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Humans across the world find themselves divided into three categories. These three distinct categories consist of heroes, villains, and something similar to villains called bystanders. Everyone in this world fits into one of these three categories. Men, women, and children across the world find themselves placed into these categories because of their current situational circumstances, past experiences, and morals.
Everyone in this world lives under a certain set of circumstances. These circumstances are like barrels, and these barrels shape others in certain ways depending on what are inside them. Phil Zimbardo became an expert witness for one of the guards from Abu Ghraib because when the Bush Administration and the military General said
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that “Abu Ghraib was the work of a few bad apples” Phil Zimbardo said “you know I don’t believe that and I believe… that someone put them in a bad barrel” (Zimbardo). Why would these American soldiers act in the way they did? The reason was, is that they were exposed to a different “barrel” or circumstances than the rest that were stationed at that prison. Nine out of nine people on the night shift at Abu Ghraib committed similarly awful actions; the soldiers were not soldiers, but were, in fact, military police from the army reserves (Zimbardo). No one on the day shift acted this way or performed in such a dishonorable manner. The soldiers on the night shift were moved from one barrel to another and this would start to change their morals. Over time, these soldiers would slowly change from good to evil and what they considered right and wrong would also change. This new barrel ,that the soldiers found themselves in, changed their morals and how they acted not for the better but for the worse. In some cases under different circumstances the barrels can change people from worse to better. These cases can include parents who appropriately punish their children when they do something wrong and teach them right from wrong so that they can make good decisions in the future. While this is only one example, these circumstances occur throughout everyone’s lives and shape them accordingly. These environments will shape a person’s morals and make someone a hero, villain, or bystander and will usually do so without the affected person knowing. People become a hero, bystander, or a villain because of their morals, characteristics and what they are willing to do to help another person in need.
There are various levels of heroes, some of which will sacrifice and give everything to protect someone and those that will only spare some change to help them buy food. While villains can directly or indirectly harm others in various ways, whether it is from being too greedy or enjoying watching others suffer, villains hurt people. Similar to Villains are bystanders, while bystanders do not directly contribute to the problem they do nothing to help solve the problem which is almost as bad as being the problem causer. Characteristics of a villain could include being vulgar, a bully, or rashful towards others, while a hero’s traits tend to include virtues like courage, friendliness, and are caring towards others (Aristotle). In We Are All Bystanders Peggy is a bystander because she isn’t willing to stand up for Stewart when he gets bullied on the bus, but wishes she would do something to help him(Marsh, Keltner). Another example of where bystanders had a chance to prevent a crime was when Genovese was murdered and all thirty-eight of her neighbors did nothing to prevent her death(Marsh, Keltner). Many bystanders possess the trait of cowardness or they lack the will to act and try to help others that are be in need of
assistance. Many bystanders fall to pluralistic ignorance and this is directly related to the diffusion of responsibility in numbers. There are two types of bystanders, passive and active. An active bystander will try to get help or direct someone to get help while a passive bystander will try to assure others that nothing is wrong within a given situation. Samuel Oliner has conducted research on what makes heroes go above and beyond and try to help others. He concluded that many heroes had a greater sense of attachment towards others and they felt a certain sense of responsibility when it came to the wellbeing of others(Marsh, Keltner). A person’s parents are like a barrel, they will define what is inside them and will shape the morals and characteristics accordingly. This barrel is a vital barrel as it will lay down some of the strongest framework to the morals of any given person and will have great effects long and short term on that person. In this barrel also comes characteristics which will also affect them for better or worse. A person’s parents have the most important job as their morals and characteristics they lay down will be long lasting and hard to reverse and will define whether someone will be a hero, bystander, or villain.
What are the differences between heros and villains? A hero is someone who is willing to fight to the death to help someone else. A villain is soeone who will do bad at any cost, whether someone gets hurt or not. The epic poem, The Odyssey, has both heros and villains. The Odyssey is about a king named Odysseus who is fighting his way home to get back to his wife, and son, while fighting monsters and obsticals. The main character, Odysseus, could be considered botha hero and a villain because, he fights hard to get home while being brave, and determaned, but he kills along the way at no cost which makes him a villain. Therefore, Odysseus is mostly a monster because he could have let all of the people go and not kill them.
As I have already mentioned, Inigo is one of these characters. Another would be Fezzik. When we first meet him, he seems to be nothing more than a giant who works for an evil man. Though this is somewhat true, our opinion is greatly altered when we learn his backstory. After suffering bullying and a rough childhood of his parents forcing him to fight, Fezzik becomes someone the reader feels a strong compassion for. His love of rhymes makes him much gentler, and his desire to do the right thing and help his friends is quite endearing. All in all, he becomes a character who instead of being a villain, is most definitely a hero.
Shakespeare has a way of creating his characters so the audience can relate to them in a way. In his villains we see the negative characteristics that are in ourselves and others around us; things that often define the “natural man” such as greed or jealousy. With the entire terrible and treacherous thing that Shakespeare makes his villains do, he always manages to make them human in a way. As if he is meaning to display that no matter how twisted a person can be, they are still a person. In Shakespeare’s plays Othello, Hamlet, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the villains share the characteristics of greed, clever and conniving ways, and recklessness; however, they all bring their own features to the table.
Zimbardo, PhD. argues that the prison in Abu Ghraib was psychologically changed due to their abuse. Zimbardo says, “The line between good and evil is permeable.” Situations will pull people into acting ways they never have imagined before. The Stanford Prison Study was a film that brought college students in to play roles of prisoners and guards. After only six days the guards became abusive and brutal towards the prisoners. Zimbardo put on this experiment and found that “institutional forces and peer pressure lead normal student volunteer guards to disregard the potential harm of their actions on the other student
The bulk of the praise a hero receives tends to be in response to his or her actions. People look up to the heroes who can perform the most miraculous feats. However, there is an element of heroism beyond the superficial element of a hero’s actions: the hero’s character. Both heroes and antiheroes might do great things; however, the similarities end where motivations are considered, and these differences in motivations are rooted in the differences in the character of heroes and the antiheroes. An antihero’s character is flawed, leading to actions based on selfish and impure motivations. In contrast, a hero is characterized by his or her selflessness; this can be defined as putting the interests of others above the interests of oneself, and
Second, another characteristics of a tragic hero is that the person does not always fit into society's mold.
Chris Colfer says “ a villain is a victim whose story hasn't been told yet.” When the word villain comes to mind people always assume the worst, that the character is cold, evil, and manipulative. An audience will not except that villains were not always evil, something or someone made them that way. Abigail Williams the antagonist of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Shylock the antagonist of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice both fall prey to this accusation. Abigail and Shylock are both debatable villains because they both suffered violent pasts and were victims of their societies.
A tragic hero is the protagonist is neither virtuous nor evil, and is of high estate. John Proctor was framer around the town Salem in the play in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. John Proctor’s tragic flaw or hubris was his pride which cost characters their lives to protect their image in the town. Procter's pride keep him and his family from going to church because he did not agree with Reverend Parris's preaching methods. The town was ran by the church's rules make attending the church mandatory. Proctors pride hurt his and his family's reputation because he could not except Parris’s peaching methods.Proctor is a tragic hero because of his hubris he is not too evil nor to good and he’s punished and his punishment was greater than what he deserved
According to John Steinbeck, "Heroes are innocent; villains are cunning." This statement likely regards the internal aspects of characters, such as intellect, reasoning/motivation, and morality/responsibility, as indicated by consistency in action and/or articulation, as in direct speech or soliloquy. An examination of the heroes and villains in Measure for Measure, Othello, and Hamlet can determine whether Steinbeck's generalization is applicable.
There are three different types of people on this planet, the villains, the heroes, and the anti-hero. Our actions reflect what we do and determine whether we're a hero or a villain however the average person is an anti-hero. They do some heroic things and some villainous things. They are neither a hero nor a villain. In the novel "Frankenstein", by Mary Shelley, Dr. Frankenstein is a tragic hero.
In Superman on the Couch by Danny Fingeroth, he writes that: “...Someone ... must always intervene in the domestic and global squabbles that comprise human existence. We can't do it on our own.” That is where our heroes come into place, fighting the fights that others lack the ability or the courage to fight. This kind of heroism can be found anywhere, even in ordinary people such as ourselves. People who become heroes in our eyes possess certain traits that allow them to point us in the right direction. One such characteristic is taking steps toward being the change that one wishes to see in the world. In order to do this, a person must possess traits that our society admires: traits like selflessness, kindness, generosity and forgiveness.
< Just as heroes embody all the traits we might like for ourselves (bravery, strength, good hair) , so the villains get to revel in the negative traits we carry, but are required to
The first way that we see evidence that a villain can be a hero is Caesar’s nobleness. Julius Caesar was stripped of his wealth as a child and was forced to flee his home under the rule of Sulla. Although Sulla later pardoned Caesar that is not the point. Before Caesar was killed he wrote out his will. After his death his will was read aloud by Mark Antony. Antony read that “I leave to every Roman citizen, every individual man, seventy-five drachmas. (A drachmas was a silver coin of monetary value that was used in the time of Ancient Greece) The fact that Caesar left his wealth to his people
When I think of a hero and a villain, I think hero as being the good in something and villain as being the
A hero is someone who, in spite of weakness, doubt or not always knowing the answers, goes ahead and overcomes anyway” (Christopher Reeve). How can a murderer be considered a hero? Throughout the play, Brutus proved to be an impulsive character who often acted before thinking. However, if the audience looks past the outcome of the situation and focuses on what Brutus’ true intentions were, he can be portrayed as a hero. A hero is someone who acts for the good and this is exactly what Brutus did. In The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare, Brutus can be considered a hero based on his desire to help Rome despite his mistakes.