The Theme Of Love In Grendel

Love Me Harder “We’ve found love in a hopeless place.” You may be familiar with this song and can relate to it but for Grendel this isn’t the case. In John Gardner’s Grendel there are many characters essential to the plot, like Grendel, the Dragon, Shaper, and Grendel’s mother. The novel Grendel is about a monster, Grendel, who live with his mute mother. He is mysteriously drawn to a Dragon who makes him question his views about life. Afterwards, Grendel becomes the destroyer and gets in fights with Hrothgar’s army. Eventually, a fight with the army takes him too far and Grendel dies. In the novel Grendel, Gardner uses the theme of the lack of love as the unifying device that derives the plot and character’s actions. This lack of love leads Grendel to perform horrible actions. …show more content…
In this quote, Grendel’s arm has just been torn off and he is about to die. Grendel calls out to his mother, but she does not answer or come to his aid. “Mama, Mama! I’m dying!” But her love is history.” (page 172-173) Grendel says this quote and he is calling out to his mother for help with his injury. This quote proves my thesis by showing that by his mother not coming to his aid gives Grendel verification that the love between him and his mother is over. If Grendel was not in the process of dying, it could be inferred that he would do something irrational. The quote of Grendel’s mother lets him down in his final stages of life show that the lack of love upsets Grendel even in his final