Does a story have to have a villain to be exciting? Someone has commented that my stories don't seem to have actual villains who are evil, at worst they are only foolish, selfish or snobbish. I admit I prefer reforming characters instead of writing about evil villains who later suffer greatly for their villainy. I also don't really like revenge stories -- especially if it is the hero/heroine who takes revenge on the villain, it seems to me that the hero/heroine would be stooping to the level of the villain. I find it more tolerable if it's someone else who exacts the revenge, but as I say, I prefer reformed characters. And forgiveness is better than revenge. The villains need not be reformed into wonderful characters, but merely into ordinary, commonplace tolerable characters.
JA herself, unlike most of her contemporaries, had no very evil villains -- none of them are murderers, rapists or kidnappers. Emma has been said by some critics to be her villainless novel, but some readers and fanfic writers see Frank Churchill as an evil villain. Caroline Bingley is often portrayed as worse than in canon and given all the blame for Darcy's earlier faults as well in order to excuse him, and being given all sorts of punishment, e.g. being left a lonely old maid abandoned by her own brother etc. I think that's most unlikely, it would reflect badly on her brother, and there's no hint in the text that she would never marry. With her good looks and 20,000 pounds, there were many shallow gentlemen who would be more than willing to marry her. The ones that JA hinted might become old maids were Elizabeth Elliot (she was picky about a suitor's rank, wanting at least baronet blood, and she had little money), and Mary Crawford (although with many suitors for her beauty and 20,000 pounds, she found it difficult to forget Edmund).
So -- do most readers prefer stories with evil villains and revenge -- or stories with no really evil villains, some reform and forgiveness?
JA herself, unlike most of her contemporaries, had no very evil villains -- none of them are murderers, rapists or kidnappers. Emma has been said by some critics to be her villainless novel, but some readers and fanfic writers see Frank Churchill as an evil villain. Caroline Bingley is often portrayed as worse than in canon and given all the blame for Darcy's earlier faults as well in order to excuse him, and being given all sorts of punishment, e.g. being left a lonely old maid abandoned by her own brother etc. I think that's most unlikely, it would reflect badly on her brother, and there's no hint in the text that she would never marry. With her good looks and 20,000 pounds, there were many shallow gentlemen who would be more than willing to marry her. The ones that JA hinted might become old maids were Elizabeth Elliot (she was picky about a suitor's rank, wanting at least baronet blood, and she had little money), and Mary Crawford (although with many suitors for her beauty and 20,000 pounds, she found it difficult to forget Edmund).
So -- do most readers prefer stories with evil villains and revenge -- or stories with no really evil villains, some reform and forgiveness?