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For many months, unsightly monster, youve murdered men as you pleased in Hrothgars hall. unless you can murder me as youve murdered lesser men, I give you my word those days are done forever! The king has given me splendid gifts. He will see tonight that his gifts have not gone for nothing! Prepare to fall, foul thing!
This one red hour makes your reputation or mine! I shook my head at him, wickedly smiling. Reputation! I said, pretending to be much impressed.
This is a prime example of how John Gardner uses satire in Grendel to mock man. Unferth is telling Grendel that he is better than all of the other men that he killed by using the term lesser men. Also he tells Grendel that he will die because the King has given him many gifts. Lastly, Unferth cannot distinguish between honor and an honorable reputation, though he claims to take the former, he would be solely content with the latter. However heros dont have reputations.
Grendel knows this and just humiliates him. Unferth thinks hes a hero but in reality he is really not a hero. He is just fighting Grendel to have a good ego. Unferth battles Grendel for the money and this is not heroic. Grendel humiliates Unferth by throwing apples at him when Unferth tries to attack him.
He eventually knocks him down and covers him with apples. After Unferth failure he tries to die honorably at Grendel's hands. He finds grendel's lair and trys to get killed. Nonetheless, Grendel amuses himself by denying Unferth the honor of martyrdom.
Grendel knows by letting him live a humiliated life is harder then dying as a hero. Though he tries to prove otherwise, Unferth's heroism is a product of his fellow men. His ego cannot sustain himself, and so when the other thanes scorn him for his consistent failures, Unferth loses his self-respect. However, Unferth is only a half hero. His moral strength is for the approval of his fellow thanes, and so when he fights it is because he fears their disapproval and contempt. This fight with Grendel seems like an act of courage but in truth a concession to his fear, and this is an act of cowardice Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Youve Murdered Lesser Men Grendel
