Nihilism In Grendel Essay

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The extent to which John Gardner’s Grendel is “human” John Gardner’s novel Grendel was completed in 1970 and published the following year and it was the first of John Gardner's novels to bring him not just critical but popular success. The novel was praised by the critics and named a book of the year by many influencial magazines. Gardner recreates Grendel as a multi-dimensional charatcer opposed to the version in Old English poem, where Grendel is seen a symbol of darkness and death. It could be even said that Gardner depicts Grendel as a more humane creature, who has weakness for poetry, a sense of humor and a gift for language. Gardner creates realtionships between Grendel and the dragon and Grendel’s mother to emphasize the importance of art and language as well as to develop the concept of nihilism, which worries Grendel throughout the novel. Gardner does not see Grendel merely as a horrible monster,…show more content…
However, emotionally, socially, and behaviorally he yearns for friendship and close relations as every human being would. He even creates imaginary friends to keep the loneliness away. He can sense the notion of love, and does so without knowing what it is, although he has no one to love him back. Grendel and the humans share a common language, but the humans’ disgust and fear of Grendel precludes any actual meaningful exchange. Grendel’s torture is even more painful because he is so close to the humans and yet always kept away at a distance. The humans even acknowledge that Grendel speaks their language when Grendel talks to Unferth “His eyebrows shot up. He’d understood me, no doubt of it now. ‘You can talk!’ he said. He backed away a step.” (Gardner p.83) but they still refused to accept him. Grendel and the humans share a common heritage, but this heritage makes them thrive even further form each other as opposed to bringing them

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