Characterization In Grendel

20 August 2022
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question
Which statements accurately compare Beowulf and Grendel? Check all that apply.
answer
-Beowulf characterizes Grendel as bloodthirsty, but Grendel shows Grendel's gentler side. -Beowulf is sympathetic to the humans, while Grendel shows the monster's perspective.
question
Read the excerpt from Grendel. It wasn't because he threw that battle-ax that I turned on Hrothgar. That was mere midnight foolishness. I dismissed it, thought of it afterward only as you remember a tree that fell on you or an adder you stepped on by accident, except of course that Hrothgar was more to be feared than a tree or snake. It wasn't until later, when I was full-grown and Hrothgar was an old, old man, that I settled my soul on destroying him—slowly and cruelly. What does the author use in this excerpt to develop Grendel's character?
answer
Grendel's thoughts
question
Read the excerpt from Grendel. I clamped my palms to my ears and stretched up my lips and shrieked again: a stab at truth, a snatch at apocalyptic glee. Then I ran on all fours, chest pounding, to the smoky mere. What does the author use in this excerpt to develop Grendel's character?
answer
the creature's actions
question
Read the excerpt from Grendel. Now and then some trivial argument would break out, and one of them would kill another one, and all the others would detach themselves from the killer as neatly as blood clotting, and they'd consider the case and they'd either excuse him, for some reason, or else send him out to the forest to live by stealing from their outlying pens like a wounded fox. At times I would try to befriend the exile, at other times I would try to ignore him, but they were treacherous. In the end, I had to eat them. How is Grendel characterized in this excerpt?
answer
practical
question
Read the line from Grendel. I was safe in my tree, and the men who fought were nothing to me, except of course that they talked in something akin to my language, which meant that we were, incredibly, related. This is an example of a
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first-person narrative showing Grendel's perspective.
question
Read the excerpt from Grendel. There was nothing to stop the advance of man. Huge boars fled at the click of a harness. Wolves would cower in the glens like foxes when they caught that deadly scent. I was filled with a wordless, obscurely murderous unrest. How is Grendel characterized in this passage?
answer
troubled
question
Read the line from Grendel. Hrothgar met with his council for many nights and days, and they drank and talked and prayed to their curious carved-out creatures and finally came to a decision. Which statement best describes Grendel's perspective?
answer
He thinks that the men's religious behavior is strange and interesting.
question
Read the excerpt from Grendel. Thus I fled, ridiculous hairy creature torn apart by poetry—crawling, whimpering, streaming tears, across the world like a two-headed beast, like mixed-up lamb and kid at the tail of a baffled, indifferent ewe—and I gnashed my teeth and clutched the sides of my head as if to heal the split, but I couldn't. How is Grendel characterized in this excerpt?
answer
as upset and confused
question
In Grendel, John Gardner uses
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first-person point of view to help readers see Grendel's side of a familiar story.
question
Which words best complete the comparison of Beowulf and Grendel? Readers of Beowulf hope that Grendel will be destroyed, but readers of Grendel are most likely to
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understand Grendel's perspective.
question
Read the description of Grendel from the epic poem Beowulf. If Grendel wins, it will be a gruesome day; he will glut himself on the Geats in the war-hall, swoop without fear on that flower of manhood as on others before. Then my face won't be there to be covered in death: he will carry me away as he goes to ground, gorged and bloodied; he will run gloating with my raw corpse and feed on it alone, in a cruel frenzy, fouling his moor-nest. This version of Grendel is more ________ than the version in John Gardner's novel.
answer
vicious
question
Read the excerpt from Grendel. I was safe in my tree, and the men who fought were nothing to me, except of course that they talked in something akin to my language, which meant that we were, incredibly, related. I was sickened, if only at the waste of it: all they killed—cows, horses, men—they left to rot or burn. I sacked all I could and tried to store it, but my mother would growl and make faces because of the stink. How is Grendel characterized in this excerpt?
answer
He is careful and respectful of animal life.
question
Read these lines from Beowulf. He realized that the demon was going to descend on the hall, that he had plotted all day, from dawn-light until darkness gathered again over the world and stealthy night-shapes came stealing forth under the cloud-murk. Read this excerpt from Grendel. Thus I fled, ridiculous hairy creature torn apart by poetry—crawling, whimpering, streaming tears, across the world like a two-headed beast, like mixed-up lamb and kid at the tail of a baffled, indifferent ewe—and I gnashed my teeth and clutched the sides of my head as if to heal the split, but I couldn't. Which statement best compares the two excerpts?
answer
Grendel is described as an unfeeling creature in Beowulf, but he is a sensitive and emotional character in Grendel.
question
Both Beowulf and Grendel
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tell the story of Grendel's encounters with humans.