Scholarship Question: According to John Steinbeck, We have only one story.

All novels, all poetry, are built on the never-ending contest in ourselves of good and evil. Discuss this statement, referring to a range of texts you have experienced. Among all human beings there is said to be the nature of evil, that there is the nature of evil present within all of us. In the following texts The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, King Lear by William Shakespeare and The Crucible by Arthur Miller there is a very dark evil in all antagonists of each individual story. The contest within each character is dominated by the revenge, greed and unforgiveness in Abigail Williams and Edmund, Goneril and Regan, and George Harvey respectively. In The Lovely Bones, George Harvey, the storys antagonist, is an evil character because of his past. In Chapter 15 we see Harveys childhood as being void of love and affection, casting a sympathetic light on him. His mother took advantage of a poor boys search for acceptance by encouraging him to help steal with her. Finally when his mother suddenly leaves, his whole world comes crashing down as he has lost the one person who he has ever felt close too. When his mother left she gave him her favourite necklace, this is probably the cause for keeping mementos from all his victims, the memory of his mother is kept with the necklaces, just as the memories of his victims are kept through taking their personal belongings. Harvey is stuck in the traumatic period of his childhood, and hence isolates himself and doesnt take responsibility for the crimes he committed. In The Crucible, Abigail and John Proctor were involved in an affair, when she was a servant at their house, but Elizabeth found out and told her to leave, leaving Abigail jealous and vengeful. Abigails villainy is established as she wrongly accuses Elizabeth and several others of witchcraft. This is partly for her jealousy towards Elizabeth but also to take punishment and suspicion of herself from Reverend Parris who found her dancing in the woods. She is the main antagonist in the play whose thirst for vengeance gets the best of her. The town of Salem is very conservative, and with witchcraft in their midst, they are in hysteria, Abigail uses and manipulates this hysteria for her own gain. There are several evil characters in King Lear, but the most interesting is Goneril and Regan the evil daughters of King Lear. There is no reason for Goneril and Regans spite; they are the epitome of villainy, their cleverness in falsely proclaiming love for their father in Act 1, leads to them becoming the rulers of the kingdom. The ultimate act of evil is when they throw their father out into the storm (End of Act 2), ending all hope in the reader for their redemption. Following on, the ease in which they gouge out Gloucesters eyes is further confirmation of their villainy. The character of Edmund is perhaps one of Shakespeares greatest masterpieces. The character is at first cast in a sympathetic light when we hear Gloucesters disregard of his illegitimate son, there was good sport in his making. Edmunds deceit is not only rooted by thirst for power, but also anger at not being able to receive the same rights as his brother, because of his illegitimate status, stand up

for bastards, he demands the gods. But funnily enough he uses not divine intervention to grant him his hearts desire but his own strength. The manner in which he plans and evilly takes out those plans is highly chilling, this is seen when he firstly tricks Gloucester and Edgar into believing that each is out to get them, forcing Edgar to becoming Poor Tom, and Gloucester to place his full trust in Edmund, and ending with sentencing Cordelia to death. Only at the end do we see Edmunds softer side, defeated he repents of his villainy. This probes the reader to feel sympathetic towards Edmund, as this was not an evil man, but instead a frustrated boy seeking out filial love which he so rightly deserves. In regards to John Steinbecks statement, all literature is based on the never ending contest between good and evil. In each case the nature of evil manifests itself within a person, but for different reason. Some are just plain evil, like Regan and Goneril, Edmund and Abigail Williams. But some have been brought up in such a way, because of abuse or a broken home that they murder in a desperate attempt to escape their past like George Harvey and to some extent . In each story the good eventually does override the evil, leaving the readers and viewers a sense of hope and perhaps a desire and a challenge to try change the world around them for the good of others.