Abstract:
The outsiders in Shakespeare’s plays –bastards, cripples, people of color, Jews, non-humans – typically fall into the role of the villain. The plays both promote and challenge the idea of evil as an innate extension of their outsider physical qualities. The paper examines and analyzes the range of villainous outsider characters across many plays, and the question of how redemption (an option that is presented as possible for some outsider characters and achieved by a select few) complicates the concept of ‘natural’ wickedness. The paper also examines the role of the Devil in relation to these outsider characters within their own plays, and how this relates to the religious dichotomy of the Devil as both evil tempter and impartial punisher of the wicked, a theme which culminates in the character of Phillip the Bastard in King John, an outsider character who actively strives for good and conscientiously assumes the role of punisher over tempter. The concept of the outsider as a dual figure who can use his innate qualities for good or evil becomes evident when the plays are read as a cohesive unit. Thus the outsider is not forced to become the villain, as Don John from Much Ado About Nothing supposes, but rather, chooses as an alternative to a more productive, morally righteous path.
