Characterization of Villains (Student Contributions)

Drama Quality Explanation Quotation Student
Richard III       Maja
        Nicole
        Thomas S.
Hamlet       Maxim
        Marco
Othello devilish hypocrite Pretending to be Othello's best friend, Iago brings about his and Desdemona's destruction

Iago: ...........(Act II, Scene I)

I'll pour this pestilence into his ear

That she repeals him for her body's lust;

And by how much she strives to do him good,

She shall undo her credit with the Moor.

So will I turn her virtues into pitch;

And out of her own goodness make the net

That shall engmesh them all.

[example entry]
        Christoph S.
        Christian
        Dennis

Othello,

1,3

exhibits character traits of amorality, duplicity, cynicism, pride, ego, and misogyny (hatred of women) Soliloquy of Iago about his evil plan to destroy Othello. He takes advantage of the fact that Othello thinks well of him.

Thus do I ever make my fool my purse:
For I mine own gain'd knowledge should profane,
If I would time expend with such a snipe.
But for my sport and profit. I hate the Moor:
And it is thought abroad, that 'twixt my sheets
He has done my office: I know not if't be true;
But I, for mere suspicion in that kind,
Will do as if for surety. He holds me well;
The better shall my purpose work on him.
Cassio's a proper man: let me see now:
To get his place and to plume up my will
In double knavery -- How, how? Let's see: --
After some time, to abuse Othello's ear
That he is too familiar with his wife.
He hath a person and a smooth dispose
To be suspected, framed to make women false.
The Moor is of a free and open nature,
That thinks men honest that but seem to be so,
And will as tenderly be led by the nose
As asses are.
I have't. It is engender'd. Hell and night
Must bring this monstrous birth to the world's light.

Daniel E.
Macbeth       Christoph K.
Macbeth deceitful / greedy hypocrite Macbeth invites Duncan, the king of Scotland, to his castle to kill him and to succeed him as king of Scotland

Act 1, Scene VII:

Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
We'ld jump the life to come. But in these cases
We still have judgment here; that we but teach
Bloody instructions, which, being taught, return
To plague the inventor: this even-handed justice
Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice
To our own lips. He's here in double trust;

David M.
Macbeth malicious Macbeth murders Duncan and his friend Banquo to become king of Scotland and to defend this high position

Act 3, Scene I:

So is he mine; and in such bloody distance,
That every minute of his being thrusts
Against my near'st of life: and though I could
With barefaced power sweep him from my sight
And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not,
For certain friends that are both his and mine,
Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall
Who I myself struck down; and thence it is,
That I to your assistance do make love,
Masking the business from the common eye
For sundry weighty reasons.

 
Macbeth split personality Before the three witches prophesy that he will be the new king, Macbeth appears to be humane, but the propecy changes him to a greedy person

Act 1, Scene III:

Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more:
By Sinel's death I know I am thane of Glamis;
But how of Cawdor? the thane of Cawdor lives,
A prosperous gentleman; and to be king
Stands not within the prospect of belief,
No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence
You owe this strange intelligence? or why
Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
With such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you.

 ---------------------------------

Act 5, Scene V:

 I have almost forgot the taste of fears;
The time has been, my senses would have cool'd
To hear a night-shriek; and my fell of hair
Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir
As life were in't: I have supp'd full with horrors;
Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts
Cannot once start me.

Catharina C.
Macbeth a guilty conscience His conscience (Ghost of Banquo) pursues him because of his atrocities

Act 3, Scene IV:

What man dare, I dare:
Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger;
Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves
Shall never tremble: or be alive again,
And dare me to the desert with thy sword;
If trembling I inhabit then, protest me
The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow!

 
        Miriam
        Thomas N
        Dominik
King Lear       Stephanie E.
        Christina V.
        Ina W.
Merchant of Venice       Jens
        Peter H.
        Armin
        Kurt