GRENDEL & FRANKENSTEIN Essay -- essays research papers

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... ...evil, he was forced into his way of life by the society that rejected him. After this rejection, Frankenstein "like the arch-fiend, bore a hell within him"(Shelley 136). To each man his own god, and to each man his own devil as well. Frankenstein, "like Coleridge's wedding guest, leaves 'a sadder and wiser man'"(Scott 201). He now better understands his existence and how society wrongfully rejects it. Frankenstein simply wants society to have the "knowledge that might enable [him] to make them overlook the deformity of [his] figure"(Shelley 114). "Man†¦ how ignorant art thou in thy pride of wisdom!"(Shelley 201). Grendel's and Frankenstein's superiority to humankind is made obvious by their ability to live in a society that has ostracized them, the monsters' true heroism in place of humankind's romantic view, and the ignorance on which society's opinion of the monsters is based. "The monsters not only embody our fears of the way certain entities can artificially pervert nature in ourselves and our society, they also speak to us knowledgeably of nature and in a human voice, to tell us we need not be afraid [of them]"(Scott 201).