The Villain

We all know the villain as the opposite of the hero, but what does that really mean? Is a villain inherently evil? Must they always do the wrong thing? How does an author create valid and believable antagonists?

The first thing to consider is that the villain doesn’t think of themselves as evil or bad. They are just reacting to their environment and making judgments about the actions that will create the outcomes that they desire. A villain is the hero of his own story. He doesn’t know that he is the villain. He has valid reasons for doing the things that he does.

A true villain is a wounded human being who has goals and aspirations that make sense. A monster isn’t born; he is made. Examples of this abound, Darth Vader was once Anikan Skywalker. His wounds created his decent into immorality. He had his reasons.

In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the creature is made from recycled parts. How could he be anything but ugly? However, that was only his outward appearance. Inside, he was innocent and curious. He had the desire to connect with others. Unfortunately, Victor Frankenstein rejected his creation. Victor introduced the wounds to the creature’s spirit that created the villain. The creature wanted nothing more than to be loved; that unrelenting desire is what drives the story.

He doesn’t have to be more intelligent or stronger than the hero. Making a mistake is where he will fail and the hero will prevail-or not. In Frankenstein, the creature is stronger, faster, and arguably more intelligent than Victor. The creature aka villain wants a partner for his life and to live in isolation and peace. He does evil and immoral things to reach that end.

Memorable villains are always complex creations. They have desires and goals that arise from their wounded spirits. Are you the hero or the villain? Only the end of the story can tell.

Who is a Monster?

As I was reading Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, I thought about the question-what defines a monster?

From the movies, we look at the creation as the horrible abomination. We label this new life created from grave yard pieces as the monster. Victor Frankenstein is the noble scientist; a victim of a science experiment gone wrong. This version is far from the vision of Mary Shelley.

But really, who is the monster? When he was first created, the creature was innocent and intelligent. He didn’t know that he was different. He was left alone by Victor who ran away from his responsibility to a new life. It was Victor’s treatment of him that created the angry and vengeful spirit-the monster was born from neglect. The creature became a monster in response to the reactions that his creator showed him. He internalized the horror

Victor started out to defeat death. He wanted to create a world where no one would die. Wow, I wonder how that’s going to turn out. He is a genius who has used his talent unwisely. Nature will see that he is punished for his vanity. Unfortunately, the innocent creation pays a high price for Victor’s mistake.

The dictionary isn’t much help. It just says a monster is any creature that is so ugly or monstrous as to frighten people. That’s not much help. That could describe anything. Also, ugly really shouldn’t be an aspect that defines a monster. Really, beauty is in the eye of the beholder which implies that ugly is too. Shouldn’t a monster be more universal than that? Monsters are all around us. They hide in the shadows. They try to blend into the background because when we see them-we will do something about them.

A second definition talks about a person who excites horror by wickedness or cruelty. Now, that is a definition that we can work with.  It is horrifying when a person goes out and causes random harm to others. We know a monster when we hear about them. But what if they are just frightened people making mistakes.  The Twilight Zone episode, “The Monsters are due on Maple Street”, comes to mind. The fear that the neighborhood felt had to be directed somewhere. Each event had to be blamed on someone. The person blamed had to be on the street. They couldn’t imagine that the events could be coming from an unseen force. Having someone to blame made them feel a little more in control.

Since we all can feel fear and act irrationally, do we all carry the monster within us?