Heroes, Villains and Morally Grey Characters.

Human beings are storytellers by nature. Since the dawn of history, humans have told their stories in so many forms, it’s how we learn about history and through the simplicity of a story, we may understand abstract concepts (like love, courage, fear …etc.) and may hope to decipher the complex human psyche. Characters are a key ingredient in any story. It is through them that we see ourselves and the more we can relate to them the more we are able to live their fictional story and even forget that it is made up. An author must be aware of the effect their characters have or lack thereof. As readers, we should receive stories consciously, in other words, it should be clear to us why we love or hate a certain story so we would have a better understanding of our taste and even a better understanding of ourselves.

There are three types of characters in every story; the good, the bad and the in-between, and it’s through their interaction with one another that we get our story. As authors, we must understand what purpose each of these types represents and how the choice of any one of them will serve our plot. The first type is the “Classic Hero”, which can be defined as; a human with exceptional talents, who is faced with great adversity, battles for the good and “lives and dies in the pursuit of honor." This is the idealistic characters, the ones who are willing to fight for their principles. As protagonists, they make for a story that is all about heroism, self-denial and good leadership, and promotes notions like courage, sacrifice and loyalty. The purpose that the author targets by choosing this type of protagonist is “Inspiration” and this must have an effect over the whole plot, and all the other choices the author makes for their story must be in light of that same purpose. Stories that do it well are usually about leaders who by their character, ideas, triumphs or, sometimes, tragedies aspired to change the world and inspired people to be better versions of themselves. Stories that suffer from this type of protagonist are the ones with an unclear vision of the purpose and its connection with the plot, thus the hero becomes unrealistic and clichéd.

The second type is the “Classic Villain”, which can be defined as; a fictional character who is the opposite of the hero in the sense that they are morally devoid, shows cunning and cruelty, and whose actions drive the hero into conflict. They are not usually the protagonists of the story but the antagonists whose evil aims cause the progression of the plot. Sometimes they are the protagonists of their own story; Examples of villainous protagonists from classics are, Macbeth, Richard III, Heathcliff and Victor Frankenstein. The purpose of the story should be to focus on the dark side of things. Sometimes the author makes this character appear more sympathetic by portraying them in light of the suffering they underwent and caused them to resort to their evil side, (ex.: the Joker and Maleficent).

Classic Heros, Classic Villains and Tragic Characters.

A child’s nature is inherently pure it’s through life circumstances that children are shaped into the people they are.

A morally grey character is the one who is neither dark nor pure. They are usually affected by their past and have no rigid principles but their moral compass rather moves between good and evil according to their judgment of the situation. They are too good to be called villains and too bad to be called Heros in the traditional sense. They are heroes in their own way. As a protagonist, they make for a story that challenges the conventions and question the general beliefs. The author’s purpose in choosing this type of protagonist is to achieve “unpredictability” because readers will have no idea what the hero is going to do next. As readers, we sympathise with this type of character because of the good side these characters have. Sometimes we sympathise too much that we forgive their evil deeds, question the known rules of morality dictated by the original purity of human nature, and rejoice in their triumphs. For this reason—in classic literature—a flawed character must have some kind of retribution for the story to have “poetic justice”, where a literary work should inspire proper moral behavior in its audience by demonstrating how every evil deed must not go unpunished. The downfall of this character is sad to see yet justified and thus we have the “Tragic Hero” type.

According to Aristotle; the downfall of a virtuous character causes disgust, the downfall of a villain causes satisfaction, while the downfall of the Tragic Hero causes the readers to feel pity and fear, which is the right effect every story must have over the audience/readers. Thus the perfect grey character, in this case, should have a tragic ending according to the classing notions of storytelling. In modern literature, a Redemption Arc can save a tragic hero from their tragic fate, this may create a happy ending but may leave the plot in danger of being unrealistic if the shift in the character’s moral compass is rushed and because, in most cases, it doesn’t really address the classic device of poetic justice.