled. 'The beginning, the present, the end. Everything. You now, you see the past and the present, like other low creatures: no higher faculties than memory and perception. But dragons, my boy, have a whole different kind of mind.' He stretched his mouth in a kind of smile, no trace of pleasure in it. 'We are from the mountaintop: all time, all space. We see in one instant the passionate vision and the blowout’”(Gardner, 45). Here we see Grendel suffering from the same anxiety he was curious about in the first place, the dragon furthers Grendel’s ultimate desperation by only reinforcing the desolation Grendel already knew. Secondly, he humanizes Grendel. Throughout most of the novel we see Grendel as an arrogant protagonist who is bored with life, similar to Salinger’s Holden from Catcher in the Rye, through this portrayal we see a different view of Grendel, one that accounts for his actions and attempts at explaining his predicament to the readers. This portrayal of a cocky, witty yet lonely protagonist evokes pity and a very strong response from the audience. Gardner best explains Grendel’s life through the final chapter in the novel. Grendel’s death at the hands of Beowulf culminates the ideas that were strung together through the rest of the novel. Upon facing his fate, Gardner quotes Grendel, in agony, in which he claims “'Poor Grendel's had an accident,' I whisper. 'So may you all” (Gardner, 192). Here we see a phrase in which Grendel recognizes his loneliness but he also sees that while the universe is predetermined, as the dragon would claim, it is also chaotic and embracing the life you have is uniquely valuable. Grendel’s ‘advice’ to the other characters is based on the fact that they must create meaning for themselves and have their own ‘accident’.