What Makes A “Villain”

I saw this great video the other day called “The Spell Block Tango” which reimagines many Disney Villains doing their version of the “Cell Block Tango” from the musical Chicago. Well done, funny, and it offers us the point of view of the bad guys. This is nothing new, the book and musical Wicked, did the same thing with the Wizard of Oz‘s Wicked Witch of the West, giving us insight into what made the green skinned witch the person she is. Shakespeare’s MacBeth is a play about someone who isn’t a hero but gives us insight into what drove this man to the lengths he did. In Edgar Allen Poe’s The Cask of Amontillado, the narrator commits a horrible crime for no real reason except for a series of perceived insults but no examples of what those insults were. Montresor is unreliable and really gives us no reason to sympathize with him. That brings me to the point of this blog today.

A little over a month ago, I finished a new 10-minute play titled One More Glass Of Wine, that uses Poe’s Cask as inspiration but delves deeper into why Bruce (my version of Montresor) kills Jacob (Fortunato). Or rather, in my script, gives Jacob the opportunity to kill himself. Does a man who is responsible for a teenage girl’s death deserve to die? If he does deserve to die, whose responsibility is it to bring about that death? The law and the court or the father and the family? That is the question that I present in One More Glass Of Wine, but I don’t offer an answer because to me it’s a question that doesn’t have a clear cut answer and that makes for a fantastic villain in my opinion. That is why MacBeth is a great villain and protagonist and why so many authors (like Gregory MacGuire) try to explore the reasons behind what makes a villain a villain.

And if you want to see the “Spell Block Tango” video, check out my Facebook page.

A couple of non-related notes, on this Halloween, I want to encourage you to participate in “All Hallows Read“, a great chance to get books into the hands of your trick ‘r’ treaters. It’s a fantastic program that encourages reading.

I’m also giving away a copy of my play The Mysterious Case of Lot 249 over at Smashwords on Halloween. This 10-Minute play is a retelling of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Lot 249. This will be the LAST CHANCE to get this play directly from me as it soon will be published as part of a collection. More details on that as it becomes available. You can pick up The Mysterious Case of Lot 249 at Smashwords.