Grendel is characterized as a misunderstood person; one who continually leashes out against the world in an antagonistic manner. Simply put, he is a reject. This characterization of Grendel is exemplified and manifested in Raffel's Beowulf, Gardner's Grendel, and The Beowulf film directed by Robert Zemeckis. In each of these works, Grendel is consistently given the same characterizations and referred to in similar connotations. Grendel is called names, referred to as being evil, and viewed as a monster. As noticed in all three works, Grendel is simply a reject of society. .
Gardner's Grendel displays how Grendel has no other companions except for his mother; leading him to have a lonely and miserable life. This displays the statement that has emotions and is not an emotionless monster, but , instead simply a rejected child leading to his extreme loneliness."I would bawl and hurl myself at my mother and she would reach out her claws and seize me, though I could see I alarmed her ( I had teeth like a saw), and she would smash me to her fat, limp breast as if to make me a part of her flesh again"(Gardner 17). This quote directly demonstrates how Grendel as a child would feel so rejected and solitary that he would have to go to the only person in which he trusted,his mother, and, just lay against her and release his emotions. We all have done this and we all know how much it helps us feel when we are caressed by our mother, the feeling of love and security,cures more than any type of medicine.Grendel is just like us, in the fact that in times of loneliness and distress he desires compassion and affection. This quote makes me reminisce to my favorite Christmas season movie, The Grinch who stole Christmas, when the Grinch was a child, he had big teeth, all green and hairy,and looked like a monster, as did Grendel in his own ways. The Grinch was constantly harassed and made fun of as a child, simply because of the way he looked.
