William Blake and Grendel

There are many similarities and difference between William Blake's perspective of the paradox through his poems and John Gardner's perspective of the paradox through Grendel. In the poem Infant Joy, Blake portrays the extreme contentedness of a child. For example, the speaker claims, "I happy am, Joy is my name."The excessive happiness is a sign of the innocence that the child portrays within this poem. Not only this, the fact that the child is speaking without any specific identity further exemplifies his innocence. This is similar to the creature in Frankenstein and his innocence right at birth before he was influenced by the environment around him. We see this innocence within Grendel at the beginning of the story just before his foot "was wedged deep, as if the two oak trees were eating it. Black saw-dust-squirreldust-was spattered up the leg almost to the thigh". It is in this chapter that Grendel truly experiences a loss of innocence. First off, it is interesting to note that the denotation of dust is that of human remains. Thus, one can easily infer that Gardner is foreshadowing the figurative death of the child like Grendel who is innocent and naive. It is also interesting to note the symbolism of the two oak trees. The trees can be associated with the story of the Genesis in which Adam and Eve both experienced a loss of innocence when they decided to eat the fruit of the Tree of Forbidden Knowledge. It is here that the two figures were banished to Earth. Thus, Grendel is once again foreshadowing the eventual loss of innocence. Lastly, we see that Grendel is stuck between two oak trees as if he is stuck between the two worlds of innocence and experience. This paradox that Grendel lives him is what seems to be destroying him considering the animalistic characteristics that Gardner gives to the trees when he describes them as "eating". Similar to Gardner, Blake seems to foreshadow the eventual loss of innocence of the child in the poem through the word "befall". This term generally has the denotation of something bad happening to another, and is also a play on the Fall that one takes towards experience. In essence, Blake is portraying the eventual fall that the baby will take to loose his her innocence. Moving on to the poem "Infant Sorrow", it is important to note that both the child and Grendel make a "leap" into the other world as if they are both experiencing the Fall. After experiencing this fall/loss of innocence/leap, both Grendel and the child seem to "sulk upon" their "mother's breast". In Grendel's case, the experience that he achieved allowed him to see his mother how she truly is. She tries to prevent Grendel from the experience and enlightenment. In this same way, the child struggles to go against the "swaddling bands" and is "bound and weary".