An Analysis Of The Two

“Monsters” Essay, Research Paper

GRENDEL & FRANKENSTEIN

AN ANALYSIS OF THE TWO “MONSTERS” AND THEIR SUPERIORITY TO

MANKIND

GRENDEL & FRANKENSTEIN

AN ANALYSIS OF THE TWO “MONSTERS” AND THEIR SUPERIORITY TO

MANKIND In

the desert

I saw a creature, naked, bestial,

Who, squatting upon the ground,

Held his heart in his hands,

And ate of it.

I said, “Is it good friend.”

“It is bitter-bitter,” he answered;

“But I like it

Because it is bitter

And because it is my heart.”

-Stephen Crane

This reflects how both Grendel and Frankenstein must have felt during

their lonely lives. “Seeking friends, the fiends found enemies; seeking

hope, they found hate”(Neilson back page). The monsters simply want to

live as the rest of us live. But, in our prejudice of their kind, we

banish them from our elite society. Who gave society the right to judge

who is acceptable and who is not. A better question might be, who is

going to stop them. The answer, no one. Therefore, society continues to

alienate the undesirables of our community. Some of the greatest minds

of all time have been socially unacceptable. Albert Einstein lived alone

and rarely wore the same color socks. Van Gogh found comfort only in

his art, and the woman who consistently denied his passion. Edgar Allen

Poe was “different” to say the least. Just like these great men,

Grendel and Frankenstein do not conform to the societal model. Also

like these men, Grendel and Frankenstein are uniquely superior to the

rest of

mankind. Their superiority is seen through their guile to live in a

society that ostracizes their kind, their true heroism in place of

society’s romantic view, and the ignorance on which society’s opinion of

them is formed.

Grendel, though he needs to kill to do so, functions very well in his

own sphere. Grendel survives in a hostile climate where he is hated and

feared by all. He lives in a cave protected by firesnakes so as to

physically, as well as spiritually, separate himself from the society

that detests, yet admires, him. Grendel is “the brute existent by which

[humankind] learns to define itself”(Gardner 73). Hrothgar’s thanes

continually try to extinguish Grendel’s infernal rage, while he simply

wishes to live in harmony with them.

Like Grendel, Frankenstein also learns to live in a society that

despises his kind. Frankenstein also must kill, but this is only in

response to the people’s abhorrence of him. Ironically, the very doctor

who bore him now searches the globe seeking Frankenstein’s destruction.

Even the ever-loving paternal figure now turns away from this outcast

from society. Frankenstein journeys to the far reaches of the world to

escape from the societal ills that cause society to hate him. He

ventures to the harshest, most desolate, most uninhabitable place known

to man, the north pole. He lives in isolation, in the cold acceptance

of the icy glaciers. Still, Dr. Frankenstein follows, pushing his

creation to the edge of the world, hoping he would fall off, never to be

seen or heard from again. Frankenstein flees from his father until the

Doctor’s death, where

Frankenstein joins his father in the perpetual, silent acceptance of

death.

Frankenstein never makes an attempt to become one with society, yet he

is finally accepted by the captain to whom he justifies his existence.

Frankenstein tracks Dr. Frankenstein as to better explain to himself the

nature of own being by understanding the life of his creator.

“Unstoppable, [Frankenstein] travels to the ends of the earth to destroy

[his] creator, by destroying everyone [Dr.] Frankenstein loved” (Shelley

afterword). As the captain listens to Frankenstein’s story, he begins

to understand his plight. He accepts Frankenstein as a reluctant, yet

devoted, servant to his master. Granted that Frankenstein does not

“belong,” he is accepted with admiration by the captain. The respect

that Frankenstein has longed for is finally given to him as he announces

his suicide in the name of his father, the late Dr. Frankenstein.

On the other hand, Grendel makes numerous attempts to assimilate into

society, but he is repeatedly turned back. Early in his life, Grendel

dreams of associating with Hrothgar’s great warriors. Nightly, Grendel

goes down to the meadhall to listen to Hrothgar’s stories and the

thanes’ heroism, but most of all, he comes to hear the Shaper. The

Shaper’s stories are Grendel’s only education as they enlighten him to

the history of the society that he yearns to join. “[The Shaper]

changed the world, had torn up its past by its thick gnarled roots and

had transmuted it, and they, who knew the truth, remembered it his way-

and so did [Grendel]“(Gardner 43). Upon

Grendel’s

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