by David Aaron White

Created on: April 11, 2009   Last Updated: May 28, 2009

To start things off, no one, no matter how depraved, terrible, or evil, believes that he or she is truly evil; it is a universal belief that evil is wrong, and once someone realizes that he or she is doing the wrong thing, he or she will stop the action. That being said, people will often try to justify their evil behavior once it is underway, and more often than not, they will try to make themselves into the victim to make themselves appear to simply be exacting justice upon their enemies. However, we must first look at why someone could actually be prompted to evil before looking at their rationalizations.

Especially in comic books, people may end up becoming evil because they are "rejected" by society. In fact, this is perfectly described in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, a novel in which a man creates a living being: an eight-foot tall, muscular man. Sure enough, the scientist (Frankenstein) is afraid of his own creation because it is so "hideous," and abandons it. The creature then goes on to become a monster. It kills members of Frankenstein's family and eventually kills his wife. The monster is evil, but he believes that if the world rejects him, that he needs to evoke as much pain and suffering on it as possible until he finds a companion.

Additionally, people may become evil because of a devastating loss that has left a gaping hole in them. Now, I should say that they become insane because of their loss, and the insanity then leads them to do evil things. For example, let's say a man loses his wife in a tragic car accident. He is driven insane, and somewhere in his mind, he reasons that the police were to blame for his wife's death, and he "believes" that he needs to exact justice on the police by killing them. Does he believe he's evil? Definitely not; but is he? If he starts killing good cops, then he certainly is. The man believes that he can fill the "hole" in him by causing as much destruction as possible until he's satisfied; unfortunately, this never really works.

Greed is a common motivation of evil. Have you ever said that you'd kill for something? Of course, you were probably exaggerating; sad thing is, some people aren't. People want things, and some of them resort to evil to get them. They'll kill during robberies, scam people out of their money, kidnap them for ransom money, or just steal to get what they want. Some people are able to at least channel their greed into honest means of acquiring what they want, such as showing up to work

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