The Transformation Towards Evil Cruella DeVil. Jafar. Lex Luther. 'Evil' Stepmother. All of these characters, from classic tales, instantly capture the essence of evil. They are the necessary “bad guys” in the story, for without them the story would cease to exist. Much like Grendel, people need an antagonist to be evil in order to be depicted as the good protagonist. Throughout the novel, John Gardner gives the reader a different perspective of the villain, with the question of whether Grendel is truly evil. Grendel becomes evil in the story but doesn't start that way. Grendel transitions from conflicted, to a point of change when meeting the dragon, to essentially evil. Grendel isn't born evil. He searches for answers to his role in life …show more content…
He begins to kill with no second thought, continuously, instead feeling an unearthly joy as he devours man after man. As he hears the music from the meadhall, , he states, “it no longer filled me with doubt and distress, loneliness, shame. It enraged me.” (Gardner 77) He constantly raids Hrothgar's domain. Then he meets, Unferth, a soldier desiring nothing more than to be known as hero and have epics be told of him. Grendel mocks him and his philosophy of heroism, he throws apples at Unferth. Unferth attempts to fight him, and when Grendel leaves the meadhall to return to his cave, he follows. Grendel, growing more cruel, decides not to kill Unferth, as the wannabe-hero desires so it can appear as though he died nobly, but instead spares him and brings him back to the kingdom. Every time Grendel raids, he chooses to kill about Unferth. Among all the cruel actions, destroying a man's belief of life is most atrocious of all. He praises himself on his evil deeds, laughing, “Ah, Grendel, you sly old devil!” (Gardner 110) As the novel continues, Grendel gains pleasure from the destruction and “war” with Hrothgar, but senses a danger on the way. Towards the end, Grendel grows enraged at simple things such as a goat climbing a mountain. “I smile, threatened by an animal already dead, […] I snatch up a stone and hurl it. The air is sweet with the scent of his blood.” (Gardner 140). Grendel is so confident in his evil that in the end, when Beowulf grabs hold of him and rips off his arm, the monster tells that it was only a mistake, nothing more than an accident that caused his