In every word of every chapter in every story lies a different moral to be told. Since the beginning of time, humans have learned some of life’s greatest lessons through written texts, and due to intertextuality, often times these themes and lessons are shared between various novels. This can be seen within the two classic novels Grendel by John Gardner and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. Both books are centralized around the theme that our strong desires for love can strengthen our need for revenge. In the novel, Wuthering Heights there is a large cycle of revenge that ensues as a result of a desperate desire to be loved. This revenge is executed by two main characters within the novel. The first is Hindley who shares a large and public disregard for Heathcliff, and an orphan his father, Mr. Earnshaw, took in when he was a child. As a child, Hindley was accustomed to being the only male in the house and receiving a fair amount of his father’s attention. With the arrival of Heathcliff, however, this all changed. Mr. Earnshaw immediately takes a strong liking to Heathcliff and treats him as if he were his own son. Similar to her father, Catherine, Hindley’s sister, gets along famously with Heathcliff, and the two eventually …show more content…
He begins what he calls his twelve-year war where he invades and terrorizes King Hrothgar’s mead hall as retribution for the humans hurting and ignoring him. As the novel progresses, Grendel gradually loses his morality. He becomes less reluctant on killing others, and he eventually does it for sport rather than for a quick meal. The hatred Grendel feels towards the humans is a result of what he claims is their savage, evil ways, however, it can be noted that this hatred is more than what he claims it to be. He didn’t know how to process his undeniable need to be understood, so in the end, he became the monster they thought him to