"...the real high virtues which we do not possess at all, we cannot depict except in a purely external fashion. We do not really know what it feels like to be a man much better than ourselves...To project ourselves into a wicked character, we hae only to stop doing something, and something that we are already tired of doing; to project ourselves into a good one we have to do what we cannot and become what we are not... The Satan in Milton enables him to draw the character well just as the Satan in us enables us to receive it." C.S. Lewis on the character of Satan in John Milton's Paradise Lost.
I admit that I usually have a love/hate relationship with antagonists. Examples? Cathy in East of Eden, and currently Satan in the poem Paradise Lost by John Milton.
Some might find it appalling that I should be able to sympathize with Satan when I am Christian. (This warrants a debate sometime. Let me know if you want to talk about it.) My attraction to these characters has nothing to do with wanting them to win, so to speak. I know they won't. Antagonists are flawed in ways that they cannot win; they cannot complete "the hero's journey." They experience no growth. I can't even say I LOVE these characters so much as I pity them. I empathize with them BECAUSE they are flawed.
I don't want to be bad (How very like Cal of me to make that proclamation). I don't know how to be good, which is a huge part of being human. C.S. Lewis was right about not knowing how to be better than we really are. I'm not going to let that be an excuse for my failures however. I must fight the self-imposed blindness and reject taking the easy route of succumbing to the bad. Enough pity parties. Enough anger. In the end, the only one I wrong most is myself.
Silly that I should start analyzing my reading on my blog. A sure sign I need to get off the computer.
