A villain (also known in film and literature as the "antagonist," "baddie", "bad guy", "black hat", or "heavy") is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. The villain usually is the antagonist (though can be the protagonist), the character who tends to have a negative effect on other characters. A female villain is sometimes called a villainess (often to differentiate her from a male villain). Random House Unabridged Dictionary defines villain as "a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel; or a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot".
Read more about Villain: Etymology, Folk and Fairy Tales, Villainous Foil, Portraying and Employing Villains in Fiction
Famous quotes containing the word villain:
“In a novel a hero can lay ten girls and marry a virgin for a finish. In a movie this is not allowed. The hero, as well as the heroine, has to be a virgin. The villain can lay anybody he wants, have as much fun as he wants cheating and stealing, getting rich and whipping the servants. But you have to shoot him in the end.”
—Herbert Mankiewicz (1897–1953)
“Man was not made to succumb to the villain Woe.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“In tragic life, God wot,
No villain need be! Passions spin the plot:
We are betrayed by what is false within.”
—George Meredith (1828–1909)