Raphael Casimir wins "Heroes and Villains" Essay Contest

After being delayed by an extended winter break, the winner of our second essay contest has finally been announced.

Congratulations to Senior Raphael Casimir for his essay that looks critically at the whole idea of villainy, and asks if villains really exist outside of literature. Raphael happened to be in the Writing Center as his victory was announced, and we have his reaction in the picture below. The text of his essay follows.

Villains

by Raphael Casimir

The word villain is derived from the French word vilein, which meant someone who performed unchivalrous acts. Nowadays, villains are the antagonists of stories. If the hero strives to accomplish his own goals, then there must be something that stands in his way. A villain is often portrayed as a person whose values counterpoint the protagonist’s, a force that is able to break through their abilities, or someone who tries to best them using their own ideals or challenges. I believe the best villain, in fiction, is one who has the power to shatter a protagonist’s ideals. However, in the real world, things are never so clear cut.

Usually the villains are considered to be the more popular characters in stories even though the hero usually strives against his/her obstacles until the end. Heroes aren’t as popular because of the repeated, cliché gimmick of being an archetype of greatness. The villains are cruel, greedy, powerful, or are evil in some sort of way. Villains like the Gremlins, from the movie “Gremlins”, are not necessarily evil. The Gremlins are just creatures who just want to have fun using any means possible while threatening humanity. They depict the urges of human beings, the natural free desires that we aren’t allowed to show.

My favorite villain is Major Montana Max from the graphic novel, Hellsing. He is every man’s worst enemy, since he doesn’t care who he destroys or how many people are sacrificed, as long as he reaches his goal of conducting the war that will overshadow all other wars. The Major commands the remaining forces of the Nazi regime. He took control over people who desired power for all their selfish needs and made them into artificial vampires. Though the Major may seem to be a man beyond the acts of evil most people comprehend, his goal is, ironically, to destroy the infamous Dracula. Even in the end, he dies with a smile, on his face as many enemies would not.

Sometimes a story is more interesting without villains to show true human nature. Humans have diverse natures in which they fight a battle against themselves just as a villain would do with a protagonist. People are never usually as evil as a fictional villain would portray. People are driven by their desire, greed, or temptation of reaching a certain goal. Even heroes are sometimes their own worst enemies; for example, in the Japanese novel Trinity Blood, the main protagonist, Abel, is constantly threatened with the choice of saving his allies or killing his enemy. (Note that his enemy is a human and Abel took a vow to never kill humans.) He asks a question in his mind; either finish his enemy, or let everyone else die because he followed his vow. The only thing that would be able to solve this is unbiased chance.

In the end, there are no such things as villains in our world. They are all human beings, or at least living things driven by desire. Pure evil doesn’t exist in the realm of reality; only in fiction, because of beliefs society has claimed. It makes things simple when you know who the villain is. They have the same motives as heroes but have interesting counterpoint arguments and knowledge of their goals that may question our ability to tell a hero from a villain.