Grendel | Social Concerns/Themes
It should be clear that the major theme of Grendel is whether the universe is random or ordered, and the massive ethical implications that follow from that determination. For Grendel, all order "is theoretical, unreal — a harmless, sensible, smiling mask men slide between two great, dark realities, the self and the world — two snake-pits." If there is no order, it follows that there is no ethical code to regulate human's conduct. Grendel, pursuing this theory to its logical limit, finds only boredom. By the time the hero Beowulf has come to challenge him, the monster is so...
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