“Evil is a point of view.”
ANNE RICE, Interview with the Vampire
Villains hide between shadows, not only in comic books, but also in real life. In some hidden dark ally where murder and rape take place these villains find some comfort for their hearts. There are also public villains, people that have the power to kill whoever speaks too loud. Most villains had a treacherous dark past, some experiences that changed them, while others are born sociopaths or psychopaths. Villains can be placed in history, in the form of country leaders, or in comic book as the archenemies of our favorite superhero, but at the end we like the bad guy despite what his motives are. We like him because, he is what gives a reason for the heroes to exist, for there to be some justice in the world. As for who created evil, we can say that evil is a state of mind, in which men could not bare perfection without it. We see it since the beginning as in when God expelled Lucifer from heaven and send him to hell, the thirst of power is just a form of villainy. It is hard to believe that those villains who hunt our nightmares, are human too.
The ability to control the mind and the thoughts of others is the power of many super villains in comic books, and novels, Bram Stoker's Dracula who poses telepathic and hypnotic abilities, or Shakespeare's Iago who uses the fears of his adversaries against them. Another fantastic example of a Villain using fear against her adversary is Ken Kessey's, Nurse Ratchet.
Ratchet's character, has a complicated personality. Most women would grow up to be motherly like, sweet and kind. But Ratchet is the total opposite and she reminds the reader more of a remote control robot with a woman's body rather than a woman herself. This robot like first impression is given to the reader at the beginning of the book when Chief describes her meticulous perfection. McMurphy is the complete opposite of, he is loud, messy, big, and in comparison to her nothing about him "runs smoothly."
Ratchet's character develops slowly throughout the novel, at first she seems unbreakable, stiff, strong, with an infinite patience and no need to raise her voice. But then McMurphy comes into the ward and their conflicting personalities clash, showing how terribly vulnerable she can actually be, and so the hero of the story proves to be the strongest and she proves that no villain is invincible because even the manipulation of fear ends at some point in which not even the most broken mind is going to distort reality any more.
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