Grendel Chapter 5

1
Grendel Chapter 5

• Grendel Meets the Dragon

2
Characterization

• Dragon is humanized through rhetorical devices
• a voice that might have come from an old, old
  man (58)
• like a miser counting his money (58)
• like an elderly mead-drinkers (58)
• like an old drunk preparing a solemn face for
  court (59)
• Serves as an advisor to Grendel
• Old and wise

3
Characterization

• Scares Grendel
• Contrast to Grendel
• I had my hands out in front of me like a rabbit
  sitting up (Gardner 60).
• Simile
• Comparing Grendel to rabbit intensifies the
  immensity of the dragon and how frightening he is
  
• Diction
• Beast
• Wrinkled paw, man-length talons
• Horrible, debauched, mouth limp and cracked
• Obscene
• Characterizes Dragon as huge and evil,
  intimidating to Grendel

4
Defines Grendel

• Now you know how they feel when they see you.
  He had a point. From now on Id stay clear of
  them. It was one thing to eat one from time to
  time- that was only natural kept them from
  overpopulating, maybe starving to death, come
  winter- but it was another thing to scare them,
  give them heart attacks, fill their nights with
  nightmares, just for sport (Gardner 60-61).
• Irony
• Realizes that he appears as a monster to the
  humans as the dragon appears to him
• First thought is to avoid them
• Ironic since killing them will be the only way he
  will be defined

5
Defines Grendel

• This is the beginning of the end for Grendel.
• I felt as if I was tumbling down into it-
  dropping endlessly down through a soundless void.
  He let me fall, down and down toward a black sun
  and spiders, though he knew I was beginning to
  die. Nothing could have been more disinterested
  serpent to the core (61).
• The effect of the Dragon on Grendel
• Does his life have a point, does he have a role
• Is he just an observer?
• Dragon knows what Grendel will become

6
Dragon

• IllusionI know everythingThe beginning, the
  present, the end. Everything. You now, you see
  the past and the present, like other low
  creatures no higher faculties than memory and
  perception (63).
• We see from the mountaintop all time, all
  space. We see in one instant the passionate
  vision and the blowout. Not that we cause things
  to fail, you understand (64).
• Higher thinking creatures but unimportant in the
  universe as well
• The dragon knows what is going to happen in the
  future
• He will dies, meaningless life s

7
Dragon

• Knowledge does not cause the future
• My knowledge of the future does not cause the
  future. It merely sees it, exactly as creatures
  at your low level recall things pasteven then
  I do not change the future, I merely do what I
  saw from the beginning (Gardner 63).
• He cannot change what he knows - ironic since
  Beowulf will kill him

8
Dragon

• Men
• They only think they think. No total vision,
  total system, merely schemes with a vague family
  resemblance, no more identity than bridges and,
  say, spiderwebs (64).
• Men only think they do good things
• They know a bunch of facts but dont understand
  the entire picture
• Connectedness is the essence of everything (64)
• The shaper gives them this understanding but it
  is a fake feeling, makes life look better

9
Shaper

• Thats where the Shaper saves them. Provides
  an illusion of reality- puts together all their
  facts with a gluey whine of connectedness (65)
• But he spins it all together with harp runs
  and hoots, and they think what they think is
  alive, think Heaven loves them. It keeps them
  going- for what thats worth (65).
• Shaper gives the humans an illusion of reality
• Makes them think there is meaning to life and
  Heaven loves them
• Keeps them going

10
Dragon

• Refers to low thinking creatures
• They think if it is true for them it is for all
• Only have certain ways for naming or ordering
  things
• As lower minds function, study, or science, is
  concerned with a limited set of various types of
  things (66).

11
Dragons Views on Man

• Living things exist individually because they can
  express themselves
• Jugs are generalized because they cannot
• Vegetables are generalized because none of their
  parts are essential to live
• Cut off top of carrot it still is a carrot (71)

12
Mankinds Importance in the Universe

• Things come and goThats the gist of it. In a
  billion billion billion years, everything will
  have come and gone several times, in various
  forms (70).
• mans cunning mind is merely a new complexity,
  a new event (71)
• Even though man is interesting because of his
  mind, he is no different than any other creature
• Man will come and go he is just a small wrinkle
  in the long line of Time

13
Mankinds Importance in the Universe

• Not a real ending of course, nor even a
  beginning. Mere ripple in Times stream. I
  squinted. That could happen? It has happened,
  he said- and smiled as if it pleased him- in the
  future. I am the witness (71).
• Paradox apparent contradiction with some logic/
  truth
• Effect of omnipotence of Dragon
• Supports Nihilistic viewpoint
• Grendels fascination with man is misplaced
  because man is not that important
• Dragon explains the insignificance of mans life
  the end of the world that he has seen
  apocalypse

14
Grendels Role

• You improve them, my boy!...You stimulate
  them! You make them think and scheme. You drive
  them to poetry, science, religion, all that makes
  them what they are for as long as they last. You
  are, so to speak, the brute existent by which
  they learn to define themselves. The exile,
  captivity, death they shrink from- the blunt
  facts of their mortality, their abandonment
  (Gardner 73).
• He forces man to write and sing poetry
• They define themselves based on him (plan ways to
  kill him)
• Repetition of You for emphasis of Grendels
  role

15
Grendels Role

• If you withdraw, youll instantly be replaced.
  Brute existents, you know, are a dime a dozen.
  No sentimental trash, then. If mans the
  irrelevance that interests you, stick with him!
  Scare him to glory! Its all the same in the
  end, matter and motion, simple or complex. No
  difference, finally. Death, transfiguration.
  Ashes to ashes and slime to slime, amen
  (Gardner 73).
• Insignificance of life
• Why not scare them
• Allusion ashes to ashes dust to dust
• We all will die, life is meaningless, nihilism

16
Grendels Role

• Why should Grendel stop scaring them??
• Grendel defines and improves man
• If everything means nothing (nihilism) and
  Grendel is interested in them, scare them
  (Grendels role).

17
The Downfall of Grendel

• Grendel tries to deny the cruel picture of the
  world the Dragon has painted, but he cant due to
  his experiences
• Before this encounter lonely creature
• After disappointment isolation will cause him
  to become violent self- righteous
• If he cant join their race, he will destroy it.