The victorian era to the contemporary study of the idea of the arch nemesis in detective to popular novelisation of hero and villain, and their interpretation of the change of villain as time passed by. In relation to the contend cultural change, specifically what shifts these may have caused in the representation and reception of the villain character as well as the hero.
Understanding the changing shift in narrative structure of heroes and villains, the portal of social, and power control changes through the characters dynamics, and story arch have been positioned. This is due to the change our world has faced.
Villain is a reflection of the value system and fears of the time.
Why do hero and villain change?
What does it say about our past and our world today seen in literary text?
Observing noticeable trends among the most enduring an recognisable villains of each era.
By exploring multiple era and see how literature embodies the spirit and anxiety of the times.
A shift in that is portrayed of villains.
Institutions lost its presumptions of goodwill. As a result villains starts to embodies the broken system that people were getting angry at.
The circumstances of power makes the villain rather than an
Such as the character of Nurse Rached from the Novel “one flew over the cocoksnest :
Who turned a noble profession (nurse) into one that turns vividl individuals that turns into drug addicts ghost of themselves. Blurring the line of hero and villain.
The characters are depicted as conflicted, heavily flawed protagonist with questionable and hideous morals.
Villains simply embodies solutions that are way to radical.
1950’s : represents villain that trying to take over an inherently good system in hopes of corrupting it.
2019: Todays villains brings a level of logical reasoning , philosophic ideals , and
In this brave new world of villainy we began to emphasise villains critiquing of the system and the desire to change it.
In this through the looking glass re-interpreting of villains and heroes are investable casted as flawed protectors of a statues quo that no one are really happy with.
Contemporary villains seem to be a mere image of the 1950’s who want to corrupt good institutions.
Where as Nurse Rached type character want to effect good change in corrupt institutions but goes about it in a very bad way.
Our contemporary villains seems to have merged with the complexity of moral, philosophical perception of villain, as well as some form of innocence’s. That one bad day can create a villain. From their ow fears, trauma, and lost. The action of villainy is a response towards trauma. With moral nihilism and existentialism crisis that creates internal struggle and conflict.
Critic:
Jean Baudrillar
Text : The transparency of evil: “All liberation affects good and evil equally. The liberation of morals and minds entails crimes and catastrophes. The liberation of law and pleasure leads inevitably to the liberation of crime..”
Evil isn’t the opposite of good. If something unpleasant happens to you that doest mean its evil. Evil is categorise as a radical indifference to good.
Instead of making bad thing happen lie other villain. Some simply wants to destroy the concept of what good real means.
A transatlantic comparative study of the imagination and representation of the change in villain and hero, in a post villain world.
The transatlantic study brings in British, and North American culture, brings in literary, and cultural studies concurring literature and culture of the English speaking world. The transatlantic study brings in new perspective, and explore the implications that has caused the cultural change that is caused by globe events. As trans- Atlantic study delve into the issues that engages the dissuasion of our society. In relations to globalisation, migration and the law, examines the trans- Atlantic artistic, cultural representation and explores the economic, philosophic, and political implication of the trans Atlantic area. Leading expert Andrew Taylor suggests that the trans- Atlantic study offers a more effective us in literary study. As he suggests that the key ideas surrounds trans- Atlantic study, such as the nation, and cosmopolitanism, theories and practices of comparative literature, post-colonialism, imperialism, translation, style and genre as it provides a differ possibility’s of comparative analysis in this study.
Primary text:
Mr. Hyde, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson
Because the very worst villain is . . . get this . . . actually inside you. Also, you just fell asleep one time and when you woke up it was your evil id and not you? We’ve heard that one before.
Professor Moriarty, “The Final Problem,” Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
A criminal mastermind— “the Napoleon of Crime,” as Holmes puts it—and the only person to ever give the good consulting detective any real trouble (other than himself). Though after countless adaptations, we now think of Moriarty as Holmes’s main enemy, Doyle really only invented him as a means to kill his hero, and he isn’t otherwise prominent in the series. Moriarty has become bigger than Moriarty.
Vanity, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde
You could argue that it’s Harry who corrupts Dorian, and James who stalks and tries to murder him, but the real source of all this young hedonist’s problems is his own self- obsession. Sometimes I like to think about what this novel would be like if someone wrote it today, with Dorian as a social media star. . .
Uriah Heep, David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
Few villains are quite so aggressively ugly as Uriah Heep (even the name! Dickens did not go in much for subtlety). When we first meet him, he is described as a “cadaverous” man, “who had hardly any eyebrows, and no eyelashes, and eyes of a red-brown, so unsheltered and unshaded, that I remember wondering how he went to sleep. He was high-shouldered and bony; dressed in decent black, with a white wisp of a neckcloth; buttoned up to the throat; and had a long, lank, skeleton hand.” Some Dickens scholars apparently think that Heep was based on Hans Christian Andersen, in which case, mega
burn—unless Andersen was into heavy metal.
Arturo, Geek Love, Katherine Dunn
Here’s another novel with multiple candidates for Supreme Villain—should it be the Binewski parents, who purposefully poison themselves and their children in order to populate their freak show? Or should it be Mary Lick, a sort of modern millionaire version of Snow White’s Evil Queen, who pays pretty women to disfigure themselves? I think we have to go with Arturo the Aqua Boy, the beflippered narcissist who grows into a cult leader, encouraging his followers to slowly pare away their body parts in a search for “purity.” (But for the record, it’s all of the above.)
Dr. Frankenstein, Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
It’s true that the monster is the murderer in Shelley’s classic novel—and also, you know, a monster—but it’s Dr. Frankenstein who decided he had to play God and build a creature in his own image without thought to the possible ramifications! Shelley treats him as a tragic figure, but that only makes him a much more interesting villain.
Hannibal Lecter, Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs, etc., Thomas Harris
Made iconic by Anthony Hopkins, of course, but made brilliant and terrifying—a serial killing psychiatrist cannibal, come on—by Thomas Harris. “They don’t have a name for what he is.” Also, he has six fingers—though they’re on his left hand, so it couldn’t have been him who killed Mr. Montoya. Still, it puts him in rare company.
Nurse Ratched, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
Big Nurse rules the patients of the asylum ward with an iron fist. She is addicted to order and power, and can be quite cruel in commanding it. In comes McMurphy, our hero, who wants to undercut her. He does undercut her, in fact, a number of times—but when he goes too far, she has him lobotomized. The end! I know Ratched is meant to be evil, and it’s supposed to be depressing that she wins, but I can’t help but sort of like the fact that after a man chokes her half to death and rips off her shirt in an attempt to humiliate her (because no one with breasts can have power, you see!), she simply has him put down
Big Brother, 1984, George Orwell
Of course it’s O’Brien who does most of the dirty work—but it’s Big Brother (be he actual person or nebulous invented concept) that really, um, oversees the evil here.
Patrick Bateman, American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis
He’s a shallow, narcissistic, greedy investment banker, and also a racist, a misogynist, an anti-Semite and a homophobe, and also a sadist and a murderer and a cannibal and Huey Lewis devotee. He’s also weirdly pathetic. Can’t really get any worse than that as a person—but as a character, he’s endlessly entertaining.
Ridgeway, The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead
The slave-hunting Ridgeway, Whitehead writes, “was six and a half feet tall, with the square face and thick neck of a hammer. He maintained a serene comportment at all times but generated a threatening atmosphere, like a thunderhead that seems far away but then is suddenly overhead with a loud violence.” He’s a little more interesting and intelligent than a simple brute—in part due to that sidekick of his—which only makes him more frightening as a character.Ridgeway was six and a half feet tall, with the square face and thick neck of a hammer. He maintained a serene comportment at all times but generated a threatening atmosphere, like a thunderhead that seems far away but then is suddenly overhead with a loud violence.”
Annie Wilkes, Misery, Stephen King
Annie Wilkes is a fan. She’s a big fan. She loves Paul Sheldon’s novels about Misery Chastain, and she is devastated to discover—after rescuing Sheldon from a car wreck— that he has killed off her beloved character. Things do not then go well for Paul, because as it turns out, Annie is already a seasoned serial killer who is very handy (read:
murderous) with household objects.
Judge Holden, Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy
Possibly the most terrifying character in modern literature (or any literature?), Glanton’s deputy is over six feet tall and completely hairless. More importantly, despite the fact that he might be a genius, he inflicts senseless and remorseless violence wherever he goes. The man murders (and, it is suggested, rapes) children and throws puppies to their doom. He might actually be the devil—or simply evil itself. He never sleeps, the judge. He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die.
Satan, The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri
The obligatory first place in the scheme of literary evildoers: Satan himself. Though honestly, as depictions of the devil go, Dante’s is somewhat less than fearsome—not least because he too must suffer all the pains and indignities of Hell, tortured and torturing,
crying from all six of his eyes as he chomps on Judas Iscariot.