Diminishing Villian

Literature, as the outcome of an era, will inevitably be scared with the characteristics of the society. For one particular writer, the conception of the era is macroscopical and historical, which is embodied with extraordinarily rich connotation and extension. However, as a human being under certain social context, the writer can by no means escape from the influence of the prevailing value system. Hence, from a writer's works, readers can gain an intuitionistic impression of the value system of his or her era.The villain figure has once been quite an integral part of literary works, which lays stress on the darker side of human nature, hence, it is essential in theme expression and human nature exploration, and never fails to fascinate readers. Though the villain figure modeling will to some extent be affected by the personal values or different perspective of the writers, it is fundamentally dominated by the value system of the era. This thesis attempts to depict the transformation of the villain figure in American literary works of different periods, hence, explores the development of the value system which influences the writers. The thesis will mainly discuss the works of several representative writers of three periods, namely, the period before the 20^th century, the early 20^th century and the mid 20^th century.The first chapter mainly discusses villain figures in the works of several representative writers before the 20^th century. Puritanism, as the orthodox of the traditional United States, dominated the American society for hundreds of years ever since the Colonial Period. The doctrine of "bearing" and "abstinence" motivated the early settlement dwellers to construct the new Republic. It has been the core of the value system of the American society before the 20^th century. However, the Calvinism element in Puritanism advocated "human is born with sin",...