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Definition of Simile
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words "like" or "as," but can also... read full definition
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often use the connecting words "like... read full definition
A simile is a figure of speech that directly compares two unlike things. To make the comparison, similes most often... read full definition
Key Examples in Grendel
Chapter 1
Explanation and Analysis—World's Weird Wall:
In Chapter 1, Grendel traipses through the moors, bemoaning that he is a "pointless, ridiculous monster." He wants to escape the "deadly progression" of his life in which he murders all manner of creatures, including many humans. Then, though, he arrives at the spot of a memorable murder of an old woman, which he recalls parenthetically in flowery language, including imagery, similes, and alliteration:
(It was just here, this shocking green, that once when the moon was tombed in clouds, I tore off sly old Athelgard’s head. Here, where the startling tiny jaws of crocuses snap at the late-winter sun like the heads of baby watersnakes, here I killed the old woman with the irongray hair. She tasted of urine and spleen, which made me spit. Sweet mulch for yellow blooms. Such are the tiresome memories of a shadow-shooter, earth-rim-roamer, walker of the world’s weird wall.)
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Stupidly Triumphant:
In the first line of the novel in Chapter 1, Grendel ponders a ram. The animal appears not to care about Grendel's presence, which frustrates him. Grendel describes him using a simile which makes allusion to Beowulf itself:
Unlock with LitCharts A+The old ram stands looking down over rockslides, stupidly triumphant. I blink. I stare in horror. “Scat!” I hiss. “Go back to your cave, go back to your cowshed—whatever.” He cocks his head like an elderly, slow-witted king, considers the angles, decides to ignore me.
Related Themes:
Chapter 2
Explanation and Analysis—Troll and Rock:
In Chapter 2, Grendel recalls his childhood, remembering when he began to explore further and further away from the cave where he was raised. In this recollection he describes his strong connection to his mother using a simile based on the cave itself:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Of all the creatures I knew, in those days, only my mother really looked at me.—Stared at me as if to consume me, like a troll. She loved me, in some mysterious sense I understood without her speaking it. I was her creation. We were one thing, like the wall and the rock growing out from it.—Or so I ardently, desperately affirmed.
Related Themes:
Chapter 3
Explanation and Analysis—The People Were Hushed:
In Chapter 3, Grendel overhears the Shaper singing the beginning of the poem that modern readers know as Beowulf. He describes the Shaper's chanting music and how it seemed to spread across the surrounding country, using a combination of a simile and personification:
Unlock with LitCharts A+So he sang—or intoned, with the harp behind him—twisting together like sailors’ ropes the bits and pieces of the best old songs. The people were hushed. Even the surrounding hills were hushed, as if brought low by language. He knew his art. He was king of the Shapers, harpstring scratchers (oakmoss-bearded, inspired by winds) [...]
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Half Insane:
In Chapter 3, after Grendel hears the Shaper sing for the first time, Grendel contemplates mankind's warlike, violent ways. He describes his panicked reaction to this realization by using a simile for himself:
Unlock with LitCharts A+I crossed the moors in a queer panic, like a creature half insane. I knew the truth. It was late spring. Every sheep and goat had its wobbly twins. A man said, “I’ll steal their gold and burn their meadhall!” and another man said, “Do it now!” I remembered the ragged men fighting each other till the snow was red slush, whining in winter, the shriek of people and animals burning, the whip-slashed oxen in the mire, the scattered battle-leavings: wolf-torn corpses, falcons fat with blood.
Related Themes:
Chapter 7
Explanation and Analysis—Soft Wisdom:
In Chapter 7, Grendel observes how Wealtheow calms Hrothgar and the other men in the castle. Her calming presence reminds them of their "humanness." Grendel uses a simile to compare Wealtheow's ability to "soften" the men to a variety of other things:
Unlock with LitCharts A+When drunken men argued, pitting theory against theory, bludgeoning each other’s absurdities, she came between them, wordless, uncondemning, pouring out mead like a mother’s love, and they were softened, reminded of their humanness, exactly as they might have been softened by the cry of a child in danger, or an old man’s suffering, or spring. The Shaper sang things that had never crossed his mind before: comfort, beauty, a wisdom softer, more permanent, than Hrothgar’s. The old king watched, remote from the queen, though she shared his bed, and he mused.
Related Themes:
