Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

Those Saintly Literary Villains

When I look at great characters in literature, I consider the villains to be of utmost importance to a successful story. A character who causes our skin crawl makes the polish of an author’s pen sparkle. Although not all antagonists are villains, those evil, slithery antagonists are the reasons for any story’s success in long life.

I think the quirkiness inside the villains add greatly to the entertainment factor. It’s no contest that villains are the most important catalysts when their dastardly deeds twist the stories around into absolutely terrifying and mind-bending channels.

Moreover, those bad boys and girls get the best lines with large doses of poison or ridicule about their appearances. They are entertaining. In Alice in Wonderland, isn’t the Queen of Hearts with her “Off with his head!” command evoke a horribly joyful wickedness? Story villains not only can tickle our funny bone, but also may influence our way of thinking, beliefs, and attitudes toward life. Without them we would not fully understand and appreciate the virtues of the heroes and the goodness in happy endings.

There are so many villains that cause our blood boil and want us to jump inside the story to avenge the good characters. Now who wouldn’t want to tear the wings off Bram Stoker’s terrible Dracula? But then, the world of literature owes so much to him, and no wonder the latest re-tellings of Count Dracula show him as a more likable character. It is as if the literary world is paying its debt to a character who can do vile things unheard of earlier but also he can fly.

Then there’s that Joker in Batman with the look of a clown who is a joke himself, same as Captain Hook in Peter Pan. And who can deny Iago’s genius with his sweet tongue who kills with words in Shakespeare’s Othello? Would Othello exist without that wheeling dealing Iago? Would any successful story gain so many readers without its villain?

I think not. Therefore, if it were at all possible, I would like to be the patron saint of literary villains in the past and those in the future who are waiting in the wings to be created.

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Prompt: In 300 years, if you were to be named the patron saint of X, what would you like X to be? Places, activities, objects all are fair game.