good vs evil essays

Good Vs. Evil In Film & Literature: A Deep Dive [With Examples]

In the realm of storytelling, good and evil are the yin and yang that create compelling narratives .

They’re the forces that drive characters to their limits and readers to the edge of their seats.

The Importance Of Good And Evil In Writing

Good and evil serve as the backbone of storytelling.

They create landscapes where characters navigate through their triumphs and tribulations.

By understanding the intricacies of these opposing forces, writers can build profound narratives that resonate with audiences.

Every protagonist’s journey is shaped by the pull between good and evil.

Films like The Dark Knight showcase the hero’s struggle against a world of chaos, underlining the significance of having a compelling antagonist.

Narratives thrive on the tension this dichotomy introduces.

It’s the clashing of these moral extremes that propels a story forward, giving rise to moments that are etched into the viewer’s memory.

Think of the iconic light versus dark battles that define the Star Wars saga.

Characters are often defined by their alignment with good or evil.

This alignment informs their decisions, their relationships, and eventually, their fate within the story.

Through these characters, themes such as redemption and corruption are explored.

We recognize that balance is key to portraying good and evil:

• Heroes must have flaws,
• Villains should have redeeming qualities.

Without this balance, characters risk falling flat, becoming unrelatable or one-dimensional.

Stories like Breaking Bad excel by blurring these lines, challenging viewers to reconsider their definitions of right and wrong.

Good and evil are not just plot devices.

They reflect the human experience and our inner conflicts.

Through their depiction on screen, we gain insight into our own values and choices.

In crafting stories, we ensure that the presence of good and evil is neither arbitrary nor superficial.

They must be woven into the very fabric of the narrative, influencing every scene and dialogue.

Literature and film have long understood the power these elements wield.

In stories such as To Kill a Mockingbird , the struggle between good and evil is used to comment on larger societal issues.

This shows their capacity to not only entertain but also enlighten.

By intricately designing the interplay of good and evil, we craft stories that not only entertain but also provoke thought and evoke emotion.

The depth of our narratives is often measured by how well we depict this timeless conflict.

Defining Good And Evil In Writing

When crafting a narrative, it’s essential for writers to conceptualize the moral framework within which their characters operate.

Good and evil are more than mere plot devices; they represent the ethical dichotomy that drives character development and story arcs.

In the realm of filmmaking, these concepts manifest through the actions and motivations of characters.

Protagonists typify what’s considered morally right or just within the context of the story, while antagonists often embody the opposite.

Yet, defining these terms in writing isn’t always straightforward.

Characters with varying shades of moral complexity are what make stories resonate with audiences.

Here are some common qualities associated with good and evil in characters:

• Good: – Acts of bravery and selflessness – Upholding justice – Persistence in facing adversity,
• Evil: – Selfish or destructive actions – A disregard for others’ welfare – Manipulating or harming others for personal gain.

Consider The Godfather – the characters are deeply complex, with motives and actions that blur the lines between righteous and corrupt.

This complexity is what makes such stories gripping and their characters memorable.

On-screen, visual storytelling emphasizes these contrasts.

Lighting, music, and framing can accentuate a character’s alignment within the ethical spectrum, sometimes without a single line of dialogue.

Classics like Star Wars effectively use these techniques to delineate between the light and dark sides.

Understanding good and evil is so pivotal in writing.

Through the layered portrayal of characters, writers explore the multifaceted nature of humanity.

We jump into the psyches of individuals and societies, all to illuminate the perennial struggle between these two forces.

The Role Of Good In Writing

In crafting narratives, the embodiment of good characters is crucial.

They often represent ideals and virtues that resonate deeply with audiences, establishing a connection through relatable traits and admirable aspirations.

A well-written protagonist exemplifies qualities such as bravery, compassion, and integrity.

These attributes inspire and engage readers, providing a moral compass that guides the narrative and elicits empathy.

In film, the portrayal of good is accentuated through visual cues and storytelling techniques.

An example can be found in The Shawshank Redemption where the perseverance and hope of Andy Dufresne stand out as beacons of positivity in a grim setting.

Key elements include:

• Character struggles that underscore human resilience,
• Redemptive arcs that highlight the power of hope and forgiveness.

Good characters are often pitted against complex challenges.

The tension between their inherent goodness and surrounding adversity is what keeps audiences invested in their journey and the outcome of the story.

Also, the presence of good in writing lays the fertile ground for exploring rich themes.

Morals and values become vivid under the light of characters who strive for better, making the narrative not just a tale but a commentary on life itself.

To skirt the line of moral ambiguity, good characters may exhibit flaws.

This complexity ensures they remain relatable and prevents them from becoming cliché, maintaining the audience’s interest and investment in their story.

The Role Of Evil In Writing

Just as goodness anchors us with its virtues, evil in literature and film provides critical balance and tension.

It serves as the ultimate antagonist, often driving the narrative and giving the protagonist’s journey its stakes and urgency.

In crafting a compelling story, we understand that evil characters are as paramount as their heroic counterparts.

Evil can manifest in myriad forms, challenging heroes in ways that test their resolve, belief systems, and very essence.

From classic villains in Star Wars or The Dark Knight right up to the antiheroes in Breaking Bad , writers have explored the depths of human morality through these characters.

Their actions, motivations, and impacts are pivotal to the plot’s progression.

We recognize the allure of complex villains who possess a mix of negative traits:

• Ambition – Greed – Jealousy – Anger.

Yet, their brilliance often lies in the relatability of these desires, taken to extremes.

By highlighting the shadows within us all, films such as No Country for Old Men and books like Macbeth resonate deeply within their audiences.

They unearth the uncomfortable truth that evil is not an external force, but one that resides in every individual.

A film’s effectiveness hinges on the potency of its threat.

Visual and auditory storytelling techniques play crucial roles in amplifying the presence of evil.

Cinematographers and directors craft scenes that visually encompass the essence of malevolence, while composers create soundscapes that leave us unsettled.

This attention to detail, this weaving of sensory elements, it’s what solidifies the villain’s impact on the story’s landscape.

Evil in writing isn’t merely about opposition or obstacle – it’s a foundation upon which the very themes of good and evil rest.

Through evil characters and forces, we’re able to explore the larger human condition and the dualities within.

These explorations afford us a richer, more nuanced narrative, reflecting the complexities of the world we live in.

Creating A Balance Between Good And Evil In Writing

In crafting narratives, we must weave good and evil into a coherent dance.

It’s a balance that not only propels the plot but also enriches characters’ development.

When we strike the perfect equilibrium, our audience remains invested in the protagonists’ triumphs as much as they’re enthralled by the antagonists’ schemes.

The push and pull between these forces drive the tension that keeps readers and viewers hooked to the end.

The key to this balance lies in the depth and relatability of both heroes and villains.

Characters like Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs and Walter White in Breaking Bad showcase a blend of complex personality traits.

These characters:

• Evoke empathy even though their misdeeds – Highlight the grey areas within human nature – Challenge audiences’ moral compass In The Dark Knight , the Joker’s chaotic evil contrasts with Batman’s principled good, creating a dynamic conflict that delves into the psychology of both characters. Here, we see that a well-portrayed evil can be just as magnetic, if not more so, than the straightforward goodness of a hero. This dichotomy is what delivers a story’s emotional impact.

Implementing nuances in characters’ moral choices adds realism to our storytelling.

A villain with a noble cause or a hero with a tarnished past affords us opportunities to explore themes of redemption, sacrifice, and the cost of power.

Game of Thrones thrives on this by presenting characters who continuously shift along the moral spectrum, ensuring the lines of good and evil are blurred, so mirroring the complexity of the real world .

By paying close attention to the symbiosis between good and evil, we craft narratives that resonate deeply with our audience.

In our work in film and literature, this balance isn’t just a storytelling device, it’s the very essence of the human experience captured in art.

As we develop stories, we pay homage to this timeless struggle, painting a vivid tapestry of the human condition.

The Impact Of Good And Evil On Characters And Plot

The interplay between good and evil is a fundamental force that drives narrative momentum.

It’s our understanding that when characters face moral dilemmas, audiences are drawn into the complexity of their choices.

These pivotal moments are where we see true character development, as individuals grapple with the consequences of their actions or inaction.

It’s not just about the initial choice but also about the resulting butterfly effect that ripples through the storyline.

In films like The Godfather, the transformation of characters like Michael Corleone hinges on the pivotal decisions between right and wrong.

This internal conflict not only shapes Michael’s persona but also steers the plot in unexpected directions.

Evolving from a reluctant family outsider to a ruthless mob boss, his journey exemplifies how the alignment with good or evil can lead to a character’s rise or fall.

We’re keenly aware that the presence of evil often highlights the virtues of good.

The strength of a story can sometimes be measured by:

• The intricacy of the antagonist’s motives,
• The protagonist’s resilience in the face of temptations and challenges,
• The depth of the characters’ internal conflicts.

Characters that embody shades of both good and evil, like Tony Stark in Iron Man, exhibit a relatability that surpasses black-and-white morality.

Stark’s self-interested beginnings evolve through experiences that test his principles, and it’s through these tests that we witness the creation of a true hero.

The evolution of characters like Stark shows us that the journey between good and evil can be as compelling as the destination.

Acknowledging that every hero needs a formidable challenge, it’s clear that villains like Loki in Thor provide more than just obstacles.

They offer opportunities for heroes to prove their worth.

The dynamic interplay between Thor’s nobility and Loki’s mischief escalates the stakes, forcing characters to confront their own limitations.

Drawing on our expertise, we encourage writers to use the good and evil construct not as a simple dichotomy but as a spectrum where characters can move and evolve.

It’s within this spectrum that plots thicken, alliances shift, and stories find their enduring appeal.

The duality of good and evil in storytelling is a tapestry woven with threads of human nature, and when handled with skill, it creates narratives that are not only captivating but also universally resonant.

Examples Of Good And Evil In Literature

Throughout literature, characters are often pitted in conflicts that showcase the stark contrasts of good and evil.

In To Kill a Mockingbird , Atticus Finch embodies moral integrity and righteousness in the face of racial injustices, while Bob Ewell’s actions demonstrate base malevolence.

Classic tales like Dr.

Jekyll and Mr.

Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson jump into the duality of human nature.

The protagonist’s transformation into his sinister alter ego, Hyde, illustrates how closely good and evil can coexist within a single individual.

Our insights reveal patterns in storytelling across different eras:

• Heroes often face moral dilemmas,
• Villains present philosophical challenges to protagonists,
• Redemption arcs explore the journey from vice to virtue.

Fantasy epics like The Lord of the Rings offer a canvas for grand portrayals of good versus evil.

Characters like Frodo and Gollum illustrate the battle for goodness in the face of overwhelming corruption.

We’ve seen in Game of Thrones how George R.

Martin subverts expectations with characters who blur ethical lines.

Tyrion Lannister, for instance, navigates the complex political landscape with a blend of cunning, compassion, and moral ambiguity.

References to historical events or cultural myths can enrich narratives with universally recognizable themes of good and evil.

We find instances in The Crucible where Arthur Miller uses the Salem witch trials to comment on the hysteria and the darker side of human nature.

In young adult literature, series like Harry Potter unfold the protagonist’s development in confronting evil forces.

The saga pits Harry and his friends against the darker forces led by Voldemort, offering a rich exploration of courage, friendship, and the resilience of good.

These examples illustrate how the good versus evil paradigm is deeply embedded in storytelling and remains a potent force in driving character arcs, themes, and the ultimate message of literary works.

Our analysis of these narratives reinforces the timeless appeal of this dynamic.

The Ethics Of Writing About Good And Evil

When we jump into the realm of good and evil in storytelling, we’re not just spinning a tale – we’re engaging in an ethical dialogue.

Characters like Atticus Finch and Bob Ewell in To Kill a Mockingbird or the contrasting personas of Dr.

Hyde serve as more than mere protagonists or antagonists; they are embodiments of moral discourse.

Our treatment of these characters carries significant weight.

Crafting their narratives is not just a creative process but also a moral responsibility.

By portraying complex individuals facing ethical conundrums, we reflect and influence society’s understanding of righteousness and depravity.

Consider the layered storytelling of fantasy epics like The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones .

Here, the ethical lines are blurred, challenging audiences to ponder over:

• What makes a hero or a villain?
• Can characters evolve beyond their moral failings?
• To what extent do circumstances justify actions?

The ethical dimension of writing good versus evil is further complexified when historical events and cultural myths intersect with fictional narratives.

References to these elements can accentuate the universality of ethical dilemmas, resonating with a broader audience and offering a deeper exploration into the nature of humanity.

Our portrayal of redemption arcs is crucial in demonstrating the spectrum that exists between good and evil.

Stories of transformation, from vice to virtue, don’t just serve as entertainment; they act as mirrors to society’s potential for change.

By acknowledging the multifaceted nature of good and evil, we as writers and filmmakers can construct narratives that not only entertain but also provoke thought and inspire ethical reflection.

It’s in the nuanced depiction of these elements that stories gain their enduring power and relevance.

The Complexities Of Morality In Writing

When diving into the realm of good and evil within our storytelling ventures, we’re tasked with navigating the multifaceted landscape of morality.

Characters often embody the fragmented spectrum of human nature, sometimes wavering between right and wrong within a single scene.

The ethical quandaries that protagonists and antagonists face in narratives like The Dark Knight or Breaking Bad reflect our own societal struggles.

These characters challenge us to dissect their motives, blurring the lines between hero and villain.

In the context of filmmaking, the portrayal of such complexity is critical.

Visual storytelling amplifies moral dilemmas through striking performances and nuanced direction, encouraging viewers to engage on a deeper level.

Here are some elements we consider to navigate these complexities in our scripts and screenplays –

• Ethical ambiguity and its emotional impact,
• Symbolism and thematic elements that hint at larger truths,
• The importance of character development over clichéd absolutes.

By also referencing real-world scenarios and dilemmas, we can root our stories in authenticity.

Integrating these real situations demands a meticulous approach to narrative construction, ensuring relatability and resonance.

The representation of redemption arcs can further complicate the notion of good and evil.

Characters such as Thor or Iron Man undergo significant transformations, which compel us to redefine our understanding of morality considering their journeys.

We draft these arcs with an understanding that the human experience is seldom black and white.

Hence, our characters reflect a spectrum of gray, navigating moral decisions with both flaws and virtues.

Eventually, our aim is to weave a narrative tapestry that’s both intricate and inviting.

We strive to create stories that don’t just mirror reality but also elevate the conversation about human behavior and ethics.

Exploring Good Vs. Evil In Writing: A Deep Dive – Wrap Up

We’ve delved into the moral tapestry that enriches our narratives, from Gotham’s gritty streets to the complex characters of Albuquerque.

By embracing ethical ambiguity and focusing on nuanced character arcs, we craft stories that not only entertain but also provoke thought and conversation.

Let’s continue to weave these intricate tales, acknowledging the spectrum of human experience and enriching our understanding of the world.

After all, it’s through these stories that we can truly explore the depths of good and evil, challenging our perceptions and perhaps, in the process, uncovering a bit more about ourselves.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does the article say about morality in storytelling.

The article posits that by portraying characters with complex motives, like in The Dark Knight and Breaking Bad , stories challenge the audience to question the traditional boundaries of hero and villain.

How Important Are Ethical Ambiguities In Writing?

The article underscores the importance of ethical ambiguities, noting they add depth to narratives, encourage audiences to think critically, and reflect the nuances of real-life morality.

Why Is Character Development Emphasized Over Clichéd Absolutes?

Character development is highlighted as essential because it allows for a more nuanced and relatable portrayal of characters that transcend black-and-white morality, making for more compelling storytelling.

What Role Do Real-world Scenarios Play In Narratives?

Real-world scenarios ground stories in authenticity, making themes more relatable and resonant, and helping to engage the audience with the moral dilemmas presented.

How Do Redemption Arcs Contribute To The Portrayal Of Morality?

Redemption arcs showcase the complexity of the moral spectrum by demonstrating that characters can evolve, suggesting that notions of good and evil are not fixed and that everyone has the potential for change.

What Is Comic Relief In Writing? A Complete Guide

Ethics Of Storytelling: What Is Moral In Writing & Cinema?

Matt Crawford

Related posts, how to become a copywriter, even if you’re starting with no experience, what is a script analyst in film deciphering the blueprint of cinema, what is antithesis definition, history & examples, what is a simile definition & examples of this writing technique, best free online word processor for film, tv & video writing, what are epic poems definition & modern impact, leave a reply cancel reply.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Username or Email Address

Remember Me

Registration is closed.

Pin It on Pinterest

Ethics and Morality

Are humans naturally good, or intrinsically evil, it depends on where one is in history and social status..

Posted July 29, 2021 | Reviewed by Lybi Ma

The notion of humans being evil predates Christian theology and pervades modern philosophy from Hobbes on. Social psychology contributed the bracing insight that most of us are capable of casual homicide. Are all these thinkers right?

Evolutionary Perspectives

The concept that life forms are inherently selfish is widely shared though most likely wrong. Ecologists are discovering that plants are connected in mycorhizal networks that trade glucose and other nutrients for their mutual benefit, for instance. Plant communities participating in these cooperative networks actually do better than if they were independent.

The case for evolved cooperation among humans is surprisingly strong when our species is compared with most other primates. Even young children are intensely social and excel at following social cues to find hidden rewards, a test that chimpanzees and other apes flunk (1). Young children are also very good at imitating others.

These social characteristics are best explained by acknowledging that humans are adapted for social cooperation in ways that do not apply to other primates (with the possible exception of bonobos who manifest unusually low levels of social aggression ) (2).

What makes these findings so compelling is that humans do not have other clear cognitive differences compared to the apes. This reality refutes persistent claims of human intellectual superiority (3).

If humans are strongly prosocial, how is it possible that we would participate in destructive wars and genocidal conflicts around the globe from Cambodia to Germany, and from China to Rwanda?

The Critique of Human Depravity

Social psychology set about determining whether evil actions are intrinsic to our species. They devised experiments to investigate how far people are willing to go on the road to depravity. According to influential researchers from Stanley Milgram to Phillip Zimbardo, the answer is quite a long way.

Inspired by what is called the banality of evil revealed in Nazi trials at Nuremberg, and Jerusalem, the social psychologists concluded that anyone can turn homicidal if they are subjected to social pressures of conformity and obedience. They might fatally electrocute the subject in a fairly pointless learning experiment when instructed to do so by an authority figure, for example. They concluded it is the situation and not the person that is to blame.

Some of these iconic experiments have been subjected to investigative journalism and have not emerged at all well (4). There were numerous procedural problems and experimenter biases, including failure to follow published protocols and the use of coercive procedures that would not be permitted today. The experiments were so staged and manipulative, that they tell us little to nothing about naturalistic human behavior or psychology.

Of course, this critique does not get us past the unpleasant reality of ongoing brutal wars and genocides.

Why Actual Tyranny Lives On

No one can ignore evidence of actual evil in the world but that does not compel us to see human beings as naturally depraved. Far from it!

There are two key points in the emergence of tyranny that are often overlooked by social psychologists. It is not just a matter of the person and the immediate situation. We must also consider the broader societal context.

The horrors of a Pol Pot dictatorship or the excruciating experiences of North Koreans under the Kim dynasty are peculiar to complex modern societies. They simply could not exist in the egalitarian world of hunter-gatherers where communal food-sharing was standard.

Simpler societies lack an authoritarian power structure and are based on voluntary cooperation in the sense that individuals may migrate between subsistence groups to avoid interpersonal conflict. Conflicts mostly arise from reproductive tensions between men that can turn deadly.

These societies generally do not commit group atrocities, however. They get involved in warfare only in specific situations where sedentary groups are based on valuable and defensible resources, such as the game and fish at Lake Turkana, the only archaeological evidence of hunter-gatherer warfare (3).

Authoritarian power structures arise only in complex societies. These are quite recent, emerging some five thousand years ago in Mesopotamia (5). They depend on a well-developed status hierarchy. (Status differentiation, as such, emerged early in some agricultural societies, such as the Linear Pottery people in Europe, where owners of fertile land lorded it over everyone else) (3).

The concentration of wealth in early cities was associated with endless warfare, slavery, and the many brutalities brought on by “civilization.”

Money may well be the root of all human evil. We are living in the midst of nightmarish inequality where a handful of “Big Men” billionaires stand astride the globe. Contemporary business greed is waging an ongoing war of property against humanity and trashing the planet in the process.

Humans may be inherently good but we have assembled a horrifyingly long rap sheet over the past five thousand years, and it is not getting any shorter.

1 Wobber, V., Herrmann, E., Hare, B., Wrangham, R., and Tomasello, M. (2014). Differences in the early cognitive development of children and great apes. Developmental Psychobiology, 56(3), 547-73. doi: 10.1002/dev.21125.

2 Hare, B., Wobber, V., Wrangham, R. (2012). The self-domestication hypothesis: evolution of bonobo psychology is due to selection against aggression, Animal Behaviour,83(3), 573-585, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anbehav.2011.12.007 .

3 Barber, N. (2020). Evolution in the here and now: How adaptation and social learning explain humanity. Guilford, CT.:Prometheus/Rowman and Littlefield.

https://www.amazon.com/Evolution-Here-Now-Adaptation-Learning/dp/163388…

4 Bregman, R., Manton, E. (translator), and Moore, E. (translator, 2020). Humankind: A hopeful history. Boston, MA: Little, Brown and Company.

5 Fagan, B. M., and Durani, N. (2017). World prehistory: a brief introduction. New York: Routledge, Taylor and Francis.

Nigel Barber, Ph.D., is an evolutionary psychologist as well as the author of Why Parents Matter and The Science of Romance , among other books.

• Find a Therapist
• Find a Treatment Center
• Find a Psychiatrist
• Find a Support Group
• Find Teletherapy
• United States
• Brooklyn, NY
• Chicago, IL
• Houston, TX
• Los Angeles, CA
• New York, NY
• Portland, OR
• San Diego, CA
• San Francisco, CA
• Seattle, WA
• Washington, DC
• Asperger's
• Bipolar Disorder
• Chronic Pain
• Eating Disorders
• Passive Aggression
• Personality
• Goal Setting
• Positive Psychology
• Stopping Smoking
• Low Sexual Desire
• Relationships
• Child Development
• Therapy Center NEW
• Diagnosis Dictionary
• Types of Therapy

Understanding what emotional intelligence looks like and the steps needed to improve it could light a path to a more emotionally adept world.

• Coronavirus Disease 2019
• Affective Forecasting
• Neuroscience

Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf in the Forest by Carl Larsson, 1881. Photo courtesy Wikipedia

The good guy/bad guy myth

Pop culture today is obsessed with the battle between good and evil. traditional folktales never were. what changed.

by Catherine Nichols   + BIO

The first time we see Darth Vader doing more than heavy breathing in Star Wars (1977), he’s strangling a man to death. A few scenes later, he’s blowing up a planet. He kills his subordinates, chokes people with his mind, does all kinds of things a good guy would never do. But then the nature of a bad guy is that he does things a good guy would never do. Good guys don’t just fight for personal gain: they fight for what’s right – their values.

This moral physics underlies not just Star Wars , but also film series such as The Lord of the Rings (2001-3) and X-Men (2000-), as well as most Disney cartoons. Virtually all our mass-culture narratives based on folklore have the same structure: good guys battle bad guys for the moral future of society. These tropes are all over our movies and comic books, in Narnia and at Hogwarts, and yet they don’t exist in any folktales, myths or ancient epics. In Marvel comics, Thor has to be worthy of his hammer, and he proves his worth with moral qualities. But in ancient myth, Thor is a god with powers and motives beyond any such idea as ‘worthiness’.

In old folktales, no one fights for values. Individual stories might show the virtues of honesty or hospitality, but there’s no agreement among folktales about which actions are good or bad. When characters get their comeuppance for disobeying advice, for example, there is likely another similar story in which the protagonist survives only because he disobeys advice. Defending a consistent set of values is so central to the logic of newer plots that the stories themselves are often reshaped to create values for characters such as Thor and Loki – who in the 16th-century Icelandic Edda had personalities rather than consistent moral orientations.

Stories from an oral tradition never have anything like a modern good guy or bad guy in them, despite their reputation for being moralising. In stories such as Jack and the Beanstalk or Sleeping Beauty, just who is the good guy? Jack is the protagonist we’re meant to root for, yet he has no ethical justification for stealing the giant’s things. Does Sleeping Beauty care about goodness? Does anyone fight crime? Even tales that can be made to seem like they are about good versus evil, such as the story of Cinderella, do not hinge on so simple a moral dichotomy. In traditional oral versions, Cinderella merely needs to be beautiful to make the story work. In the Three Little Pigs, neither pigs nor wolf deploy tactics that the other side wouldn’t stoop to. It’s just a question of who gets dinner first, not good versus evil.

The situation is more complex in epics such as The Iliad, which does have two ‘teams’, as well as characters who wrestle with moral meanings. But the teams don’t represent the clash of two sets of values in the same way that modern good guys and bad guys do. Neither Achilles nor Hector stands for values that the other side cannot abide, nor are they fighting to protect the world from the other team. They don’t symbolise anything but themselves and, though they talk about war often, they never cite their values as the reason to fight the good fight. The ostensibly moral face-off between good and evil is a recent invention that evolved in concert with modern nationalism – and, ultimately, it gives voice to a political vision not an ethical one.

Most folklore scholarship since the Second World War has been concerned with archetypes or commonalities among folktales, the implicit drive being that if the myths and stories of all nations had more in common than divided them, then people of all nations could likewise have more in common than divides us. It was a radical idea, when earlier folktales had been published specifically to show how people in one nation were unlike those in another.

In her study of folklore From the Beast to the Blonde (1995), the English author and critic Marina Warner rejects a reading of folktales, popularised by the American child psychologist Bruno Bettelheim, as a set of analogies for our psychological and developmental struggles. Warner argues instead that external circumstances make these stories resonate with readers and listeners through the centuries. Still, both scholars want to trace the common tropes of folktales and fairytales insofar as they stay the same, or similar, through the centuries.

Novelists and filmmakers who base their work on folklore also seem to focus on commonalities. George Lucas very explicitly based Star Wars on Joseph Campbell’s book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), which describes the journey of a figure such as Luke Skywalker as a human universal. J R R Tolkien used his scholarship of Old English epics to recast the stories in an alternative, timeless landscape; and many comic books explicitly or implicitly recycle the ancient myths and legends, keeping alive story threads shared by stories new and old, or that old stories from different societies around the world share with each other.

Less discussed is the historic shift that altered the nature of so many of our modern retellings of folklore, to wit: the idea that people on opposite sides of conflicts have different moral qualities, and fight over their values. That shift lies in the good guy/bad guy dichotomy, where people no longer fight over who gets dinner, or who gets Helen of Troy, but over who gets to change or improve society’s values. Good guys stand up for what they believe in, and are willing to die for a cause. This trope is so omnipresent in our modern stories, movies, books, even our political metaphors, that it is sometimes difficult to see how new it is, or how bizarre it looks, considered in light of either ethics or storytelling.

W hen the Grimm brothers wrote down their local folktales in the 19th century, their aim was to use them to define the German Volk , and unite the German people into a modern nation. The Grimms were students of the philosophy of Johann Gottfried von Herder, who emphasised the role of language and folk traditions in defining values. In his Treatise on the Origin of Language (1772), von Herder argued that language was ‘a natural organ of the understanding’, and that the German patriotic spirit resided in the way that the nation’s language and history developed over time. Von Herder and the Grimms were proponents of the then-new idea that the citizens of a nation should be bound by a common set of values, not by kinship or land use. For the Grimms, stories such as Godfather Death, or the Knapsack, the Hat and the Horn, revealed the pure form of thought that arose from their language.

The corollary of uniting the Volk through a storified set of essential characteristics and values is that those outside the culture were seen as lacking the values Germans considered their own. Von Herder might have understood the potential for mass violence in this idea, because he praised the wonderful variety of human cultures: specifically, he believed that German Jews should have equal rights to German Christians. Still, the nationalist potential of the Grimm brothers’ project was gradually amplified as its influence spread across Europe, and folklorists began writing books of national folklore specifically to define their own national character. Not least, many modern nations went on to realise the explosive possibilities for abuse in a mode of thinking that casts ‘the other’ as a kind of moral monster.

In her book The Hard Facts of the Grimms’ Fairy Tales (1987), the American scholar Maria Tatar remarks on the way that Wilhelm Grimm would slip in, say, adages about the importance of keeping promises. She argued that: ‘Rather than coming to terms with the absence of a moral order … he persisted in adding moral pronouncements even where there was no moral.’ Such additions established the idea that it was values (not just dinner) at stake in the conflicts that these stories dramatised. No doubt the Grimms’ additions influenced Bettelheim, Campbell and other folklorists who argued for the inherent morality of folktales, even if they had not always been told as moral fables.

As part of this new nationalist consciousness, other authors started changing the old stories to make a moral distinction between, for example, Robin Hood and the Sheriff of Nottingham. Before Joseph Ritson’s 1795 retelling of these legends, earlier written stories about the outlaw mostly showed him carousing in the forest with his merry men. He didn’t rob from the rich to give to the poor until Ritson’s version – written to inspire a British populist uprising after the French Revolution. Ritson’s rendering was so popular that modern retellings of Robin Hood, such as Disney’s 1973 cartoon or the film Prince of Thieves (1991) are more centrally about outlaw moral obligations than outlaw hijinks. The Sheriff of Nottingham was transformed from a simple antagonist to someone who symbolised the abuses of power against the powerless. Even within a single nation (Robin Hood), or a single household (Cinderella), every scale of conflict was restaged as a conflict of values.

Neither the Greeks nor the Trojans stand for some set of human strengths or frailties

Or consider the legend of King Arthur. In the 12th century, poets writing about him were often French, like Chrétien de Troyes, because King Arthur wasn’t yet closely associated with the soul of Britain. What’s more, his adversaries were often, literally, monsters, rather than people who symbolised moral weaknesses. By the early 19th century, when Tennyson wrote Idylls of the King , King Arthur becomes an ideal of a specifically British manhood, and he battles human characters who represent moral frailties. By the 20th century, the word ‘Camelot’ came to mean a kingdom too idealistic to survive on Earth.

Once the idea of national values entered our storytelling, the peculiar moral physics underlying the phenomenon of good guys versus bad guys has been remarkably consistent. One telling feature is that characters frequently change sides in conflicts: if a character’s identity resides in his values, then when he changes his mind about a moral question, he is essentially swapping sides, or defecting. This is not always acknowledged. For example, when in the PBS series Power of Myth (1988) the journalist Bill Moyers discussed with Campbell how many ancient tropes Star Wars deployed, they didn’t consider how bizarre it would have seemed to the ancient storytellers had Darth Vader changed his mind about anger and hatred, and switched sides in his war with Luke and the Rebels. Contrast this with The Iliad , where Achilles doesn’t become Trojan when he is angry at Agamemnon. Neither the Greeks nor the Trojans stand for some set of human strengths or frailties. Since their conflict is not a metaphor for some internal battle of anger versus love, switching sides because of a transport of feeling would be incoherent. In Star Wars, the opposing teams each represent a set of human properties. What side Darth Vader fights on is therefore absolutely dependent on whether anger or love is foremost in his heart.

Bad guys change their minds and become good in exactly the same way in countless, ostensibly folkloric, modern stories: The Lord of the Rings , Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003), the Harry Potter series (1997-2007). When a bad character has a change of heart, it’s always a cathartic emotional moment – since what’s at stake for a character is losing the central part of his identity. Another peculiarity in the moral physics of good guys versus bad is that bad guys have no loyalty and routinely punish their own; whether it’s the Sheriff of Nottingham starving his own people or Darth Vader killing his subordinates, bad guys are cavalier with human life, and they rebuke their allies for petty transgressions. This has been true since the earliest modern bad guys, though it scarcely exists among older adversaries who might be hungry for human flesh, but don’t kill their own.

Good guys, on the other hand, accept all applicants into the fold, and prove their loyalty even when their teammates transgress. Consider Friar Tuck getting drunk on ale while Robin Hood looks the other way. Or Luke Skywalker welcoming the roguish Han Solo on side. Good guys work with rogues, oddballs and ex-bad guys, plus their battles often hinge on someone who was treated badly by the bad guys crossing over and becoming a good guy. Forgiving characters their wicked deeds is an emotional climax in many good guy/bad guy stories. Indeed, it’s essential that the good side is a motley crew that will never, ever reject a fellow footsoldier.

Again, this is a point of pride that seems incoherent in the context of pre-modern storytelling. Not only do people in ancient stories not switch sides in fights but Achilles, say, would never win because his army was composed of the rejects from the Trojans’. In old stories, great warriors aren’t scrappy recruits, there for the moral education: they’re experts.

S tories about good guys and bad guys that are implicitly moral – in the sense that they invest an individual’s entire social identity in him not changing his mind about a moral issue – perversely end up discouraging any moral deliberation. Instead of anguishing over multidimensional characters in conflict – as we find in The Iliad , or the Mahabharata or Hamlet – such stories rigidly categorise people according to the values they symbolise, flattening all the deliberation and imagination of ethical action into a single thumbs up or thumbs down. Either a person is acceptable for Team Good, or he belongs to Team Evil.

Good guy/bad guy narratives might not possess any moral sophistication, but they do promote social stability, and they’re useful for getting people to sign up for armies and fight in wars with other nations. Their values feel like morality, and the association with folklore and mythology lends them a patina of legitimacy, but still, they don’t arise from a moral vision. They are rooted instead in a political vision, which is why they don’t help us deliberate, or think more deeply about the meanings of our actions. Like the original Grimm stories, they’re a political tool designed to bind nations together.

The idea that whole categories of people should be locked up made the concentration camps possible

It’s no coincidence that good guy/bad guy movies, comic books and games have large, impassioned and volatile fandoms – even the word ‘fandom’ suggests the idea of a nation, or kingdom. What’s more, the moral physics of these stories about superheroes fighting the good fight, or battling to save the world, does not commend genuine empowerment. The one thing the good guys teach us is that people on the other team aren’t like us. In fact, they’re so bad, and the stakes are so high, that we have to forgive every transgression by our own team in order to win.

When I talked with Andrea Pitzer, the author of One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps (2017) , about the rise of the idea that people on opposite sides of conflicts have different moral qualities, she told me: ‘Three inventions collided to make concentration camps possible: barbed wire, automatic weapons, and the belief that whole categories of people should be locked up.’ When we read, watch and tell stories of good guys warring against bad guys, we are essentially persuading ourselves that our opponents would not be fighting us, indeed they would not be on the other team at all, if they had any loyalty or valued human life. In short, we are rehearsing the idea that moral qualities belong to categories of people rather than individuals. It is the Grimms’ and von Herder’s vision taken to its logical nationalist conclusion that implies that ‘categories of people should be locked up’.

Watching Wonder Woman at the end of the 2017 movie give a speech about preemptively forgiving ‘humanity’ for all the inevitable offences of the Second World War, I was reminded yet again that stories of good guys and bad guys actively make a virtue of letting the home team in a conflict get away with any expedient atrocity.

Family life

A patchwork family

After my marriage failed, I strove to create a new family – one made beautiful by the loving way it’s stitched together

The cell is not a factory

Scientific narratives project social hierarchies onto nature. That’s why we need better metaphors to describe cellular life

Charudatta Navare

Stories and literature

Terrifying vistas of reality

H P Lovecraft, the master of cosmic horror stories, was a philosopher who believed in the total insignificance of humanity

Sam Woodward

The dangers of AI farming

AI could lead to new ways for people to abuse animals for financial gain. That’s why we need strong ethical guidelines

Virginie Simoneau-Gilbert & Jonathan Birch

Thinkers and theories

A man beyond categories

Paul Tillich was a religious socialist and a profoundly subtle theologian who placed doubt at the centre of his thought

Public health

It’s dirty work

In caring for and bearing with human suffering, hospital staff perform extreme emotional labour. Is there a better way?

Susanna Crossman

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — The Devil and Tom Walker — Human Nature: Good vs Evil

Human Nature: Good Vs Evil

• Categories: Literature Review The Devil and Tom Walker Young Goodman Brown

About this sample

Words: 957 |

Published: Jul 17, 2018

Words: 957 | Page: 1 | 5 min read

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Prof. Kifaru

Verified writer

• Expert in: Literature

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

6.5 pages / 3030 words

3.5 pages / 2123 words

7 pages / 3092 words

2 pages / 964 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on The Devil and Tom Walker

Washington Irving's short story "The Devil and Tom Walker" exemplifies the archetype of the Faustian bargain, where a character makes a deal with the devil in exchange for personal gain. This archetype has been a recurring theme [...]

Washington Irving wrote a short story “The Devil and Tom Walker”. Showing the way people may be on the outside but how they truly are on the inside. An example being Tom Walker he’s a quiet guy but on the inside he is a greedy [...]

The fear of a dystopian future that is explored in both Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis and George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty Four is reflective of the values of the societies at the time and the context of the authors. As [...]

The power of words is enough to control an entire nation. Although many would consider physical power and brute force to be absolute power, George Orwell’s 1984 demonstrates a dystopian society where language is the ultimate [...]

In order for one to exist in a totalitarian society whose government is successful in its control, one must deal on a day-to-day basis with strong persuasion and propaganda. These totalitarian societies have an iron grip on [...]

Problems faced by characters in literature often repeat themselves, and when these characters decide to solve these standard problems, their actions are often more similar than they first appear. This idea is evident when [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

We use cookies to enhance our website for you. Proceed if you agree to this policy or learn more about it.

• Essay Database >
• Essay Examples >
• Essays Topics >
• Essay on Social Issues

Essay on Good vs. Evil

Type of paper: Essay

Topic: Social Issues , Cinema , Suicide , Movies , Society , Evil , Ethics , Literature

Words: 1400

Published: 10/23/2019

ORDER PAPER LIKE THIS

Movies have always been a brilliant reflection of reality. Many directors all over the world have done their best to create masterpieces, which would catch a person and would not leave him until the end of the movie. Undoubtedly, cinematography has always been a perfect tool to express the feelings and emotions of people by reflecting hem in the movies. It should be stated that thrillers and dramas are the genres of movies, which don’t but reflect all the aforesaid in a more vivid and bright way. Not only do these genres cover topics, which have always worried the society, but also reveal a horrible reality of the inside of many people. The things we are afraid to talk or even think about appear on the screen of our TV.

There is an abundance of topics, which directors love to touch in dramas and movies. Usually, a movie which touches the very reality, all the ins and outs of our life, is destined to success. Good vs. Evil is the very topic which has always been extremely popular among directors, playwrights and writers. The explanation of such popularity is more than simple – Good vs. Evil is something each and everyone has inside, these are the feelings and emotions, which have always been a characteristic of the mankind of all the times. Good powers have been always struggling with the bad, evil powers. That’s the very explanation why we have hell and heaven in almost all the religions – a fight of good and evil has never stopped.

That’s the reason why this topic has been always so widely used in different fields of art – either t is literature or cinematography – an idea is common, to teach a reader that evil has always been punished by good. This analysis is devoted to the topic Good vs. Evil in three movies: The Virgin Suicides, Run Lola Run and Strangers on a Train. At first glance these three movies seem to be completely different: not only are they from different times, but of different directors, stories and genres in general. Nonetheless, if we take a better look at these three movies, we will understand that a topic of Good vs. Evil is reflected in all of them.

Before the analysis itself it should be stated that the topic Good vs. Evil is not the main one in all the stories, it serves as a background in the movies to attract the attention of the audience – throughout all the movies the audience comes to understand the real message of the movie through a real fight of Good and Evil, either it is obvious or hidden. The reason for such turn can be explained by a ‘black and white’ theory – a person should see both colors to understand what white is and what black is, to see the difference. The same is used in the cinematography – to understand the good, the audience is to see the evil first.

The most obvious reflection of Good vs. Evil can be seen in the first movie: Strangers on a Train. A movie, shot by Alfred Hitchcock is one of the best movies ever. Not only does it keep the audience on edge from the very beginning, but it also gives a perfect understanding of what good and bad are. Each and every person, who has at least once watched the movie, would forever understand the ingenuity of Alfred Hitchcock. Each and every aspect of the movie: lights, sound, motions, all the trifles are soaked through with mystery. The audience is not left alone throughout the movie – Alfred does all possible and impossible to catch the attention of every human being. The whole idea of a ‘carrousel’ spins each and everyone around – the main heroes and the audience.

The idea itself is typical to the stories of Agatha Christie, nonetheless, unique at the same time. Good vs. Evil is implemented in the main heroes of the movie: Guy Haines, an amateur tennis star, and Bruno Anthony, a stranger, who is trying to push the main hero, Guy, to the edge of evil. From their first meeting we understand that the Evil has paved its way to the good and is ready to aboard the ‘ship of the good’. From the first scenes the audience feels no sympathy to Bruna, as he is soaked through with the evil – it can be seen in his manners, in his impudence, in his way of speaking. All these trifles build a full picture. Alfred is not simply antagonizing the audience against Bruno, he wants us understand what kind of person he really is, to unearth the truth and come up to conclusion.

Bruno offers Guy a deal – a ‘cross-murder’, where Bruno kills Guy’s wife, and Guy kills Bruno’s father. We see that Guy is against such deal, while Bruno seems to be determined in his idea and fulfills his part of a deal. Later on we see a struggle between Bruno and Guy, of God vs. Evil, where finally the Good wins. The final fight at the carrousel is more than dramatic for the whole movie, as the whole movie seems to be a carrousel itself.

Another movie, Run Lola run, shot by the German director Tom Tykwer is telling us a story of these days. This movie has the greatest difference from the two other ones, as it is also combined with a bit of fantasy in it. Nonetheless, this fantasy is used as an allegory, a form of allusion to show the audience the reality through a concrete image. If in Strangers on Train the image of carrousel was used as a means of interpretation, in Run Lola Run, we can see the idea of three lives, which can compared to a computer game.

The idea is that Lola is to help her boyfriend find money, which he lost. Otherwise, if she fails to help him, he will be killed. That’s why Lola, throughout the story is trying three different options : in the first run Lola causes an accident, and robs the shop to help her boyfriend, what leads to her death; the second run Lola robs her father’s bank, and in the end her boyfriend Manni dies, being run over by the ambulance. The third and the last one comes to be the best one as well: she decides to enter a casino and wins enough money to help Manni, at the same time Manni finds the tramp, who stole his bag and returns money back. The idea of Good and Evil is uncovered here in the deeds of Lola – as soon as she decided to do each and everything correctly, the destiny turned out to be grateful to them and the story finished up with a happy end. The first two runs showed that when Lola was doing something evil, it did not but lead to unpredictable consequences, and only when she decided to deliver herself over into the hands of Providence, the story finished happily for each and everyone.

The last movie, but it is important to admit, to my mind, the best one, also reflects an idea of Good vs. Evil. Nonetheless, I think that it is also covering much deeper topics, but for this one: upbringing, society, and understanding. However, I think that in this very story the Evil defeats the good, as the main protagonists finally commit suicide. The whole movie is a fight of the girls against the principles of their parents – they lead a completely isolated way of life, what is completely aggravated by the suicide of the youngest daughter.

We can see the girls trying to fight these principles, however, each and everything seems to be completely in vain. The only way out they seem to find for them is to commit a group suicide. However, it remains unclear what these girls wanted to achieve: either to teach their parents or to teach the whole society. Their death shocked the whole neighborhood, leaving a shade of mystery over the story. We can see the triumph of the Evil in the end of the movie –their parents, having lost all their daughters seem to be absolutely indifferent to it, as after their flee from the neighborhood they returned to a happy and normal life, leaving the audience with a feeling that these suicides were the very thing they longed for.

Cite this page

Share with friends using:

Removal Request

Finished papers: 1745

This paper is created by writer with

ID 270004517

If you want your paper to be:

Well-researched, fact-checked, and accurate

Original, fresh, based on current data

Eloquently written and immaculately formatted

275 words = 1 page double-spaced

Get your papers done by pros!

Other Pages

Argumentative essay on the effect of violent video game on children, martha stewart case study sample, ethical leadership and decision making report case study examples, essay on exploration of ruths reactions to the loss, apple inc research paper examples, the incentive effects of higher education literature review examples, father son relationship in night by elie wiesel book review examples, rhino capture in kruger national park case study sample, information systems case study sample, essay on choose 8 different images spanning 8 different styles from the mfah current exhibitions, health aids and trade issues in south korea course work examples, literature review on a century ends and new millennium begins part 3, course work on price increase strategies, research paper on hart joyce human trafficking new york rosen pub 2009 print, essay on crisis management plan, industrialization and how it had an effect on living and working conditions of lower argumentative essay examples, the use of time in reservoir dogs movie review example, all in all both plays reveal the prototypes of people whose misbehavior prevents essay, essay on conceptual framework, good example of perceptive of pain in burn victims research paper, good timeline report example, brine essays, brahms essays, good faith essays, reabsorption essays, annum essays, thebes essays, peat essays, formalism essays, modified corn essays, biota essays, fresh food essays, slits essays, paranormal essays, hopelessness essays, computations essays, logical thinking essays, hiring process reports, office space reports, international management reports.

Password recovery email has been sent to [email protected]

Use your new password to log in

You are not register!

By clicking Register, you agree to our Terms of Service and that you have read our Privacy Policy .

Now you can download documents directly to your device!

Check your email! An email with your password has already been sent to you! Now you can download documents directly to your device.

or Use the QR code to Save this Paper to Your Phone

The sample is NOT original!

Short on a deadline?

Don't waste time. Get help with 11% off using code - GETWOWED

No, thanks! I'm fine with missing my deadline