Villains in literature: “something wicked this way comes”

There is nothing like a good villain to get our juices going. So much narrative depends on it. They focus our attention on what we value in life, as well as how we want literature to work. They should obey certain laws and always be defeated. They require a good hero to judge them and restore the equilibrium. In fact it’s hard to make a hero without a dastardly villain.

What happens though when the villain is also in some way the ‘hero’ of the work. Do we end up enjoying Macbeth’s presence? What if he towers over the fiction? Is Hamm funnier than Clov? What happens if the dramatic characters themselves get the hero and villain mixed up, but never seem to set the matter right - as with Frankenstein and his monster? What if the hero works for and admires the villain as in Heart of Darkness?

Our course will traverse a villain greedy for power, yet unsure as to why he seeks it out - Macbeth; a male who seems unconsciously intent on removing women - Frankenstein; a villain whose racist ambitions horribly echo those of the European 19th century he comes from - Kurz; and a father whose abuse of family members still continues even when he is blind and immobile - Hamm.

All emerge from different centuries and different narrative frames, but all recognisably contain that one key literary trait, villainy.