Satires In Grendel Essay, Research Paper
Grendel Satire Essay
?For many months, unsightly monster, you?ve
murdered men as you pleased in Hrothgar?s hall.
unless you can murder me as you?ve murdered lesser
men, I give you my word those days are done
forever! The king has given me splendid gifts. He
will see tonight that his gifts have not gone for
nothing! Prepare to fall, foul thing! This one
red hour makes your reputation or mine!? I shook
my head at him, wickedly smiling. ?Reputation!? I
said, pretending to be much impressed. This is a
prime example of how John Gardner uses satire in
Grendel to mock man. Unferth is telling Grendel
that he is better than all of the other men that he
killed by using the term ?lesser men?. Also he
tells Grendel that he will die because the King has
given him many gifts. Lastly, Unferth cannot
distinguish between honor and an honorable
reputation, though he claims to take the former, he
would be solely content with the latter. However
hero?s don?t have reputations. Grendel knows this
and just humiliates him. Unferth thinks he?s a
he
just fighting Grendel to have a good ego. Unferth
battles Grendel for the money and this is not
heroic. Grendel humiliates Unferth by throwing
apples at him when Unferth tries to attack him. He
eventually knocks him down and covers him with
apples. After Unferth failure he tries to die
honorably at Grendels hands. He finds grendels
lair and try?s to get killed. Nonetheless,
Grendel amuses himself by denying Unferth the honor
of martyrdom. Grendel knows by letting him live a
humiliated life is harder then dying as a hero.
Though he tries to prove otherwise, Unferth?s
heroism is a product of his fellow men. His ego
cannot sustain himself, and so when the other
thanes scorn him for his consistent failures,
Unferth loses his self-respect. However, Unferth is
only a half hero. His moral strength is for the
approval of his fellow thanes, and so when he
fights it is because he fears their disapproval and
contempt. This fight with Grendel seems like an
act of courage but in truth a concession to his
fear, and this is an act of cowardice