Beowulf Character Sketch

quote (1)

So his mother, greedy

and gloomy as the gallows,

went on a sorrowful journey

to avenge her son's death.

 

 

quote (2)

She took her son's famous

blood-covered hand.

An outcry came from Herot,

care had been renewed

and returned to the dwelling

place--that was not a good

bargain, that both sides paid

with the lives of friends.

 

 

quote (3)

Then

the enemy seized the warrior

in her horrid clutches, yet

he was not injured--the ringed

armor protected him, and she

could not break his mail shirt

with her hostile claws.

 

Grendel’s mother

 

  Monster and Hero. We know that these two things are opposite things. Those two have relationships like ice and fire. But, if people ask what is the difference between hero and monster? It is a bit hard to think about. In my response, I will talk about the usage of power. From my point of view, I think we can distinguish monster and hero through their way of using their own power. It can be either mentally or physically. However, it is still my point of view, judgment of monster and hero is really . Once we understood my perspective, let’s judge about Grendel’s mother through using quotes.

 

   According to this quote, you can perceive that Grendel’s mother was up in arms to Beowulf. Her hair were standing up.Yes, of course, she has to get mad at Beowulf. Who becomes happy when somebody cuts your child’s an arm? I think this part doesn’t relate to a hero. It is rather being a hero than being a monster. Here is the explanation, that she was greedy and gloomy. These quote represents that how was her attitude. Through that attitude, I don’t think this is a monster’s attitude. I think it is more like about parental feelings. I guess all mothers do that if the same thing happens to them.

 

  From the second quote, I feel the same thing with the first quote. I know that before this event happening, she killed one person who was King’s the most trustworthy friend. But, who cares, they almost killed her son. This quote made me think about monster much more than I thought before. My image of  a monster is really awful. What do I mean by  the word “awful”  is, they are killing opponents for bad or for no reason. In this case, she killed people in vengeance. Sometimes heroes do that too. She is not a hero but also, she is not a monster.

 

  Finally, I understood why she was treated as a monster. I was thinking that she is totally not a monster. But she had a bit of monsterness in her. That’s why people were calling her as a monster. They was right. They deserve to call her monster. She was trying to kill a warrior for no reason. I admit that this is a part of being a monster.

 

So, through reading up these three quotes, I realized that Grendel’s mother is not actual monster. Because I think Grendel’s deserves to get mad at people who killed her son Grendel. I think Even though if it is different situation, most of the mothers will do similar things. Eventually, I think that Grendel’s mother wasn’t either monster and hero she was just mother like normal mothers. She was just a bit stronger than others.