What is Evil?
Welcome! • Curie High School • 4959 S. Archer • Chicago IL 60632
In British Literature this year, we have examined different forms of evil. Grendel is an evil monster who kills men in their sleep. Macbeth is a madman who is obsessed with ambition and deteriorates to a serial killer, and Victor Frankenstein is a deranged scientist who creates a creature from cadavers and then abandons his creation. All of these stories share a common theme: What is Evil? Where does it originate? How does it affect us?
One night, after a beer party,
the Danes settled in the hall
for sleep; they knew no sorrows.
The evil creature, grim and hungry,
grabbed thirty warriors
and went home laughing.
The Adventures of Beowulf
an Adaptation from the Old English
by Dr. David Breeden
Macbeth examines the nature of evil and the corruption of the human soul. In Macbeth evil is the opposite of humanity, the deviation from that which is natural for humankind, yet evil originates in the human heart. Supernatural and unnatural forces are the agents of human beings, not their instigators. The witches’ words do not seduce Macbeth. He is compelled by his own ambition and his wife’s ruthlessness. Similarly, spirits do not solicit Lady Macbeth, rather she invokes their aid for her purposes.
Macbeth and the Nature of Evil
By Elaine Pilkington
From Insights, 2004
Frankenstein and his creation may even represent one being -- two sides of a single entity forming a doppelganger relationship. However, it is difficult to decipher which represent good and which represents evil -- the man or the monster. One would initially assume the monster is the evil, yet it is Dr. Frankenstein who creates the monster and then hides from the responsibility. His cowardice not only leads to the death of his younger brother, but also to that of the young girl accused of his murder. The monster, in fact, has moments of great intellect and rationality. He even acts as somewhat of a conscious of Frankenstein's. Because of Victor's selfish and evil actions, the monster haunts him endlessly. Inevitably, Victor ends up in a hellish, barren wasteland being chased by his own creation.
October 2002