Villain

A villain is a bad person, especially in fiction. Villains are the fictional characters, or perhaps fictionalized characters, in drama and melodrama who do evil deliberately and work against the hero. As such, villains are an almost inevitable plot device, and more than the heroes, the villains are the crucial elements upon which plots turn. Female villains are sometimes called villainesses.

The necessary villain

Are villains inherently more interesting than the heroes who oppose them? They are at least as indispensable to the stories they appear in, probably more so. Those who stand on the side of righteousness and goodness seldom have much choice but to respond, and little choice in how; for villains, all paths are wide open. Many believe that Satan, for Christians perhaps the ultimate villain, is the most interesting character in John Milton's Paradise Lost, for all that he is the embodiment of evil. Perhaps in the nefarious acts of many villains there is more than a hint of wish-fulfilment fantasy, which makes some people identify with them as characters more strongly than they do the heroes. Still, the writer's task in creating a villain is not an easy or a trivial one; a convincing villain must be given a characterization that makes his motive for doing wrong somewhat more convincing than Mephisto's gleeful but seemingly pointless mischief.

Related Topics:
Satan - Christian - John Milton - Paradise Lost - Evil - Fantasy - Writer - Characterization - Motive - Mephisto

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Yet what makes the villain really indispensable in many works of fiction, including virtually all modern action movies, is that he provides an impeccable excuse for sadistic pleasure. The standard action story invariably begins by demonizing the villain—i.e., showing that he is so evil that he ceases to be a human being and becomes a monster; so that making him suffer is only necessary justice and most commendable. From then on, the reader or viewer can enjoy the sadistic pleasure of watching someone being beaten, burned, chopped, impaled, blown to bits, etc. etc.; and can identify himself with the hero who is doing all that — all with a clean conscience. For instance, the Nazis are just such a villain group used in the Indiana Jones film series. To modern audiences, aware of the Nazi responsibility of the Holocaust, they typically cheer on Jones as he battles an enemy so vile that they must be opposed at all costs.

Related Topics:
Indiana Jones - Holocaust

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