When the Villain is a Husband
One of the most important things about creating believable fictional characters is to avoid making them one-dimensional. Real people aren’t simple, and you never want story people who are either all good or all bad. This comes up a lot at our writers’ critique group meetings.
Recently one woman was going on and on about how there’s nothing she hates worse than some mustache twirling villain that’s just one hundred percent bad. I reminded her that she had no trouble accepting the cheating spouse in my novel who is also stupid, vain, and terrible in bed.
“Oh that’s different,” she says. “That was a husband.”
Disclaimer: The quotations reported in this blog reflect the opinions of those who said them. (Which is why they’re anonymous.) They do not necessarily reflect the view of the blog writer, who is at this writing happily married, to a man who–it’s probably best–doesn’t read this blog anyway.
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by Lela Davidson on November 6, 2009
in Marriage, writing
How terribly sad! I would like to think that someone as villainous as you describe would be considered over-the-top BECAUSE he’s a husband. Are husbands really such putzes? Because I’m closing in on 25 years with the best guy in the world, hands down, and I just can’t get on board the “expect the worst of the person you’ve pledged your heart and soul to” train.
Hi, I found your post through the BlogHer network.
I think it’s become culturally acceptable to vilify men in general, but especially husbands/fathers. Why, I’m not really sure. Is it because so many of us grew up in broken homes, with absent fathers or (in some cases) abusive households, and thus we can identify with that image? Like I said, I don’t know for certain, just musing…
Thanks, Sharon. And thanks for stopping by. The source was long divorced from an abusive husband, and to be sure – it was a joke. Still, I’ve gotten some reaction from this post! I hope you’ll come back soon.
DeNae – I wouldn’t stay married to a man like I wrote. And interestingly – all the men that read it thought I was too tough on the guy and all the women thought it was spot on.