Today’s post is on the topic of morally gray characters–and boy, do I have feelings about this one.
First off, let’s get the definition settled on. A morally gray character is different from an antihero, which is a villain you’re supposed to root for (Gru from Despicable Me is probably the most famous example I’m familiar with). Neither is he a villain who gets a redemption arc, like Edmund from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. A morally gray character, technically, is someone who is neither good nor evil. And in order to discuss this properly, I need to give you a quick history lesson.
Long ago, before literacy was widespread and most stories were passed down orally, the “hero” of most stories was an actual hero. He was usually a high status individual–royalty, divinity, or a renowned warrior. This hero would fall into one of two moral categories. He was either a good man the listener could emulate, or a flawed man who served as a warning. Examples of the first category can be found primarily in medieval romances like Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and examples of the second include characters like Oedipus and Creon from Greek tragedies.
When literacy became more widespread, the Hero began to evolve. By the time the novel became popular in the 1700s, the notion that stories had to be about nobility or warriors had disappeared. However, characters still filled definite moral roles. The first novel written in America, entitled The Coquette, features a licentious young man and a gullible young woman who dies giving birth to their illigitimate child. In such books, expressing the moral is one of the main reasons for the book’s existence. In others, like Robinson Crusoe, the focus is more on the plot, but the main character is still a decent person who acts fairly and tries to do what is right.
Eventually, the Romantic and Gothic movements changed the focus of literature. The “vibes” and entertainment value were now more important than the moral implications. Several of Edgar Allan Poe’s protagonists are straight up murderers (has anyone read “The Tell-Tale Heart” or “The Cask of Amontillado” recently?), but we’re not supposed to “like” Montressor the same way we’re supposed to like modern morally gray characters. The modern trend of blurring the lines between good and evil, and of celebrating darkness, is something I personally find morally repugnant.
Do I believe that the hero of a story–or for that matter, any character the reader is supposed to like–should be morally perfect? No. I think that all of a novel’s characters should be realistic, and if they are humans, that means they are imperfect. However, I also believe that the hero of a story should be someone people can look up to and emulate. Sometimes, like Tolkien’s Aragorn, this means that they are noble heroes who fight tirelessly against external forces of darkness. Sometimes, like Frodo, it means that their struggle is with something a bit more internal. Both are good and both are necessary.
Can a morally gray hero “work”? Yes–if they end up a better person at the end of the book than they started out as. I don’t think that I’ve ever written a morally gray character. I don’t understand the hype around them. Young women on Instagram seem to be falling in love with morally gray fictional characters at an alarming rate. It might just be that I’m too much of a moralist to appreciate where these young women are coming from; it might be that I’ve never come across an appropriately morally gray character. That said, the lines between good and evil tend to be pretty straightforward in my books, with the exception of the occasional twist villain.
What are your opinions on morally gray characters? Let me know in the comments below! God bless you, dear readers, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter!