New Perspectives

Madeline Miller - CirceIn my first lesson, the myth of Prometheus, I referenced Circe by Madeleine Miller, an excellent piece of fiction that reimagines the witch, Circe, from Homer's Odyssey as a powerful, misunderstood sorceress who is forced to remove herself from society before being plagued by the very people who banished her in the first place. In the original story, it's easy to see Circe as an "evil" character, turning Odysseus' men into pigs, before Odysseus works his infamous charms and subdues her. All of a sudden, the witch is devoted to our masculine hero, and he sticks around on her island until he fancies moving on again. Miller ingeniously alters our opinion of this character by altering the perspective of the story - allowing us to see the world from Circe's point of view.

Perspective is hugely important in story telling: the voice of the story helps to determine our response as a reader - which characters we like, how certain actions affect us, who we support in a conflict. As the old adage goes, 'History is written by the victors'. Whose to say we wouldn't understand Lord Voldemort's mindset if only he was allowed to explain it? Is Shere Khan really just a bloodthirsty killer, or does he have a right to Mowgli's life? Maybe Scar had a good reason to kill Mufasa - let him speak!

Thanos is Right. | Character quotes, Reality quotes, Marvel quotesMany pieces of modern story-telling have begun to take this approach - reworking a well-known story from a new perspective, or at least allowing their villains to be more than just "bad guys". Wicked gives us a new angle on the Wicked Witch of the West, Joker allowed us an insight into Batman's most notable nemesis, and the Avengers franchise built two of Marvel's most successful movies around a villain so well-defined that it spawned an entire internet movement of Thanos supporters.

Your challenge for today is to take a well-known story and rework it from another character's perspective. For example:






  •  The wolf in Red Riding Hood
  •  Voldemort in Harry Potter
  •  The Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood
  •  Scar in Lion King
  •  Medusa in the myth of Perseus
  • Miss Trunchbull in Matilda

The stories don't have to be long - the challenge is simply to retell them from the perspective of the "evil" character. Can you make us understand (or even like) the characters we usually see as the bad guy? Think about their motivation and the language they would use to describe their actions.

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