Loneliness: an Ingredient in the Recipe for Villainy

I assume I am not overstepping my bounds when I assume that all members of my audience have at least heard of a villain before. They are a necessary archetype (however traumatizing to small children), because where would be the fun without a villain? Even the villains themselves know that. Case in point: Jim Moriarty, from the BBC’s Sherlock, is quoted as saying “Every fairytale needs a good old-fashioned villain”.

Jim Moriarty (played by Andrew Scott) As he appears in the episode "The Great Game"

Now, as monsters are the subject of our course, and monsters are typically viewed as the villains of stories, I believe a reasonable leap can be made from monsters to villains and understanding that they are quite closely correlated. Good? Good. Now moving on to the more exciting bits: where do monsters even come from? This is not going to turn into a talk about the birds and the bees so feel free to dispel all those notions. This post is taking more of a “monsters are formed by nurture instead of nature” vantage so let’s begin! Monsters are essentially the villains of all our stories, doomed to fail from the very first act of villainy committed. Inevitably, some spry young wizard with floppy black hair (or some other suitably scrappy protagonist) will be there to orchestrate their downfall. So let’s rewind back to before Voldemort was Voldemort, back when he was simply Tom Marvolo Riddle.

This is Voldemort for the few people who have not seen/read Harry Potter

And this is baby Voldemort (aka Tom Riddle)

 Now Tom Marvolo Riddle was an exceptionally intelligent lad already turned to petty thievery when he first encountered Albus Dumbledore. Tom was exceptionally gifted but unable to resolve conflict well, resulting in him using his wizard powers to harm those who wronged him. Now, Tom was an orphan, and one can assume that it was an extraordinarily lonely life. We were never shown any friends of Tom’s at the orphanage nor were we privy to any true friends at Hogwarts. Now this might have you thinking, “So he’s a lonely little orphan who grew up to be the most feared dark wizard of all time. Why do I care?” this is a valid statement, however, upon closer examination of childhood classics, to my current obsessions, all the villains I have found have a thread connecting them: loneliness. Think about it. Ursula from the little mermaid: ostracized from mermaid society, the snow queen Elsa: ostracized herself due to her powers, Flowey the flower from undertale (yes I know, a flower): the soul of a long dead prince twisted due to isolation and nihilism, even Moriarty himself: [speaking about Carl powers] “Carl laughed at me, so I stopped him laughing.” Moriarty was bullied. That shows loneliness and isolation if I have ever seen it.

This is Flowey the flower. More on him to come. 

 Now let’s tie this to the monster at the center of it all: Grendel. In Grendel, we notice that Grendel is fairly isolated. The only true friends he has are the scheming dragon and his nonverbal mother. He is able to speak, yet the humans (who he could have found a source of companionship with) either, choose not to or cannot understand him. Thus Grendel is isolated with only the excellent moral compass of the dragon to be a role model and eventually driven to nihilism.
 In the unethical research of Dr. Harry Harlow on rhesus monkeys, he noticed infant monkeys separated from their mothers and brought up in isolation tended to become psychotic. I believe this finding can be applied to Grendel due to the fact that although his mother is present, she is not a "sentient being" on the same level he is.Overall, this can be seen even as isolation from mother.  In short, although money may be a cause of a lot of evil, loneliness can factor into that root of all evil as well.