The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-02-04
The villain in American Fiction.

| The nineteenth century has been justly
called the age of the novel, and, especially
| in this country, the art of the novelist
has been honored above that Of most other
makers of literature In the course of the
development of the American novel, curl
Gus literary phenomenon can be traced; a
phenomenon which, though partly due to
the spirit Of the age. and therefore found
in the modern English romance as well, is
peculiarly American in some of Its phases.
This is the peculiar position which the
villain occupies in our fiction.
Il goes without saying that the average
novel must have a villain, or an evil force
of some kind TO assist in the working out
of the plot. As far back as the imagina-
ton of mankind can be followed, there have
been found in human thought the two OPP
posing forces. good and bad; and one rea-
son for the satisfaction afforded by the
reading of romances is undoubtedly that
the reader identifies himself unconscious
ly with the hero-the good force, which
eventually triumphs in sentiment, If not
in fact To create the villain in such wise
happy outcome OF the story was the prob
lem OF most of the older novelists; AID
this led to his being in many cases man
of straw. Shakespeare. with his unriyaled
insight into human nature. was practically
the first writer of fiction to make his bad
men human and interesting
At the time when American fiction began
to be recognized the conception of the
villain or evil force in the novel was
where it had been for generations. This
parsonage was set up to be knocked down
by the hero. Take, for example. Coopers
Pathfinder" There is no more individ-
uality TO the miscreant Muir than there is
in one OF the trees OF the forest. In fact,
the noble savage and the frontiersman
absorb most of the individuality which
Cooper had TO spare for his characters. He
had none TO waste on villains Moreover.
vlllainy was so out of repute with novel
readers at about that time. that he could
not have given even his heroic figures any
pronounced faults and retained for them
their popularity. His Indians are about
as harmless and real as those in front of
tobacco shops.
Irving's forte was in that kind of char
acter study which does not involve much
plot. and there are no bad men in his
books. except those that are conventionally
mentioned. After these pioneers comes
Hawthorne, the silent, sensitive, mystical
genius whose work is even now, after the
lapse of more than half a century. as I'M
approachable in its way as the beauty Of
wild orchid Hawthorne was the first
to touch the problem of evil, to strike the
keynote of American fiction in this re-
spect.
Perhaps as good an example of his
method Of treating it as can be found is
THE Scarlet Letter" Here we have
three sinners. of three different types
Hester Prynne becomes heroine of
type till then unseen in fiction. heroine
through suffering In the character of
Arthur Dimmesdale Hawthorne does what
a dozen American nOyeIists after him have
done. in one way or another: he lor-
trays a man who has committed a great
sin. and wins for him the sympathy Ct
the reader. In the old-time novel Dim
mesdale would have been the villain, and
Roger Chillingworth the hero. Yet in
Hawthorne's instructive realism. Chilling
worth becomes the villain, so far as the
book has one. His persistent hatred. his
deadly watchfulness. malignity, and cold
heartedness ALLEVIATE from him all the pity
which might be felt for an injured hus-
band. THE Scarlet Letter" proved that
the method of the novelist was capable.
in the interests of realism, OF complete
revolution. A comparison with almost
any of the older English romances proves
this
The tendency OF American fiction, then.
has been almost from the first to show
the human qualities in the evil-doer. to
regard the problem of evil from a prac-
tieal instead of an empirical point OF view.
II is just the difference between Iabo-
ratory work and practical experiments.
Thackeray, Dickens, and George Eliot all
writing at about this time in England,
do not show this tendency. although In
George Eliot's novels the sinner Is apt
TO appeal more or less to the sympathy
Of the reader. The Philistinism which was
rampant in England during this period