Christopher Leveratto
Ms. Cox
Honors British Literature
9 October 2014
Nihilism
Is there a true meaning of life? Do the values in human life such as charity, courage, hope, heroism, and bravery have any significance? In the John Gardener's Grendel the answer is no. Nihilism is the name for it and it's expressed in the way one person behaves, feels, or thinks. Throughout the book, Grendel battles with the idea of making his life meaningful or coming to reality that it has no meaning. With characters from the book constantly influencing his view on life, Grendel slowly turns his life into a nihilistic one. This is in turn causes Grendel to come to accept his role in life and goes on living the monster he was meant to be.
Grendel himself exhibits signs of nihilism. While stuck in tree as the bull is attacking him he thinks to himself saying, "I understood that the world was nothing: a mechanical chaos of casual, brute enmity on which we stupidly impose our hopes and fears" (21-22). This view of Grendel's is a nihilistic one and is one he continually enfolds throughout the book. To Grendel, the value of human life has no meaning. He is constantly killing Hrothgar's people as if it was a mechanical thing he does. An example of how Grendel disvalues human life is when he storms Hrothgar's mead hall determined to kill Wealtheow after seeing how much she means to the king and his people. "I would kill her and teach them reality" (110). He does however change his mind because he concludes that killing her would be as pointless as not killing her. It would have had no meaning in the end. "I changed my mind. It would be meaningless, killing her. As meaningless as letting her live" (110). This in turn expresses Grendel's nihilistic view of life, one that was influenced by the dragon himself.
The dragon is the definition of nihilism. When Grendel seeks his advice about the purpose in his life he responds, "You improve them, my boy! Can't you see that yourself? You stimulate them! You make them think and scheme. You drive them to poetry, science, religion, all that makes them what they are for as long as they last.” (72-73). Dragon is stating here that no matter how hard Grendel tries to be one of them he will never be accepted. They are the reason for his existence because for every good there must be an evil. Therefore, he discourages Grendel from following this foolish quest of becoming a better person and encourages him to terrorize them every chance possible. He concludes by saying, “It's all the same in the end, matter and motion, simple or complex. No difference, finally. Death, transfiguration. Ashes to ashes and slime to slime." (72) The dragon convinces Grendel to his way of thinking and tells him, "Do as I do. Seek out gold-not my gold- and guard it!" (62)
The main reason why Grendel sought the dragon’s advice was due to the Shaper, a story teller for the Danes. One day overhearing the Shaper sing a song he was moved with compassion by the words of it. Although he knew what he said were lies, he felt like wanted to believe them. "I knew what I knew, the mindless, mechanical bruteness of things, and when the harper's lure drew my mind away to hopeful dreams, the dark of what was and always was reached out and snatched my feet" (54) The Shaper caught the attention of everyone who listened causing them to forget what was real. The nihilism of this is that the Shaper told the lie in such a truthful way that the truth itself would became meaningless. These lies then led all who listened to live a meaningless life because what they were living wasn’t true. One example of this was when Unferth wanted so badly to be part of these meaningless stories of heroism that he went to Grendel himself and asked him to kill him. He tells Grendel,“It will be sung year on year and age on age that Unferth went down through the burning lake and gave his life in battle with the world-rim monster”(87).These lies lead people like Unferth to live a lie which in of in itself is nihilistic.
Many examples of nihilism can be seen throughout the book. Grendel, the dragon, and even the Shaper himself show nihilism at its finest. The world is living off of lies and has no greater purpose is the morale of the story which, ironically, is no morale itself. Nihilism can be no better described as a rejection to any meaning one has or creates in life because in the end it’s pointless. Grendel is destined to be the evil in humankind and he came to terms with it as he storms the mead hall in an attempt to kill everyone in their sleep. If not for Beowulf, he would have kept killing everyone mechanically because he felt it was his job to do so. Life has no meaning and as Grenade puts it, it’s nixhlio ex nehilo, which means nothing of nothing.