Great stories tend to feature memorable heroes and villains. But are all great heroes alike, or do they differ in essential ways? And how do the villains in their paths help to define them as heroes? We will look closely at a range of outstanding heroes and corresponding villains who appear in English literature over the centuries.
There could hardly be a more recognisable hero-type than the knight who sets off to slay a dragon, and Spenser’s version of the story of St George, in the first book of his epic The Faerie Queene (1590), played a significant role in articulating modern ‘archetypal’ theories of literature. But Spenser’s famous retelling of the old tale takes surprising turns, not least that the requisite ‘damsel in distress’, far from waiting to be rescued by her knight in shining armour, must intervene halfway through to rescue him! Why does this hero need so much help before he can face his adversary, and what does his story tell us about true heroism according to Spenser?
Like Spenser, Shakespeare was retelling the story of a well-known hero in his great history play Henry V (1599), for the reputation of this medieval English King preceded him as the against-the-odds victor at Agincourt and heroic conqueror of France. But Shakespeare embellishes his sources in striking ways. On one hand he endows his Henry with such eloquence and charisma that he continues to sweep audiences off their feet in film versions, but on the other raises profound questions about whether we are really justified in admiring such a conquering hero, or whether this charming young king – a wilful warmonger, accomplished bender of truth, and serial betrayer of friends – might even be called the villain of the piece.
Pride and Prejudice (1813) is probably the most famous love story since Romeo and Juliet, and the villainy of Wickham seems clear. But what of Lydia, or the self-indulgent Mr and Mrs Bennet, and a plot turns on Elizabeth’s and Darcy’s mutual misconstruction as villains? The tale is so popular largely because despite what seem clear lines Austen poses enduring and subtle questions about rights and wrongs that are continuously re-explored in screen adaptations and more than 600 published sequels.
The Jungle Book (1894) is often thought of as ‘Mowgli’s story’, as the Disney cartoon and other films use that tale. But the original has more tales than Mowgli’s, and the villainy of Shere Khan is matched elsewhere, and how is it wrong for a tiger to be hungry? Kipling’s animal fables again offer subtle questions about friendship, enmity, and who should be thought heroic or villainous.
We end with an enduring modern hero, Sherlock Holmes, and his most famous case, The Hound of the Baskervilles (1901–02), where the identities of hero and villain are clear but both exhibit intense complexities. Holmes, besides a drug addiction, makes any number of dubious decisions, and the sheer psychological and practical complications of the plot involving the hound and its legend anticipate the extraordinary flamboyance of the villains superheroes now fight.
Everyone likes to cheer a hero or heroine, and hiss a villain – but what makes a hero heroic, or a villain villainous, is a great deal less predictable than one might suppose.
