The authors of both books, Lord of The Rings and Harry Potter, have captivating ways of depicting the nature of Satan in their presentations. The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien links the world of monsters to people with a clear distinction between humans being created in God’s image and those with monstrous nature that the author describes as villains. Tolkien presents evil as destructive powers that have nothing positive for the ordinary people leading to their greatest downfall and gears towards threatening their general success. Even though the fantastic worlds created by both writers are full of different creatures, only those that authors deem to be positive cooperate closely with human beings and help them in their adventures. The authors present evil characters as not admirable to intentionally pass their ideas. Equally, Harry Potter’s tale has both evil and exemplary representation in equal measure. The novel portrays evil as a loser while representing the good deeds as victorious and triumphant. The books have an almost similar way of presenting evil and demonic powers to their readers, significantly impacting their general success and occurrences of daily activities. The authors have a standard way of addressing the evildoers’ fate: they are bound to fail or are associated with evil actions that eventually lead to regrets and life failures.
The Lord of the Rings considers the moral categorization of characters by defining their roles distinctively from the start. The tale opines that those who promote moral categorization are good or virtuous, while people who oppose the nature of good deeds or moral categorization are wicked. The author portrays the devil as wicked or opposed to the good deeds expected of any moral categorization. The characters who oppose those with good deeds are evil by description, and they define the external characteristics of malicious behaviors (Richer, 2019). Therefore, the first instance of the depiction of evil in the book is opposition to moral categorization, which helps define or differentiate good and evil deeds. The book agrees with the biblical nature of Satan, who is opposed to good morals and as an individual who prefers activities of darkness to prosper.
Further, the tale presents evil doings by their bad results. The characters who exhibit evil practices end up being punished throughout the text. They either perish, or they are banished from middle-earth. The evil throughout this book has no good endings as their tales and story always end in poor or bad environments where they are castigated for their evil deeds. Their fate is often predetermined, and they are doomed to fail, and their perdition often brings them down. The assertion collaborates with the universal belief that evil behaviors are bound to punishment and that those who continually do evil will eventually experience bad things in their lives (Tolkien, 2012). The famous biblical quote ‘wages of sin is death comes out in this text. The moral lesson of virtuous living comes out clearly.
On the contrary, the hero always benefits and follows the path of success through their good deeds that help propel their activities—the act of evil and good dictates characters’ success or failure in various dimensions. “I am the Spirit that denies, that always wills the Bad, and always works the Good” (McIlwaine, 2018, p. 23). The tale borrows from various fiction tales that, in the end, punish wrongdoings and reward heroes and good deeds magnificently. The Ring and their fellow travelers possess admirable qualities that have immortality that helps define their general well-being and success. Characters who show or portray desirable behaviors with good results and better lives than the rest. That implies that Lord of the Rings promotes admirable life qualities.
Evil characters are further presented as liars who lack shame or clear life standards as they continually change their course throughout the book. The author presents the devil as a person who appears faithful and trustworthy initially but later turns against God and good deeds. Sauron is a fallen angel who initially supports good deeds but later turns against God. The rebellious nature of Satan comes out clearly through the message as the narrator vividly explains some of the activities that take place at various instances showing that Satan is double-minded since it first appears to be faithful and obedient to the powers of God but later turns out as the main protagonist fighting against God. “Melkor became a liar without shame” (McIlwaine, 2018, p.12). The phrase agrees with biblical teaching, which opines that the devil does not make an abode in truth because there is no truth in its deeds. Sauron represents the spirit concerned with destroying other things and asserts its nature by trying to create new opposing activities that aim to create new things in the world with the intention of intoxicating goodness. Sauron which represents evil deeds, is concerned with looking for more followers and having a relatively high number of followers in the spirit. The character represents evil in a generic state. On the other hand, the rest of the villains propel the concept of evil in most of their actions and activities.
One of the characters representing the evil traits is Voldemort in Harry Potter. The character is neither interested in friendships nor is he willing to show loyalty to the characters serving him, for he is willing to punish or sentence some of his loyalists for his selfish gains. The writer shows the ingratitude presented by the satanic characters that symbolically show that Satan is never grateful for what others do, nor is it interested in the success of others since they often punish even their loyalists for their gains. According to this evil character, friendships are signs of weakness and inhumanity that show being regular. The idea does not augur well with his personality and life desires of controlling and having powers to execute his demonic powers over the world. The character denounces his ‘human’ nature and acts with some supernatural content from his early ages to control the world and people around him in nearly every aspect of life. If the character showed human nature, it intended to manipulate humans to his side. “But look, Harry! My true family returns” (Richer, 2019, p. 24). The message shows an oxymoron nature since this character has neither family nor friends since he is an orphan who can kill a person.
The author creates a clear picture of evil as a character who faces repercussions for bad deeds. The stereotype of evil in the play is easily distinguished from the good deeds and their repercussions are equally predetermined. The friendships, loyalties, and sacrifices essential in the veil seem to have more severe repercussions. The writer portrays these acts as unacceptable and eventually attracts more severe penalties because they are not acceptable. Evil is lethal and kills and threatens lives throughout the text, making it unacceptable to the people it affects (Rowling, 2019). The evil characters end with miserable lives without friends and are dejected.
Voldemort has a selfish attitude that depicts his evil nature. The writer portrays this character as a person who is willing to do everything possible to prove that his life is more important than others. Voldemort is willing to sacrifice all other lives to make himself happy. The character has an attitude that only aims at benefiting himself but not others. The trait gives orders that all opposing forces need to get eliminated. The act of egocentrism is associated with evil acts in any part of the world, and since this character perfects this action, he is not interested in forming close ties with others; he is surrounded by many problems that eventually affect his personality and well-being.
On the other hand, Harry is a selfless person who contradicts the other character. Selflessness and selfishness are two opposing forces that show good and evil, respectively. The creation of a supreme ruler who misuses or takes their servants’ lives away is an indication that selfish characters create challenges to other people. “I’d say that it’s one short step from ‘Wizards first’ to ‘Purebloods first,’ then to ‘Death Eaters’… We’re all human, aren’t we? Every human life is worth the same and worth saving.” (McIlwaine, 2018 p. 15). Humans are subject to torture by ogres and other evil spirit-possessed individuals whose source of happiness is offending and distracting people’s normal activities. Rowling further shows how illusions affect Voldemort as a totalitarian, seen through the abundance of his actions where he portrays his actions as an evil person’ Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike’ (McIlwaine, 2018, p. 10). The evil characters show acts of discrimination and murder in most of their actions, implying that most of these characters have uncontrollable magical intentions to ruin the lives of innocent characters. Even though these traits result in despair and a poor ending, they have shown that these traits have no good intentions for people and their actions.
Rowling portrays evil doers as characters who are brainwashed in most of their deeds, implying that they executed evil plans. Evil is a vital scenario that has significantly impactful lessons and themes in the Harry Potter book. The book shows that evil characters believe in unrealistic happenings that only affect ordinary beings (Chang, 2020). A clear indication that these individuals are only concerned with destruction and interest gains. Even though characters who participate in evil doings for others might seem successful instantly, they might harbor long-term pain among themselves, including affecting their traits. There are certain mutilations and humiliations that these characters undergo to distinguish them independently. The book is meant for children, and the lessons incorporated in these texts instill good morals in children, who are the book’s target audience. Good morals help bring an upright society that can subsequently help bring.
Finally, the story is anthropocentric since it is concerned with the conflict between two contrasting issues: the devil and the free people. The veil powers have been portrayed as a power that encounters people in their normal businesses. The process is promising, and the rate of occurrence is relatively unique and requires a moral mandate of its execution. Then individualistic tale shows the fight between individual persons and evil powers and how these extreme sides fight to help bring the two personalities together.
In The Lord of the Rings, the representation of evil is destructive, with extensive bad deeds and unwelcomed ideas and opinions that tend to affect or cloud good deeds. Moreover, the devil is represented as an easily deceived creature that stands no good or does nothing right to help propel the prosperity and success of people. The evil characters are presented as scary creatures like ogres and giants that are in line with their general behaviors. The tales represent evil as a scary and disturbing creature to humans and other characters in the text. The good is bound to triumph and merge victorious as they overcome the other evil deeds. The text promotes moral stories in society as they help in tarnishing evil deeds and demonic powers while glorifying admirable good qualities and personalities in our daily lives. The triumph of good over evil is essential in building good character traits among the readers who desire to imitate good deeds. Besides, these two tales are bound to instill quality morals among their readers and help them cope with some of the most challenging aspects of their daily lives. The authors have a common way of addressing the evildoers’ fate since they are bound to fail in both scenarios or are associated with evil actions that eventually lead to regrets and lamentations.
References
Chang, Y. (2020). An Analysis of the Secondary World in Harry Porter Series from the Perspective of Fantasy Theory. Studies in Literature and Language, 20(3), 92-98.
McIlwaine, C., Garth, J., Flieger, V., Hostetter, C. F., Shippey, T. A., Hammond, W. G., & Scull, C. (2018). Tolkien. Bodleian Library, University of Oxford.
Richer, J. N. (2019). It is the Little Things, Not the Shiny Rings: Love and Friendship in JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.
Rowling, J. K. (2019). Harry Potter. The 100 Greatest Literary Characters, 183.
Tolkien, J. R. R. (2012). The lord of the rings: one volume. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.