Hannah Gilbert

Advanced English
Julie Cooney

Villains, do they exist?

Is there such a thing as a villain? At first thought any person would most likely answer yes,

of course there is such a thing as a villain. Lets start with the two definitions of a villain, “A cruelly

malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel.” (Dictonary.com).

The second definition is, “A character in a play, novel, or the like who constitutes an important evil

agency in the plot.” (Dictonary.com) Now this definition is interesting, how often, in plays, or novels,

or especially cartoons do the villains declare themselves villains? All the time, but in reality no one

would define themselves as a villain according to the first definition, not even the perceived villains in

society. There is a difference between villains in fiction and villains in reality. In fiction it is clear cut

as to who the villain really is. In reality, however, it is not so clear cut.

In reality, everyone has an opinion, or a perspective; and that view point, becomes a persons reality.

Reality for a person can change depending on their beliefs. For example Santa Clause, when you are a

child you truly believe that Santa exists, until you get older and you find out he does not. When you do

believe though, you are completely sure that Santa exists, and that is your reality. The same can be said

for a villain. Although, yes, there are widely excepted villains in society, but they weren’t always

considered a villain from every point of view. In other words, if everyone has a different perspective

how can a person truly be a villain? I know you are probably thinking, well what about pedophiles,
what about serial killers? What pedophiles and serial killer do is villainous, but it is so complected to

understand the whole picture of why they do what they do. Often times people who commit such acts

have serious chemical imbalances in their brain, so then you have to think don’t the people around the

pedophiles and serial killers realize that there is a problem? They could have done something to stop

them, so who is the villain now, the person who committed the crime, or the people who didn't do

anything about their condition? As for pedophiles and people who sexually abuse other people there is

some interesting research as to why they do what they do. Researchers have come to the conclusion

that the abused often turn into the abuser later in life. “Such people [The abused] internalized a

particular relationship dynamic, namely the complementary roles of "abuser" and "victim". They are

familiar with and fully understand the terror of being the helpless victim from their own childhood

experience. The opposite of being a victim is not simply opting out of abuse; it is instead, to be abusive.

Given the choice between being the out-of-control victim, or the in-control abuser, some of these people

grow up to prefer the role of the abuser. As they become adults, they simply turn this relationship

dynamic around and start acting out the "abuser" side of the relationship dynamic they have

learned.”(http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=8482 ) So who is the real

villain in that case, the people who didn’t get the abused treatment before they turned into the abuser,

the abused, or the person who abused the abuser. Even though the crimes these people commit are

indeed terrible, it is very hard to say that they are themselves villains.

In fiction how ever, the author has control over what the reader thinks about characters, and the

author has the power to make the reasons why the villain commits the crimes so clear cut that it is

incredibly easy to say that a character is a villain. Many authors make the villains obvious by making

them want to be evil. This desire to be evil makes it possible for there to be villains in fiction because

the villains themselves would classify themselves as villains. Lady Macbeth from Shakespeare's

Macbeth is perhaps the perfect example. She wants to be evil. In act one scene five before Macbeth
kills Duncan Lady Macbeth says, “Come, you spirits That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here, And

fill me from the crown to the toe top-full Of direst cruelty! make thick my blood; Stop up the access and

passage to remorse, That no compunctions visitings of nature Shake my fell purpose, nor keep peace

between The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts, And take my milk for gall, you murdering

ministers, Wherever in your sightless substances You wait on nature's mischief!Come, thick night, And

pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell, That my keen knife see not the wound it makes, Nor heaven peep

through the blanket of the dark, To cry 'Hold, hold!'” (Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act I scene V) Although

Lady Macbeth believes she is doing something good for herself by killing Duncan, which would make

Macbeth king and therefore giver her power, she obviously recognizes that what she is doing is terrible

otherwise she wouldn’t want “my keen knife see not the wound it makes”. This allows the reader to

feel no sorrow for Lady Macbeth through the whole play until maybe the end. That makes her a villain.

Although there are truly villainous things that happen in the world done by people, it is hard to

classify someone with such a harsh definition as a villain. Especially when we don’t have full details

about what happened, which we rarely do. That is the dividing line between a villain in reality and a

villain in fiction, in reality all the details are very rarely disclosed, in fiction the author can include as

much as necessary to make a character as evil and villainous as they can so we know for sure that they

are a villain. There is no way to tell in reality. The bottom line is, is that in fiction villains are alive and

thriving, in reality however, there is no such thing as a villain.