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Post by amysohlberg on Aug 22, 2013 19:11:16 GMT
So maybe you guys won't agree with me at all, but I was picking up from the novel that Grendel might have a little crush on Wealtheow. When he first sees her, he is totally overwhelmed:
Granted, later he goes to Hrothgar's meadhall and almost tears her in half, but is he just afraid of what he's feeling?
Does Grendel have feelings for Wealtheow? What do you guys think is going on with this?
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Post by emwolfram on Aug 22, 2013 21:57:09 GMT
Hmmm... it does appear so at first... but then he sees her vagina. After Grendel sees the "ugliness between her legs" he is enraged and disgusted. It is almost as if the perfect enchantment of Wealtheow is ruined by her genitals. I don't fully understand this and I think I will start another thread to discuss this unusual scene. In direct response to your question, I think his initial response to Wealtheow represents purity that Grendel has never witnessed in the world of men. He is in love with the idea of her goodness.
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Post by anaritter on Aug 23, 2013 3:23:05 GMT
I agree with Emily, but I think that more than being in love with her goodness, he finds himself attracted to her humanness. He idolizes humans and tries to imitate their behaviors, so he convinces himself - or perhaps is so deep into imitating human behavior that it happens on its own - that he is attracted to a woman that the humans he wants to be find attractive.
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Post by fionabyrne on Aug 23, 2013 19:50:12 GMT
I have to disagree with you Em, because he went into her bedroom enraged. He had murderous thoughts before he grabbed her other leg to tear her, thinking, "I could have jerked her from the bed and stove in her golden-haired head against the wall" (109). What is odd is how quickly his view of her morphs. He goes from fantasizing about the white of her shoulders to trying to tear her apart and likening her shrieks to those of a pig.
Another thing I noticed is how he admired the way in which she sacrifices herself. I was very interested in the portrayal of heroes in this book. Sometimes they seem noble and other times Grendel chastises them for being deluded. The queen gives herself to the king to maintain peace for her people and Grendel, who earlier mocked Unferth saying he thought heroes were only in fairy-tales, almost cries. I want to believe he sees something noble in her that he thought was false in the male heroes but I'm afraid that the only difference is her physical beauty and the "purity" he puts so much pressure on.
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Post by rubyking on Sept 2, 2013 23:05:57 GMT
I am always one to jump ahead and root for the possibility of a romantic relationship, but I think Grendel was more in love with the idea of Wealtheow. He paints her as this glowing and innocent creature, one accepting of anyone and their flaws. "I slammed into the bedroom. She sat up screaming, and I laughed" (109). People often use laughter as a way to react to grief, and I see Grendel perhaps doing this, as he now sees that she is like everyone else. She's not understanding, she doesn't see through this stereotype that people have cast upon Grendel, and that upsets him. he wanted to have one gleaming possibility of purity and goodness left in the world, but those hopes are lost as soon as he enters that room.
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Post by austinellerbruch on Sept 3, 2013 0:22:34 GMT
I think that Grendel's reaction to Wealtheow actually a reaction to the love he feels for her. Think about it, Grendel had been isolated as child beneath the Earth with a mother who hardly cared for him at all. When he sees Wealtheow, he experiences a feeling that he has not felt with any other being that he has ever interacted with. "I wanted to smash things, bring down the night with my howl of rage. But I kept still. She was beautiful, as innocent as dawn on winter hills. She tore me apart as once the Shaper's song had done." (Gardner 100) I believe that it is this newfound feeling of love that drives Grendel to insanity, and so he attempts to kill her because of the spell he believes she has cast upon him. Love can do the craziest things, can it not?
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Post by rubyking on Sept 3, 2013 3:41:39 GMT
Ooh I like that theory, Austin!
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Post by hannahboe on Sept 4, 2013 5:40:09 GMT
This idea definitely crossed my mind, but only briefly. I think I agree with Austin in that it was Grendel's reaction to what he felt that caused his outburst, however, I don't think it was love that he felt. I think intrigue might be a better word for it - a similar kind of intrigue which he felt when he first hear the Shaper. When Grendel heard the Shaper first, he was inexplicably moved to tears. Eventually, however, he grew disenchanted with the Shaper's songs and became more enraged than enthralled when he heard them. Grendel was also overwhelmed with emotion (this is where the love bit is open to interpretation) when he watched Wealtheow. Gardner writes, "The Shaper sang things that had never crossed his mind before: comfort, beauty, a wisdom softer, more permanent, than Hrothgar's" (103). My thinking here is that if Wealtheow could move the Shaper to such thoughts/feelings so too, could she move Grendel. Considering that he had a similar initial reaction to the Shaper and Wealtheow, it is to be expected that Grendel would grow to dislike the charm Wealtheow had over him.
My hypothesis: Grendel recognized the beauty in the Shaper's words and in Wealtheow's perfection, but he also recognized the absence of this beauty in himself. This appreciation/love/desire for what he could not have may have lead him to despise it. Call it jealousy, if you will. This jealousy or hopelessness that he could not possess that which he so highly revered caused him to snap.
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