Beowulf from the perspective of Grendel - Essay Example

In fact, a typical feature of anglo-Saxon mythology is that it has either positive of negative attitude to its protagonist. It means that protagonist can be either ideal or far from ideal. I will suggest making Grendel a modern hero with both positive and negative sides of his character. It must be noted that in the original story of Beowulf his character is far from ideal. For example, there are frequent cases when Grendel fails to express moral power to accept reality as it is. Failure to do that leads Grendel to attack God for being so cruel with him: “Grendels attack with terror of blades” (Greenfield).

The accusation like this is primarily reasoned by the fact that Grendel is a monster with a big brain and big heart. He wants love, but is fully confident of the fact that he will be alone for the rest of his life simply because it is God who decided to make him look like a monster. The negative attitude to God finally motivates Grendel’s turning to evil. I think this craving is natural for a creature who is deprived of love. Still, there is no way to deny that Grendel continues to love God.

The only problem about Grendel is that he continues to crave for evil due to his moral instability and lack of inner power. I made this little psychological retrospect with one single objective – to show reader a real Grendel and to give Beofulf a modernist perspective. Grendel’s pshychological stance can be best perceived with the help of Aristotle’s teaching which taught a person that human psychological downfall is rooted in moral flaws located inside an individual. Grendel’s problem can be explained with the help of Aristotelian framework.

According to Aristotelian framework, there is no way for a person to be perfect. However, ancient Anglo-Saxon people had different attitude towards reality. They are either idealized the main protagonist or presented him like an even being. There was now something in the