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[ragetti_wench]

I could use a little help here. I'm writing an essay on the nature of villainous redemption and, for the sake of one of my examples, I need a villain that is completely UN-REDEEMABLE. There can be nothing felt for said villain but utter disdain. This type of character, however, completely eludes me. Part of me wanted to use Voldemort or Bellatrix

Comments

[blackbubbletea]

Well, once you introduce them as an irredeemable character, are you going to try to disprove that? Like, are you trying to say that redemption is possible for anyone, or that some criteria must be met for it to be possible? It's kinda obvious that I speak from the Christian mindset, but can a line really be drawn between those who can and cannot be redeemed? It seems to me that if a character truly was irredeemable, they'd move from being a person to more of a concept. In that case, Voldemort is probably a pretty good example, since even though we get back story we never really know why he does what he does other than, "He's evil."

This is a hella interesting idea for a paper.

[ragetti_wench]

No, that's the thing. It's pretty much going to be an analysis of why said character is irredeemable. If the character can be redeemed, then I'm back to square-one trying to find another character. It's difficult to explain, really, but it's all an exploration of the irredeemable vs those who know they've done wrong, make an effort to stop it and fail vs those who make an effort to stop it and succeed, and how society as a whole looks at them. It's bad enough I'm trying to stay away from a religious mind-set as well as nature vs nurture, but that's why I'm using ficticious characters instead of like...Hitler.

[blackbubbletea]

Hmm, then I guess the criteria for redeemability would be a character's ability to feel remorse for their actions. A character who did evil things not for vengeance or because they thought it was fun or something, but because they genuinely believed that their actions were correct would be unable to recognize that what they were doing was wrong, and thus wouldn't feel remorse. Maybe John Kramer from Saw? But I guess if you're looking at how society views them, there are plenty of people who sympathize with him, or Hitler, or etc.

[ragetti_wench]

Yeah, but the Devil is more of a concept than a person and since it's sort of a study on humanity's ambiguous morality, I need something...well, human. XD Or at least as close to human as possible. That's why I was thinking of maybe Iago or someone along those lines. I need someone people can almost relate to.

Yeah...I know where that tongue needs to be.