The Topic of Nihilism in Grendel - Essay Example

Nihilism in Grendel John Gardner’s novel is an almost uninterrupted monologue of the protagonist, Grendel, which forced the to make him not just a personality (which is the main difference between the novel and the poem), that is, a being endowed with mind, feelings, the ability to suffer and to empathize with others’ suffering, as well as the ability to speak, but a person deep in his spiritual quest, able to make justified, i.e. not violating the unity of personality, moral decisions. Thanks to the abilities of the protagonist to speak and understand speech, the reader not only “sees” everything that happens in the novel through the eyes of Grendel, but also becomes a witness of emotional turmoil, torturous doubts, acute moral contradictions, a witness of the gradual aging of the whole personality. Gardner’s Grendel is a creature with a powerful spiritual potential. In the surrounding reality only man seems a friend and kindred creature for him. The main feature of the people was discovered by Grendel at his first meeting with them, when he realized that they are thinking beings, embodying their ideas into action. 3 Grendel carefully and impartially observes people’s lives, but his attitude toward them remains contemptuously ironic (but just as he considers himself). Only for some people, in particular, to the old king Hrothgar, he feels respect and compassion; few are able to call his admiration, among them the blind Shaper and Wealtheow, Hrodgar’s wife. Although outwardly Grendel has some similarity with man, he is not a human. He is united with people by the inner world of the personality, speech and the desire to self-actualization. In this sense, he can be regarded as a mythical image, in which the moral and spiritual issues that are important for every human being are embodied and materialized. If we consider Grendel in the context of nihilism, he will perfectly fit into the framework of this philosophic conception. The subject of nihilism is not so much philosophical, but ethical and even political. Nihilism, since the very origin of this concept, appeared more as a moral indictment of people with a particular way of thinking, behind which ordinary consciousness saw some kind of hostility, secret service to evil purpose, or even worse – failure to follow generally accepted human values ​​and ideals. Perhaps, this understanding is the most exact one and most fitting for the novel. Briefly, nihilists follow some or all of the following statements, which can be found in Grendel’s behavior: there is no reasonable evidence of a higher ruler or creator; “the real morality” does not exist; life, in a sense, has no truth and no action is objectively preferable to any other. Grendel presents his own version of relationships with people (because it is they, not realizing it, horrified by his appearance, began to mock him and inspired his evil response), he tells us about their feelings, thoughts, about their knowledge of the world. And the change in perspective—world through Grendel’s eyes—completely alters the old epic picture: the view on the origins of evil, violence, the people and civilization, justice and revenge is completely different. This is a view through the eyes of a nihilist. Being a nihilist means for some reason to see something non-existent as existing, and vice versa. For Nietzsche, in determining of nihilism precisely this moment of “untruthfulness”, “need for untruth” is important, against which the private nihilist belief (in God or devil) is not essential. Another moment is important – something that he offers as a matter of faith “for others.” In the early stages of understanding the world Grendel naturally acquires the idea of ​​some kind of curse, gravitating over him and his mother, and the feeling of being abandoned by God, and sometimes the feeling that God abandoned the whole world as a whole. Young Gardner’s hero accuses God of injustice, as he considers manifestations of it in an insurmountable loneliness and apparent meaninglessness of existence. The clearer Grendel realizes the potential power of his spiritual, mental and physical strength, the more desperate is his feeling of inability to find a good use for them, to determine the purpose and meaning of his existence. Erich Fromm suggested an approach to nihilism as to one of the psychological defense mechanisms, the kind of defense mechanism which can be seen in Grendel. Fromm believed that the central problem of man is inherent in human existence contradiction between being thrown into the world against one’s will and being beyond the nature in his ability to realize oneself, others, past and future. Fromm argues that human development, human personality is in formation of two major trends: the desire for liberty and the pursuit of alienation. Human development is on the way to increase the “freedom”, but not everyone can adequately take this path, causing a number of negative emotions and mental states, and this leads to alienation. As a result, a person loses his self, the example of which is Grendel’s fate. There appears a protective mechanism of “escape from freedom”, which is characterized by masochistic and sadistic tendencies, destructivity, Grendel’s desire to destroy the world, not to be destroyed by it, nihilism, automatic conformity. Grendel’s honesty (or rather underdevelopment of consciousness, or more accurately – his inexperience) lets to see him from the inside; due to such self-discovery he sees a very impressive evidence of evil, chaos and violence. Finally, Grendel, feeling and believing that he is behind the wall separating him from the people, and more than that – assuming that people are fenced off from each other by an impenetrable wall, he becomes an instrument of evil, feels, and really becomes part of a “mechanical chaos” (another metaphor). Nihilism can take different forms. Thus, there is passive nihilism, humbly acknowledging that higher values ​​do not exist, and existence is meaningless. This feeling may prompt the person both to suicide and cruelty to others by the principle “everything is permitted.” But there is also active nihilism, which seeks to crush those lacking confidence and impaired idols. Nietzsche predicted that active nihilism would soon come to the stage of history (actually, it had already declared itself in Nietzsche himself) and would cause great cataclysms, shaking the foundations of world order: “...There will be wars, such as have never been waged on earth…” (quoted in Holbrook 58). Grendel is the type of active nihilist, ready to destroy the world. In Grendel John Gardner portrays a protagonist with all the necessary features to make example of a classical nihilist. Grendel, a beast with consciousness, considers everything as meaningless, though he seeks meaning everywhere. According to his words, perception is reality, he has no God (God is dead!), reality is made by his experience: “I create the whole universe, blink by blink” (Gardner 22). Consequently this conviction leads him to understanding that only he matters in the world, and therefore he can do whatever he wants to do. He considers humans to be against him, whole reality is just a conflict. Grendel’s philosophy is summed up in his words “nihilo ex nihilo”- a purely nihilistic attitude. His actions comply with some nihilist conceptions given in the beginning of the paper: for Grendel there is no reasonable evidence of a higher ruler or creator; Grendel does not believe in real morality; for Grendel life has no truth and no action is objectively preferable to any other. Though, Grendel’s philosophy slightly changes from chapter to chapter, he still remains the same convicted nihilist he was in the beginning. Bibliography Cunningham, C. (2002). A Genealogy of Nihilism: Philosophies of Nothing and the Difference of Theology. London: Routledge, 2002. Gardner, J. Grendel. NY: Vintage, 1989 Holbrook, D. Education, Nihilism and Survival. London, Longman & Todd, 1977 Mccarthy, J. “Nihilism before Nietzsche,” The Review of Metaphysics. Volume: 54. Issue: 1, 2000. P.140 Nietzsche, F. The Gay Science, Section 125: The Madman. 1882. Retrieved 15.04.2011 from Nietzsche, F. The Will to Power. New York: Vintage, 1968 Read More