Othello, Iago, and the complexity of character

Q: Do characters need to be sympathetic? Why? Why not? Does it make a difference in different genres?

-from Susan

I sure hope not. Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment? Tom Ripley in Patricia Highsmith’s crime novels? Sometimes the lead character is also the villain and we have to like him or her in order to finish the book - a neat trick. I just read a book I think is very good in which I disliked the protagonist from page one – and he wasn’t the villain!

But I'm choosing to focus on villains. Of course the villains in crime fiction don’t need to be too sympathetic, although a nuanced bad hat is more interesting and more the fashion than it was in Agatha Christie’s day. We are voyeurs looking at these fictional crimes, and we’re curious about the whys as much as the hows. And if the whys are more about character than plot, it can draw us in deeper to the story and its outcome. 

I recently watched a terrific TV short series, “The Victim” in which we’re not sure who the victim is and who the villain is. In fact, they are both victims and villains and I had sympathy for them both. (Highly recommended – I saw it on Britbox, not sure if it’s available elsewhere.)

I never much liked the 007 books (only read one) or movies (saw two) because all the characters were so cartoonish. The bad guys in particular. But I didn't much like Bond and had a tough time rooting for him.

I’m old enough to remember early TV shows with the Lone Ranger and Tonto (groan) and the villains might as well have had “I am the bad guy” stamped on their cowboy hats. The two main characters were sympathetic in a way that matched the 1950s culture. Today, Tonto would get his own show!

If you watch crime series, especially American-made ones, I guarantee the nice guy with the weak chin, the sexy woman with thin lips, the middle aged rich business man, they have “I am the villain” stamped on their foreheads from the first scene. Too many crime novels do the same thing with words. 

Then, there's Snidely Whiplash...

Villains in other genres and media have to satisfy their readers and viewers. Sometimes in terribly trendy novels, there is no villain, only the endlessly self-absorbed protagonist whom I might want to strangle by the end of the book. But what do I know? Truth is, all characters, if they're good, reflect the truth that we incorporate a range of characteristics that can show as sympathetic one moment and off-putting the next. It's what makes us human and makes our fiction worth reading.