Tragic Villain
A villain (also known in film and literature as the "antagonist," "baddie", "bad guy", or "black hat") 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 Tragic Villain: Etymology, Folk and Fairy Tales, Villainous Foil, Portraying and Employing Villains in Fiction, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words tragic and/or villain:
“What the Journal posits is not the tragic question, the Madman’s question: “Who am I?”, but the comic question, the Bewildered Man’s question: “Am I?” A comic—a comedian, that’s what the Journal keeper is.”
—Roland Barthes (1915–1980)
“The tragic hero prefers death to prudence. The comedian prefers playing tricks to winning. Only the villain really plays to win.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)