Note: For the purpose of this blog, a villain is one who opposes the goals of a hero. The person does not have to be evil like they are painted in movies. They have an agenda that conflicts with the hero. A prominent characteristic is their willingness to use graceless methods to achieve their goals. For me, they serve as tests and teachers. Let's learn together and reveal the possibilities.
Why Study Villains and Heroes?
Heroes and villains are not just for superhero movies, they comprise the world we live in. We uncover our inner strengths and weaknesses through engaging with both the villains and heroes in our lives. This knowledge helps us uncover our shadow, Carl Jung’s term for the unconscious parts of our personality. Per Debbie Ford in her book, The Dark Side of the Light Chasers, “Our shadow exist to teach us, guide us, and give us the blessing of our entire selves (Ford, page 2).” To fully benefit from what the villains are in our lives to teach us, we need to study them and learn about their motivations.
Friedrich Nietzsche expounds on the concept in his book, On the Genealogy of Morality. Ressentiment is an unhealthy defense mechanism used to cope with extreme feelings of envy, unfairness, jealously and powerlessness. It is an assignment of one’s own internal feelings of inferiority and helplessness onto an external person, idea or physical possession.
Resentment vs Ressentiment - the two words have similar spellings, but describe different human conditions. Resentment is defined as "a bitter indignation at having been treated unfairly." However, Ressentiment, in psychology and philosophy studies, is a "psychological state arising from suppressed feelings of envy and hatred that cannot be acted upon."
I hope you either see the play on stage or read the book. The story will make you laugh, cry and gather insights into the shadowy sides of human nature.
The villain, Beatrice Hunsdorfer, is based on Paul Zindel’s mother who struggled to raise two children alone. She was verbally abusive to both of her daughters, but Tillie received most of the harsh treatment.
The hero, Tillie, remains focused and optimistic in spite of her negative home environment. She never allowed her mother’s negative comments or antics make her betray a love for life and science.
Powerlessness: A dwelling in feelings of inferiority.
Beatrice never completed her real estate class or beauty school. She devalues education to feel better about her situation.
Tillie loves school. Beatrice blames much of the sadness in her life due to her high school experience.
School is the enemy. To get ‘revenge’ for her sad life, Beatrice makes Tillie be absent from school.
Beatrice blames ‘marrying the wrong man’ for causing pain in her life. The ‘two stones’ are her children.
Assigns blame for her misfortune on the world.
For the hero, a mentor provides a window to see new life opportunities. Mr. Goodman was Tillie’s science teacher who took a keen interest in her and inspired her love of science.
Heroes must face their fears. For Tillie it was a fear of public speaking and that her classmates would laugh at her. Tillie’s love for science was greater than fear. She won the Science Fair.
Tillie defended her mother and tried to make her happy even with all of the verbal abuse Beatrice inflicted.
Tillie found her inner power through knowledge and her passion for science.
The Choice is ours, or is it?
Tillie is a character who illustrates the classic hero, the person who succeeds in spite of challenging odds. She had a mentor who supported her, faced her fear of public speaking, and focused on her goals. Why didn’t Tillie turn into a villain? Paul hinted at the reason why in the conclusion to Tillie’s science experiment: “My experiment has shown some of the strange effects radiation can produce…and how dangerous it can be if not handled correctly.” Even though all of the seeds were exposed to radiation, only the flowers closest to the radiation did not grow into healthy plants. Our environment has the ability to influence our mindset and our life choices.
What happened to Beatrice? Given a different set of circumstances, she may have made different choices and lived a happier life. Like the plants, she was sensitive to radiation, a metaphor for the ills of society. Behind the villain’s mask is a hurt person. After her daughter Ruth told her that the people at school nicknamed her ‘Betty the Loon’, Beatrice did not attend the Science Fair to support Tillie. Instead, she stayed home, cried, and was cruel to an innocent animal. In a previous blog, I discussed the efforts to remove the stigma from mental illness. Did Beatrice Hunsdorfer intend to become a villain? No, she was really a hero caught up in ressentiment who did not get the counseling she needed to overcome her shadow.
Tap into your inner hero within. Acknowledge your shadow, and confront feelings of ressentiment in order to live a fulfilling life. As I grow, I see why perennial wisdom advocates to love our enemies – under a different set of circumstances, we could be them.
Ford, Debbie. The Dark Side of the Light Chasers. New York, New York: Penguin Group, 1998.
Ruiz, Don Miguel. The Four Agreements. San Rafael, California, 1997.
Great post. Friends can be false, but enemies are usually genuine.
Tawanda, thanks for such a great luminous piece. This is food to digest in light of what is going on in our seemingly chaotic world.