To say a villain in a thriller story is flawed is like
saying coal is black! Of course a villain is flawed, I hear you say, otherwise he
would be a pretty poor antagonist. A good villain has a personality that most
of us would not aspire to as he may be capable of the most dastardly acts. I am
however talking about a villain who may be flawed because he/she has some
decent human traits that show us he isn’t totally bad. The only villain who
could be said to be totally bad is the devil himself, I guess. Most others
started out as innocent babies and children but maybe something happened to
make them bad. Or maybe not – maybe they simply have more of the undesirable
human traits in their genetic make up. Nasty traits do exist to some extent in
all of us, but hopefully most people have control of those urges and anyway
have more humanity and caring for fellow humans.
How villainous a character is depends mostly on the type of
story you are writing. If it is a love rival or a corporate executive he may
not be so nasty in all areas of his life but on the other hand if it is a
horror/supernatural villain he may have no redeeming features. For example a
bad character may be wicked and malicious to people but may love animals! In
this way he is a flawed character and not true to the caricature of evil which
we may assume him to be.
Always, when using
villains, a suitable adversary/hero is necessary and it is the juxtaposition of
their characters that allow the most conflict and tension in a story. The hero who has faults is a much more
interesting character than the perfect boring type of individual. I think we
can relate better to him because he is flawed – as we all are too. Similarly, we all know people who we consider to be horrible individuals but we know (maybe deep down) they will have some redeeming characteristics too.
For me, giving my villains one redeeming human trait,
amongst all the vicious, nasty ones, makes them much more interesting ( and
indeed fun) and if their malevolent ways came about because of something that
happened to them – well, it just makes them all the more intriguing. Not nice
and not worth rooting for but maybe a little more human.
Do you give your villains redeeming traits?
Such an interesting and thought provoking post, Pat. I agree that a flawed character is far more compelling than a goody two shoes. It is the flaws in our characters that gives them their depth and dimensions. The difficulty for the author is bestowing on our heroes and villains the kind of flaws that engage the reader and lift that character out of the ordinary.
ReplyDeleteI so agree! Thanks for your comment.
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