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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 thenature 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, leavingAbigail 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 andRegans 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

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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 storythe 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.