Afternoon of Alterity - Nazareth College

can, without a doubt, be placed into the realm of humanity notfor the supposed villains. The ability that Grendel’s Mother hasto react emotionally to the death of her son creates another stringthat binds her to the ways of humanity. Monsters are not supposedto mourn yet this very maternal and human response is the way inwhich she reacts to the violent death of Grendel at the hands ofBeowulf. However, the manner in which Grendel’s Mother reactsto these human emotions is what dissolves the strings of similaritythat she holds with her appropriate, societal dictated, gender role.Ultimately, this severing of anatomical sex from societal sex iswhat creates the monster. Her “sexual otherness” is emphasizedto de-emphasize her “cultural otherness” (Clark 169). As a female,Grendel’s Mother should not have the motivation or strengthto operate in the masculine gender-ruled system of revenge. Sheirrupts into the male realm, and through this irruption, “projectsthe anxieties [of Anglo-Saxon Society that it cannot] otherwiseadequately voice concerning the inherent weakness in the systemof feuding and revenge” (Acker 705). Simply put, she is presentingthe members of Heorot, including Beowulf, with the downfall oftheir well-loved revenge system. Yet this system does not actuallyfail. Rather her attempt at revenge fails, which may be an indicationof the “implicit judgment on the impropriety of her actions” (Acker706). Grendel’s Mother fails in her attack against Heorot becauseof the inherent error or unseemliness that the act of a femaleinhabiting the role of a male has, regardless of whether the femalein question is human.Grendel’s Mother’s revenge is enacted because of the attachmentbetween mother and offspring. The ability that Grendel’s Motherhas to bear children, and more importantly the fact that she did beara child, irrevocable makes her something to fear, regardless of anyaction she may have taken against Heorot. There are two methodsof belief regarding pregnancy in medieval culture. The first is calledanna iuppa 109