low complexion, and harsh features, and had an eye, which, as it looked up from the cloke that muffled the lower part of his countenance, seemed expressive of uncommon ferocity (Radcliffe 1).
The secret to the appeal of the evil male character is contained in that passage. He is "extraordinary" and "uncommon." Whatever we might think of him in moral terms, whatever judgment we might make against him and his destructive deeds, we are nevertheless drawn to study him and accompany him vicariously on his dastardly adventures precisely because he is unlike us. He is extraordinary and uncommon finally because he is engaged in evil activities which the "common" and "ordinary" run of human beings would never dare imagine. If the common individual were to imagine such deeds, he or she would never put them into action, for fear of punishment on earth, from the conscience within, or in the afterlife. The evil male character, on the other hand, seems helpless to resist the temptation to evil, selfishness of a diabolical sort, and to action which leads to the destruction of himself and others.
When we consider such an evil character as Schedoni, we must feel some sort of sympathy for him, for he is surely helpless to resist evil. He seems incapable of considering the alternative path, and this must make the sensitive reader experience some sorrow or at least melancholy for the character's plight, at the very moment that he draws our condemnation and provokes our dread.
At the same time, if Schedoni were without any human sensitivity at all, if he were merely and thoroughly destructive, he would be no more fascinating that a mechanical monster. To the contrary, however, Schedoni is shown to be suffering mightily from the consequences of his evilness. We see
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