Grendel

This weekend i began Grendel, by John Gardner, a novel in which Beowulf is told from the point of view of the monster Grendel.  Gardner is a very eccentric man who is rather morbid since the accidental death of his younger brother in his childhood.  You can see much of this influence in many of Gardner's works including Grendel, which has a very dark tone and plot as it is following the life and struggles of a hideous monster, as well as a very gloomy and depressed character; Grendel himself.

As Gardner has this huge weight on his back, since it was he who dealt the death blow to his brother when they were only kids, it seems only right that he would have thoughts of suicide and self-pity.  This is portrayed into the character Grendel when he calls himself, "Pointless, ridiculous monster."(2) and when he is yelling at the black chasms to swallow him up.  He yells, "seize me.  Seize me into your foul black bowls and crush my bones"(5).  This is one of the most obviously suicidal things he could have said.  He is yelling at the chasm to crush his bones and kill him because he is so miserable with his life and what the world has done to him which is literally nothing. 

The entire universe seems to be indifferent to Grendel.  It doesn't matter how much he shakes his fists at it, flips it off, or even just bellows at, it in never seems to give him the respect he thinks he deserves.  At the beginning of the novel he is yelling at a stupid ram to get away from him and cursing its very existence but it just looks at him and goes on standing there.  This pisses him off so much that he unleashes a scream that turns the water he is standing in to ice and even scares himself a little but the ram still does nothing.  It is like he can belong to nothing, he is completely isolated.  Man refuses to allow him into their culture obviously and even nature, where he lives and the animals cant even think, wont accept him.  This just emphasizes the deep feeling of isolation that Ggrendel feels and shows us how he can have all of these suicidal thoughts.

The Hero

This week in AP Lit we started a new unit, the hero unit.  The first book we are reading in this unit is Beowulf, in preparation for Grendel. Beowulf is the perfect example of a hero's journey.  Some of the elements of a heroic myth that we learned were to find glory and to slay a monster and shape the world, which is a characteristic a early hero myths.  This myth follows the universal pattern where the hero has departure, fullfilment, and return. 

Beowulf leaves his homeland of geatland to go face the horrible monster, Grendel, who is terrorizing the Danes.  He leaves the safety of his home and goes into uncertainty to fight a monster that has never been defeated and may not come back with his life, But he still goes.  He then faces the monster, is successful and finds fullfillment.  He not only is fulfilled in that he defeats the monsters physically but he also is fulfilled psycologically as much of this mission is pride based in that he has to defeat Grendel, and later Grendel's mother, in order to sate his desire to raise his level of prestige and elevate his status over its already godly state.

He then returns from his adventures victorious and much better off then he was before he embarked on this mission.  He comes back to the Geats and rules them for many years after he successfully defeats Grendel and his mother.  This shows how this epic follows the universal pattern of hero myths because this was really one of the first recorded hero myths in history, at least in the english language.  Beowulf Departs, Fulfills, and returns.

A Doll's House and Foils

Today in class we wrote a timed writing about foils in A Doll's House and i wrote about the relationship between Kristine Linde and Nora Helmer and how Ibsen uses this relationship to emphasize many of Nora's character traits.  There were also many other foils in this play including Krogstad and doctor Rank and Torvald and Nora's father even though you are never introduced to him in the book, as he died when Nora was young.  These foils serve to illuminate the major characters they are paired with and help to show their significance to Ibsen's purpose in writing this play.

Krogstad and doctor Rank at first seem like polar opposites however with a closer look you see that they serve as foils for each other accentuating their important traits and showing their importance in the play. Dr. Rank just oozes decay and even though he starts out in the beginning of the play as being rather lively and active in his relationship with the Helmers and Torvald in particular as he visits them every day he eventually fades into no relationship choosing instead to coop himself up in his house to die alone in peace slowly decaying until he is no more.  Krogstad on the other hand starts off as a gloomy, deceptive character who is generally disliked by the people in the play even though he shows that he has had a relationship of some kind in the past with Kristine.  He was the one who gave Nora the loan and was therefore the root of all of the Helmer family's problems.  As the play progresses your opinion of him gradually shifts until you sympathize with him and in the end you are happy for him as he ends up in a happy relationship with Kristine and lets Nora off with out having to pay the debt.

Dr. Rank also functions as a foil briefly to show how insensitive and selfish the Helmers are.  At the end of the play Rank leaves a note for Nora saying that he is going to die in his house and that he does not want to be disturbed anymore.  He says that this is for Torvalds own good because he thinks that Torvald cant handle seeing him in his decayed form.  Torvold however takes this almost unnaturally well seeing as his best friend has just told him that he is going to go die in his house without saying good bye and that he never wants to see him again.  He says that it is perfectly dreadful however he is glad to be rid of him and then just goes back talking to Nora and trying to persuade her not to leave him.

Ibsen did an excellent job using foils in this play as almost every major character has a minor character that helps to showcase their traits whether they be good or bad.  This use of foils also helps to show each character's significance to the overall purpose and theme of Ibsen's play.