A Theme Of Good Vs Evil In Grendel By John Gardner

The nature of good and evil has been talked and discussed for centuries. The novel Grendel by John Gardner depicted good and evil. The novel is about a monster called Grendel with a bear-like body lives with his mother in an underground cave. When Grendel sees Hrothgar, the powerful king of Danes, Grendel is disgusted by humans’ wasteful ways. After talking with the Dragon and convincing him to scare humans, Grendel launches a war against Hrothgar. Grendel fights the people who rip off his arms, the strangers. In the end, Grendel dies and he curses all the people who are alive. The novel Grendel demonstrates that the formation of good and evil is that each life begins with a good personality, is affected by the outside elements and turns evil into an extreme level.

First, the essence of each life starts with kind characteristics. For example, once Grendel admits that he does not decide to become Hrothgar’s enemy by throwing the axe, but only when Hrothgar is already an old man. Grendel starts observing that the hunters will fight occasionally, and humans build houses, decorate the interior with tapestries, develop farming; the women work the land and tend to animals and men hunt. Furthermore, the men brag about the fighting with others. The novel states that “All the bands did the same thing. In time I began to be more amused than revolted by what they threatened. It didn't matter to me what they did to each other. It was slightly ominous because of its strangeness—no wolf was so vicious to other wolves—but I half believed they weren't serious. (32)” Knowledge of the actions of ogres rebelling against humans is suspect. Grendel does make a wise observation early in the novel: humans are scary. However, after two villages have been attacked, and many humans have been killed, his good and kind characteristics have appeared. Grendel does not know what to feel: he has no connection to the men, but at the same time, he knows that since they speak the same language, they must be related somehow. This shows that Grendel does not ignore humans and he believes them, so he does not have thoughts of attacking humans and being evil like killing and damaging lives and things. Grendel’s trait is still pure and kind before meeting the Dragon. The nature of each life begins with good virtue.

Second, both good and evil are affected by external factors. One scene in the novel is when Grendel is frustrated about why there is no one he can talk to and thinking if humans also have similar issues. Two nights after, Grendel is back and hear the Shaper, then Grendel becomes addicted to the Shaper’s singing. In the beginning, he does not believe what the Shaper tells him; after he calms down in the cave, he finds out that the Shaper’s might be correct. The novel states that “Some evil inside myself pushed out into the trees. I knew what I knew, the mindless, mechanical bruteness of things, and when the harper's lure drew my mind away to hopeful dreams, the dark of what was and always was reached out and snatched at my feet. (Garder 54)” The quote shows that Grendel has a complicated relationship with his evil impulses. The phrase 'past and present darkness' is manifested by the dragon who appears in front of Grendel many times in the previous scenes, but all appear in the form of a snake, and he interacts with it. So it makes sense for him to find a dragon, in order to understand what life is. And this also convinces Grendel turning from good to evil. While Grendel could clearly raise his mind to something more hopeful and better, he kept reminding himself that he could never fully own or participate in it. It made him miserable. Grendel may feel relief and even joy from harper's song, as humans do, but it is always temporary. He has been to the world of dragons, and he knows how it all ends. Grendel starts hesitating about what he is going to be after hearing the songs. The word “hopeful” represents that Grendel still wants to keep himself in a positive way, which means that he looking forward to being nice and calm. On a larger scale, this reflects how Grendel is affected by the outside encouragement to make him from good to evil. Therefore, good and evil can be impacted by extrinsic factors.

Last but not least, people will turn to evil in excess after being it once. One example that collaborates with this idea in the novel is when Grendel attacks Hart again. Humans try to attack him bravely, but their weapons are useless in front of the charm of the Dragon. When people attack Grendel, Grendel laughs and talks aloud about honor, Hrothgar, and God. Although Grundel laughs, his heart was empty, and he imagined that he could kill indefinitely without difficulty. He was full of anger, smashing benches, tables, and beds. The novel states that “An evil idea came over me—so evil it made me shiver as I smiled—and I sidled across to the table. (83-84)” There are several moments in the novel where Grendel does have some evil thoughts: he wants to knock open the head of the shaper who sings a wonderful song, or split the fortune in half so he can stop fantasizing about her. But the funny thing is that he almost always changed his mind and left quietly. Of course, he also ate a lot of old ladies and disobedient children, but Gardner chose to put these things aside. However, in this case, the readers will see that an evil plan has really appeared-its simplicity is frightening. Grendel means mocking Unferth, cursed jazz, who wants to restore his reputation after killing his brother. Grendel wanted to humiliate Unferth so he would also fall into despair and feel the same pain as the deported. People get eviler and eviler with every move.

In conclusion, the novel Grendel talks about the principle of the relationship between good and evil is beginning with good then affected by the exterior factors and then turning to evil. Everyone is born to be kind, and their quality of life depends on the influence of people and things around them. If a person with a good nature is often persuaded to become a person who acts and thinks against morality, then the man will gradually evolve into a villain. It refers to a Chinese saying: “One who stays near vermilion gets stained red, and one who stays near ink gets stained black. ” So stay away from the people who encourage you to do something that is evil like against the laws.