Comrades in Arms: Two Monsters Trying to Drink at the Pub

I have always been one to sympathize with an outcast character.  It’s something that comes naturally to me and most people. Every time I read Beowulf, I notice how the monster Grendel, in his loneliness and rage, reminds me of another infamous monster: Frankenstein. It is a stretch, considering the two are involved in very different situations. Yet, their personalities are very similar in regards to how humans treat them and how they react in return.

Both creatures are cursed the day they are created. Frankenstein is a freak of nature, something inhuman and terrifying. Grendel is a disfigured man, scary to behold and disgusting. Their physical appearance is monster-like and their personalities are evil, distinguishing them from normal human beings. Both Grendel and Frankenstein share feelings of loneliness, fear and hurt because people shunned them from the beginning.

On page 57, lines 849-851, the imagery presented as Grendel runs from the fight with Beowulf, reminds me of Frankenstein when it says, “With his death upon him, he had dived deep / into his marsh-den, drowned out his life / and his heathen soul: hell claimed him there.”

These lines in particular remind me of Frankenstein, when he hid away and became a solitary creature. After he tried to befriend a human family and failed, he ran away into the wilderness to live out a lonely existence. Grendel does the same thing. The villagers forget him, until he begins to attack people. By that time, his existence is known through bloodshed and hatred. No one wants to befriend him.

They do not stop to think why Grendel is attacking them. None of the villagers consider that Grendel just wants to be accepted and welcomed. He is a poor creature, looking for the chance to be normal. Unfortunately, like Frankenstein, Grendel will never be because of his physical appearance. Immediately, when a person does not look the same as everyone else, they are thought of as different. Grendel nor Frankenstein had a chance to make friendships because of their appearance.

While Grendel and Frankenstein are separated by centuries, they are comrades of loneliness and misunderstanding. Shut out from the human world, both struggled to find peace and sympathy. They are complementary characters who evoke similar emotions from the reader. But I do wonder, are there any other villainous/ outcast literary characters that remind our class of Grendel?