Grendel, the Tragedy

Grendel’s growth through the novel is an interesting journey. It seems that he gets too absorbed with meaninglessness. His childhood is like most children’s (relatively speaking). He is adventurous and very attached to his mother- nothing out of the ordinary. It is when he is exposed to man that he changes. He realizes that they are just as barbaric and sinful as he and his mother are, and he and his mother are related to Cain. So, they are partially attached. Beowulf’s biggest change, in my opinion, is when the shaper comes. The shaper makes truth out of lies and creates a world of organization and perhaps meaning. Grendel sees the flaws in the Shaper’s poetry but he is almost enamored by it as well. When he visits with the dragon, his views begin to morph. Grendel begins to slip into a world where he believes nothing to have meaning. Perhaps that is why the dragon says to “seek out gold and sit on it”. In other words, life does not have a purpose, so find what you like and cease the moment. Enjoy the present and do not worry about the future because essentially, everything in life amounts to nothing. As sad as this is, it is true in some ways. Present life amounts to something for those who believe in an afterlife, but for those who do not, the question is: how should one live life? Grendel who realizes the pointlessness of life, is tortured by tedium. I don’t think that he properly takes the Dragon’s advice. The humans are taking the dragon’s advice; they have saught out happiness, and they are protecting it (by fighting Grendel). The humans have found the positive way to seek out gold, Grendel has taken an off approach. He becomes evil in bitterness to the world and maybe because good comes from evil, and he wants good to occur. However, although Grendel believes that he is pretty much “all-knowing”, he is the one who loses. He lives a depressing and nearly loveless life. The only times he finds love is in humanity- Wealtheow and the Shaper. So, even if man lives in a myriad of complex lies, it’s working. Humanity is happy and loving and functioning- unlike Grendel. It is bizarre to think that we live in a world of delirium, but we are here, so we should make the best of it (even if it does amount to nothing… but again we don’t know that either). Essentially, life is a gamble. You can either live life with purpose- even if you don’t know if it will ever amount to anything; or you can live a life of meaninglessness- because you don’t want to put in the effort to work for a purpose that may or may not exist. Both ways are understandable depending on the person, but as we see in Grendel, the society that lives with a sense of purpose thrives. Will those people ever mean anything in the end? I don’t know- nobody does. But it would awfully sad to live a life in bitter refusal just because you are afraid of nothingness.