In the Anglo-Saxon community, the poem of Beowulf is told in order to discuss evil. Grendel is an outcast to the Anglo-Saxon community and struggles to find the meaning of life. Beowulf acts as a "superhuman" which Grendel wouldn't overcome. The theme of hero and monster is claimed throughout the poem. Grendel's mother longs for revenge against Beowulf. She acts against gender codes of the Anglo-Saxon society. The overall fight against mother and Beowulf demonstrated how inhumane and evil one can be. Beowulf, the king for 50 years, fights a dragon to attain jewels. During the final act of fighting, the dragon showed how jealousy and evil can overcome. Throughout the poem each character plays a crucial role in portraying the theme of evil, jealousy and temptation in which everyone faced.
While desperately seeking to find the answer that has been questioned. Grendel adventures out for clues on the meaning of life and why he is here. Grendel encounters the dragon which simply gives him a sense that this world is meaningless and that all things are pointless. As he keeps that in mind, he journeys to observe the life of humankind. He watches the Anglo-Saxon community from afar and listens to the Shaper give the Danes a sense of how meaningful life can be. The Shaper gives them a way to change their perspective on how they see themselves and the world. As he feels alone, like an outcast from the rest of the world, Grendel becomes angered by this. He finds himself stuck on the truths of what the dragon had said and sets out to pursue it. Grendel says in the story, "I had become something, as if born again. I had hung between possibilities before, between the cold truths I knew and the heart-sucking conjuring tricks of the Shaper; now that was passed: I was Grendel, Ruiner of Meadhalls, Wrecker of Kings! But also, as never before, I was alone." ( p 80). The attitude he lays out in this section puts forth a drastic change in the character he once was.