Monster Vs Identity: Grendel and Frankenstein’s Monster

Grendel and Frankenstein’s monster are both unsatisfied with themselves and are both in search for something more than what life has already given them. Grendel already knows how he feels about life, he finds it boring and repetitive, but there is something about the way that humans do things that fascinates him. Frankenstein’s monster wants to find more meaning in life than just being a scary monster that is so disliked by so many. These monsters are so unsatisfied with themselves that they are looking for acceptance in world that does not want them.

Grendel is a monster with a nihilists outlook on life. He feels that his life is completely meaningless. From his childhood up until his death by Beowulf, Grendel questions his place in the world and his relationship with human kind, which is less than good. Grendel spends a good portion of his life trying to understand the ways of the man and why they do the things they do. He does this so that his life stops this constant cycle of waking up, killing, eating, and repeating. Grendel stalks and studies the human’s day by day, and he also mocks some of the things they do. What doesn’t make sense is that Grendel has never had a good encounter with humans, and yet he wants so badly to be a part of them and so badly to understand them. “I laughed. They jerked away and stood shaking, looking up…the king snatched an ax from the man beside him, and without any warning he hurled it at me” (Gardner, 26-27). Grendel’s first encounter with man is less than heartwarming. Grendel is simply stuck in a tree and in agonizing pain and sleeping when these strange men walk up to him and begin trying to figure out what Grendel is and what he needs. These men don’t understand the sounds that Grendel is making, and they immediately assume danger, all Grendel wants is food and help getting out of the tree. Grendel is so bored with his life that he doesn’t care how much humans hate him, he must understand them. He must fit in with them. “I staggered out into the open and upward toward the hall with my burden…” (Gardner, 51). Grendel finds a dead body on the ground outside of the mead hall and thinks that if he brings it back to the humans, they may reconsider their outlook on him. He was wrong. These men saw a monster with a dead body and immediately began to attack him, without any knowledge of the situation beforehand. Grendel remembered how the humans mourned the deceased and figured they would want to do it the same way with this one, but clearly, they didn’t.

Frankenstein’s monster is much the same. Frankenstein’s monster was brought into this world with no way of communication, no way to do anything. Frankenstein’s monster is zapped into existence, no pun intended. From the moment his brain is powered on he feels an instant connection to humans, and he needs to figure out why. Frankenstein abandoned his monster after looking at it because he fears it. He puts all his responsibilities for the monster to the monster to handle on his own. The monster is forced to fend for himself without a single clue about how anything works. “My person was hideous and my stature gigantic. What did this mean? Who was I? What was I? Whence did I come? What was my destination?” (Shelly, 91). He is forced to develop his own identity and conscious creating an understanding of the world that is unnatural. The only way for the monster to gain any understanding of anything is with his own painful and personal experiences. The monster is forced to develop himself on his own. During this time, he develops bitterness towards man because they don’t accept him. As his life goes on, he encounters the De Lacey family from which he learns language. “This was indeed a godlike science and I ardently desired to become acquainted with it” (Shelly, 78). The monster would listen to them talk to each other day in and day out. He could never make a connection between words and objects because of how fast they spoke and the fact that when they spoke nothing, they spoke of was in sight. He was able to distinguish a happy sentence from a sentence that brought them pain and sadness, mainly because of facial expressions. As Shelly describes it, “after many rotations of the moon” he was able to connect some words to objects. But much like Grendel the monsters encounters with humans were less than heartwarming. “He struggled violently. ‘Let me go’, he cried. ‘Monster! Ugly wretch! You wish to eat me and tear me to pieces. You’re an ogre. Let me go or I will tell my papa’” (Shelly, 102). This child was the offspring of the monster’s enemy, so because of this he killed the boy with no mercy. This is relevant, because if he had not encountered that boy, the monster never would have found the picture of the woman. He was able to feel attraction and affection towards humans, even in the middle of a fit of rage. The monster worked extremely hard at trying to communicate with the humans and understand their emotions and clearly that work paid off.

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Grendel and Frankenstein’s monster don’t go on their journeys to finding themselves alone. They have lots of assistance along the way. The monster found a few books while scavenging around the cottage, he was eager to read these books because he felt he would learn a more significant amount than to keep listening in through a hole in the cottage wall. The monster finds the most connection with ‘Paradise Lost’ completely unaware that the story is totally fictional. Because of these books, the monster is finally able to make his first understanding of the world. As for Grendel, his most impactful helper is the dragon. Grendel goes to the dragon explaining how badly he wants out of this life he was given. The dragon tells Grendel essentially that he wasn’t put on this earth to give up. He was put on this earth to instill fear in the people and give people the basis on which they live.

Frankenstein’s monster and Grendel essentially have the same goal, which is to find their identity in the human world. They both go about it in different ways. The monster begins to question everything, but he is unable to answer them, because he was incapable of speaking. Soon after he learned to read books, which he found lots of insight in. Grendel likes to stand outside the mead hall and observe the actions and the conversations the men have together in hopes of understanding them more, also in hopes that they will invite him in to join them. Grendel also makes small gestures towards the humans, like bringing them back one of the dead bodies he found because he observed the way they liked to mourn their kinds deaths. Frankenstein’s monster much like Grendel observes humans also, except his eyes are set on the De Lacey’s in particular. He observes them, and the way they speak and how they go about daily life. Both monsters spend their whole days observing these people who don’t want a single thing to do with them.

The outcomes these monsters face is the same, but only one of them truly finds themselves. Grendel has a conversation with the dragon who gives him new insight on the meaning of life, and what his place in the human world is. “You improve them my boy! Can’t you see that yourself? 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” (Gardner, 72-73). The dragon explains to Grendel that he does have a place in the human world, although it may not be the place that Grendel wants, he still has one. Grendel’s life is meaningless to Grendel but not to those who rely on him to form the basis on which they live. As for Frankenstein, he spends his whole life trying to make a connection to humans, but in the end is basically unsuccessful. He develops many traits that any human would have, but because of his looks and his murderous habits, the human world is something he will have to observe from a distance. Towards the end of the story, the monster is so alone that he convinces Victor to make him a companion just as ugly and disturbing as he is. Victor agreed to the deed, but he destroyed the monster’s companion because he was having seconds thoughts about it. But eventually, at the end of ‘Grendel’ and ‘Frankenstein’, both monsters die. One having spent his whole life trying to find his place in a world that does not want him and succeeding, the other doing the same, but failing.

Although these monsters may not have found their place, or the place in the world for which they searched. They were able to develop a deep understanding of the world in which they so desperately wanted to be a part of. Grendel and Frankenstein’s monster were so unsatisfied with themselves that they were looking for acceptance in world that wanted nothing to do with them. They died looking for acceptance in the human world, and although they never got it, they died with the understanding that their place in the world wasn’t as meaningless as they thought it was.