How to Write Evil Characters: A Workshop

It is said to write what we know, and it is preferred that our pieces are written from a single point of view without splashing around into various minds met along the way. So, assuming we ourselves are not evil, and the bad guy we're trying to portray in the book is not the point-of-view character in the story, how do we create and then establish an evil character?

To write what we know does not necessarily mean to write ourselves into our pieces, and as such it does not mean that we have to be evil in order to write an evil character.  Based on this, where do we find our knowledge of evil?


We're going to go my direction, though you may have a flood of initial responses to that question. In preparation for this workshop, I spent time speaking with many of my friends, and it's kind of haunting. It's disturbing to discover what we actually know of evil, and the arguments we can make for or against any character actually being evil.

What's the difference between the bad character and the evil character?

What's the difference between the villain as an antagonist and the villain as a supporting character?

Is a villain evil, necessarily?

Commonly accepted embodiments of evil. Here is my initial list. You are to briefly write out your own list. This is to get you into the mindset of the characters, so we may have a richer discussion.

• Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter
• Darth Vader from Star Wars
• Hannibal Lector from Silence of the Lambs
• Joker from Batman
• Sauron from Lord of the Rings
• The Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz
• Dominion from Star Trek: Deep Space 9
• Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes
• Lex Luther from Superman

Now before we inspect these characters, we will cover some definitions. This is so we have a common vocabulary with which to discuss. You are always welcome to chime in and/or refute these philosophical ideas. Also, after each point, try to come up with an example character that embodies the definition, or refutes it.

Character1
Character is assessed by how people are disposed to behave, think, and desire.

They are "driven by greed, neuroses, or conviction that their cause is just, but he's driven by something not unlike the things that drive a hero."

An evil man may be a coward, and may not act out of fear. Alternately, a man may be inhibited from acting, but is still evil.

The character may perform a series of evil acts, but this might reflect a variety of character flaws, so when you write your character, be sure to include the why, the motivation of it.

A person may have a good, or a bad will, sympathy is beside the point, relevant only as  a function of encouraging or inhibiting the traits that matter.

Evil
These definitions are independent theories of what makes an evil character.

An evil man delights in performing  harmful acts with a certain moral gravity to them, and is not animated by understandable considerations.

An evil man is often enough prone to do evil act.

An evil act is undeserved harm.

A person is evil if they are a regular source of evil.

An evil person feels pleasure at the pain of others (antisympathetic).

An evil person performs evil acts because they are wrong or without regard to morals.

An evil person lacks a fully active conscience.

Morals and Conscience
What is moral?
What is immoral?
What is amoral?

Our conscience judges what is right and wrong.
A conscience also creates our senses of remorse and of integrity, or the feeling one has when they feel they have done the right thing.

Psychopathy
So, I bring these definitions to the table for us to examine whether we believe that a psychopath is capable of evil, or if alternately, a psychopath is by definition evil.

A psychopath has a disregard for the rights of others and the rules of society.
A psychopath has a lack of empathy.
A psychopath has emotional shallowness.
A psychopath uses manipulation, and is parasitic.
A psychopath is irresponsible and impulsive.
A psychopath has a lack of remorse and an inability to reform.
A psychopath has unrealistic goals and a sense of grandiosity, or inflated view of themselves.
A psychopath is amoral.

So: Are they Evil?

We'll start with examining some easy ones we are all familiar with:
Disney villains.2 The challenge here is to examine the character and determine if we can make an argument that no, they are not evil. Make the case, push the limits of what you're comfortable with. By trying to eliminate these people from the list, we will uncover further depth of character, more detail written by the authors or screenwriters, that ensure the audience agrees these are indeed evil characters.

We may, however, discover that the character is not well written, and that we may be able to do a better job. We may also discover that we can't define what makes us feel these are evil are not explicable reasons, but instead point-of-view analyses, or culturally motivated. This is the part you discuss with the friends you trust. This is where you find your own dark side.

• Scar from The Lion King
• Is driven by power, kills guiltlessly, is manipulative (lies). Is he evil?

• The Queen from Snow White
• Is motivated by beauty, participates in a commonly accepted form of evil: witchcraft, intends to eat Snow White's heart, uses poison. Is she evil?

• Stromboli from Pinnochio
• Burns old marionettes, motivated by money, kidnaps Pinnochio and forces him to work? Is he evil?

• Cruella De Vil from 101 Dalmations
• Kills puppies to make coats, "Poison them, drown them, bash them on the head" Is she evil?

• Governor Ratcliffe from Pocahontas
• Money hungry, hates, fights, and attacks indians even after it's proven they have nothing he wants. Is he evil?

• Shan-Yu from Mulan
• Motivated by power, superiority, "How many men does it take to deliver a message," Remorseless. Is he evil?

• Lady Tremaine, the stepmother in Cinderella
• Self-centered, doles out psychological abuse, inflicts extreme suffering. Is she evil?

• Jafar from Aladdin
• Motivated by power, pretends, lies, cheats. Is he evil?

• Ursula from The Little Mermaid
• Manipulative, collects souls so they can suffer, motivated by power. Is she evil?

• Maleficient from Sleeping Beauty
• Motivated by revenge, uses poison, injures the innocent. Is she evil?

Now after we've made ourselves quite uncomfortable with ourselves, lets take a look at a man well known for creating evil: Stephen King.3 Again, the challenge is to make a case against these characters being evil.

• Christine, the car from Christine
• Possessed, motivated by love, revenge, and self-preservation. Is she evil?

• Randall Flagg from The Stand and others
• Builds a city in his name, wants dominance, power, destruction, fascism. Uses crucifixion, torture, other torments. Is he evil?

• Jack Torrance in The Shining
• Portrayed very differently in film than in book. In the movie, he is insane. In the book, he struggles with a temper, an abusive father, addiction, and is influenced by the supernatural. In the book, he is redeemed at the end. In the movie, he is not. Is he evil?

• Pennywise from It
• Supernatural, from an other dimension, turns your fear against you, uses our dimension to farm food (children). Is it evil?

• Annie Wilkes from Misery
• Unstable, obsessed with a fictional character, kidnaps, refuses medical attention for prisoner, overreacts by cutting off prisoner's thumb and breaks his ankles, has a history of killing people including babies when she was a nurse, is a serial killer.Is she evil?

Now it's time to examine the people on the lists you've made.

(The following list was made by students who attended either hour of this workshop on April 27, 2012. Accuracy of spelling or source is not guaranteed. By the way, it is a very good list.)

1. Aliens from Space Jam
2. The Wolf from Little Red Riding Hood
3. President Snow from The Hunger Games
4. Vector from Despicable Me
5. Tyler Durdan from Fight Club
6. Megatron from Transformers
7. Goblin from Spiderman
8. King Hyperion from Immortals
9. Dr. Facilier from the Princess and the Frog
10. Lord Farqua from Shrek
11. Red Skull from Captain America
12. Loki from Thor
13. Rumpelstiltskin from Shrek the Third
14. Volturi from Twilight
15. Capulets and Montagues from Romeo and Juliet
16. Leviathan from the Blue Bloods series
17. The Iron King from the Iron Fay series
18. Gabriel from the Faerie Path series
19. Captain Hook from Peter Pan
20. King from The Black Cauldron
21. Rasputin from Anastasia
22. Vlad the Impaler from Dracula
23. Dr. Doom from DC comics
24. The Hat Guy from Meet the Robinsons
25. Mr. Fredrickson from Up
26. Syndrome from The Incredibles
27. The Fairy Godmother from Shrek
28. Decepticons from Transformers
29. T-Rex from Jurassic Park
30. Spurbury Police from Super Troopers
31. Shark from Jaws
32. Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter
33. Gollum from Lord of the Rings
34. Alex from A Clockwork Orange
35. Hal from 2001 A Space Odyssey
36. Biff from Back to the Future
37. Parallax from Green Lantern
38. Xenomorphs from the Alien saga
39. Hans Landa from Inglorious Basterds
40. Medusa from Clash of the Titans
41. Kahn from Star Trek: the Wrath of Khan
42. Roy Batty from Blade Runner
43. Galbatorix from Eragon
44. Silvery Guy from Terminator
45. Morgana from Merlin
46. Gravemind from Halo
47. Truth from Halo
48. GLaDOS from Portal
49. Red John from The Mentalist
50. Jim from Montana Sky
51. Purple Bear from Toy Story
52. Gaston from Beauty and the Beast
53. Clue from Tron
54. Creatures from Don't Be Afraid of the Dark
55. Scarecrow from Batman
56. Gadiantons from Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites
57. Bowser from Mario
58. Unconsecrated/Mudo from The Forest of Hands and Teeth
59. Cato from The Hunger Games
60. Megamind from Megamind
61. Wheatly from Portal 2
62. Master from Doctor Who
63. Vivian Volkoff from Chuck
64. Vasiely from Robin Hood
65. Witch of the Waste from Howl's Moving Castle novel
66. The Silence from Doctor Who
67. Magneto from the X-men
68. Sebastion Shaw from X-men First Class
69. Rose Red from Rose Red
70. Alexander Brenenberg from Amnesia
71. Tiger Star from Warriors
72. Seifer from Final Fantasy 8
73. The Flood from Halo
74. Lord Sidithes from Star Wars
75. Ultron from Marvel comics
76. Venom from Spiderman
77. Darth Maul from Star Wars
78. Stryer from Darkhunter series
79. Eggman from Sonic
80. Sephicoth from Crisis Core
81. The Spirit in Paranormal Activity
82. Carmen SanDiego from Where in the World is Carmen San Diego
83. Janie Canister from The Game of Thrones
84. Pete from Mickey Mouse comics
85. The Phantom Blot from Epic Mickey
86. The Horned King from The Book of Three
87. Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh

Dungeons and Dragons came out with an alignment table, with nine categories with degrees of good and evil. You can use these as helpful guidelines if your struggling with the consistency of traits of your evil character.4

Lawful Good         Neutral Good        Chaotic Good
Lawful Neutral    True Neutral         Chaotic Neutral
Lawful Evil           Neutral Evil          Chaotic Evil

Lawful Evil follows a code of conduct, regardless of collateral.
Here we have the devil and other diabolical characters.
The Lawful Evil character combines honor with self-interest. They are methodical, intention, successful. They believe in predestination, fate, and destiny.
Examples include: Darth Vader from Star Wars, Magneto from X-men, Delores Umbridge from Harry Potter, and the Borg from Star Trek.

The Neutral Evil does evil for evil's sake. They advance themselves without regard, they are self serving, desire power, glory, wealth, position, fame and fortune. They use whatever means necessary. They believe in social darwinism.
Examples include Emperor Palpatrine from Star Wars, Kahn Noonien Singh from Star Trek, Saurman from Lord of the Rings, Peter Pettigrew from Harry Potter, and Lex Luther from Superman.

The Chaotic Evil character is motivated by greed and a lust for destruction. They are hot-tempered, arbitrarily violent, unpredictable, manipulative, and poorly organized.
These are the demons and other demonic characters. They believe in freedom and individualism. They believe in the destruction of life and beauty and order. They believe life has no value.
Examples are Gollum from Lord of the Rings, The Joker from Batman, Lord Voldemort from Harry Potter, and Lore from Star Trek.

You, as a writer, already have a moral code, built into yourself, built into your culture, built into your religion. You are offended when people across the world see the choices you make as evil. You are offended when other Americans see your choices as evil. Keep this in mind, keep your audience in mind as you develop your characters. The morality that defines your characters, both good and evil, also defines you and your audience. This will make a difference in how your characters are received. This will ultimately define whether you have succeeded in writing an evil character.

Remember as you create your evil characters,
"In the real world, there are no villains. No one actually sets out to do evil...There are no villains cackling and rubbing their hands in glee as they contemplate their evil deeds. There are only people with problems, struggling to solve them." 5

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Sources
1. David Lubar "Villains Don’t Always Wear Black" Revision Notes. Darcy Pattison
2. http://listverse.com/2009/06/09/top-10-most-evil-disney-villains/
3. wikipedia
4. easydamus.com/alignment
5. Ben Bova,"Tips for writers" benbova.com