After telling me how much he otherwise liked my first novel, a wise friend once added that he was troubled there were no villains in it. This caused me to wonder about the importance of evil in fiction. Can a novel be exciting without evildoers, malefactors, and bad guys? Are villains necessary for dramatic tension? Does it suffice for the evil to be present only in the system or circumstances the characters find themselves in but not in the actions of specifically bad people?
As one who explores utopian themes, I’m inclined toward doing away with villains. But I may be living in my own mental Eden in this regard.
My novels are loaded with characters who are emotionally troubled, confused, dysfunctional, and who have made bad decisions, as well as those with problematic personalities and unexamined shadows. With one exception, however, they are not evil but are capable of transformation, repentance, epiphanies, and redemption, and most of them achieve one or more of these.
Surely the therapeutically attuned novel can be as compelling to read as one with distinct heroes and villains who stay in their assigned roles. Having written this, I must confess that I am drawn to stories set in the 1930s and 1940s. The Depression and World War II eras resonate with clear-cut struggles against personal as well as institutional evil. And I enjoy books where good people triumph in the end. Such tales will always appeal to readers.
My sense, nevertheless, is that in our present gray-tinged age of ambiguity, novels without clear villains will engage interest and connect with the tastes of a fair number of readers. What do you think? Are villains necessary?
