beowulf: tone analysis. characterization demon “grendel was the name of this grim demon” “he...
TRANSCRIPT
GRENDELBeowulf: Tone Analysis
Characterization
Demon“Grendel was the name of this grim demon”“He was the Lord’s outcast”“God-cursed brute”“A fiend of hell”“From Cain, there sprung misbegotten spirits,
among them, Grendel”It goes on…
Characterization
Feared“It was easy then to meet a man shifting
himself to a safer distance” Cruel
“Inflicting constant cruelties on the people”“Corpse-maker”“Insensible to pain and human sorrow”
Characterization
Basically, he’s evil and cursed by God“The captain of evil”“Malignant by nature, he never showed
remorse”“The bane of the race of men”“Prowler through the dark”“The God-cursed brute”
Imagery
Readers are shown that Grendel hates happiness“Then a powerful demon, a prowler-through
the dark, nursed a hard grievance. It harrowed him to hear the din of the loud banquet every day in the hall.”
Sound familiar?
Sounds like the Grinch! “Then the Whos, young and old, would sit down to
a feast. . .They would feast on Who-pudding, and rare Who-roast beast. Which was something the Grinch couldn't stand in the least!”
Imagery
Grendel uses his strength to cause pain“He grabbed thirty men from their resting
places and rushed to his lair, flushed up and inflamed from the raid, blundering back with the butchered corpses.”
Imagery
Grendel has a gruesome way of killing people“He grabbed and mauled a man on his
bench, bit into his bone-lappings, bolted down his blood and gorged him on lumps, leaving the body utterly lifeless, eaten up hand and foot.”
Imagery
And a dramatic ending. . .“With death upon him, he had dived deep
into his marsh-den, drowned out his life and his heathen soul: hell claimed him there.”
Symbolism
Represents evil/the AntigodCast out by GodDescribed as a demon (generally evil)Kills people (unholy)Called, “The captain of evil”
Symbolism
Overall, represents good overcoming evilBeowulf (strong and righteous) kills Grendel“The man who had lately landed among
them, proud and sure, had purged the hall”
Symbolism
Also could symbolize Christianity overcoming PaganismGrendel cast out by God as Pagans cast out
by ChristiansBeowulf (Christian) overcame Grendel as
Christianity overcame Paganism
Tone
Dark, negative, angryAlways described with dark words (ex: “The
shadow-stalker” ; “Corpse-maker”)People’s reactions and descriptions of him
are negativeHis actions display anger