Grendel

In Grendel, the first person point of view gives the reader a different perspective and opinion of Grendel, in comparison to seeing him only as a monster in the third person Beowulf.   In the first person point of view of Grendel, the reader sees the story from Grendel’s perspective. In the third person omniscient Beowulf, the narrator tells the story giving the perspective of more than one character such as Beowulf and Grendel’s mother.   This gives the reader different views on how Grendel is portrayed.   The point of view affects the tone because different people have different thoughts on the same subject. Some people can be biased which gives a different tone.   The audience’s attitude is also affected by the point of view. The audience’s attitude is affected because the audience sees the characters in different ways in different point of views.   The point of view affects the development of the character as well.   In first person, we learn more about the characters then we do from a story that is in third person omniscient. In the first person point of view, the reader sees Grendel as a different person because they see the story through Grendel’s eyes.   The reader finds that Grendel is actually an intelligent creature and speaks very well, even though most characters in the story do not understand him.   Grendel is lonely and seeks an understanding for the meaningless world.   Grendel is also very human-like because he has both relationships with people, and many human emotions.   Grendel explains his emotions here “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.” (Gardner 44). The reader doesn’t really see Grendel this way in Beowulf. In the third person omniscient point of view, the...