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It argues that evil’s meaning exceeds dictionary definitions, expanding with cultural morality, jurisprudence, technological change, and shifting artistic perception. Through references to Western literature and evolving portrayals of monsters, the article explores whether evil functions as a human motive force and how society continually remakes its terrors.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":15,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/an-evolution-of-the-concept-of-evil-in-macabre-fiction-introduction/518090/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/an-evolution-of-the-concept-of-evil-in-macabre-fiction-introduction/518090.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"The weather in my hometown","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-22","2026-10-07",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":81},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"Why does fiction about terror and pity feel agreeable to readers?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The pleasure is linked less to the direct description of what is terrible and more to the reflection and reassurance readers experience while reading.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How does the article define “evil” beyond dictionary meaning?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"“Evil” is treated as a contextual concept that connotes more than visible badness or wrongness, including cases where evil lacks physical properties or reflects a larger overpowering force.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How does cultural change affect the portrayal of evil and supernatural horrors?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The text argues that as morality, society, and communication evolve, artists reinterpret reality, causing old horrors to lose dignity and new fears to emerge, often influenced by technology and changing cultural views.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},518090,1792525060,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":14,"category_name":15,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":81,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},1374408744247,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/avatar/14001251d37d565ec6f?x-image-process=image/resize,m_fixed,w_180,h_180&k=1790672120290115972","An Evolution of the Concept of Evil in Macabre Fiction  \nAlex Rieneck  \nIntroduction1  \nThe two leading Passions, which the more serious Parts of Poetry endeavor to stir up in us, are Terror and Pity. And here, by the way, one would wonder how it comes to pass, that such Passions as are very unpleasant at all other time, are very agreeable when excited by proper Descriptions….  \nIf we consider, therefore, the Nature of this pleasure, we shall find that it does not arise so properly from the Description of what is Terrible, as from the Reflection we make on ourselves at the time of reading it. When we look on such hideous Objects, we are not a little pleased to think we are in no Danger of them.  \nWe consider them at the same time, as Dreadful and Harmless; so that the more frightful Appearance they make, the greater is the pleasure we receive from the Sense of our own Safety. In short, we look upon the Terrors of a description, with the same Curiosity and Satisfaction that we survey a dead Monster.2  \nThe concept of ‘evil’ is used to describe much of life—its negative aspects—as a more abstract version of badness, wrongness, immorality, and suchlike. When examined in its myriad contexts, however, purely dictionary definitions of the concept of‘evil’ are plainly inadequate: the visible signs of‘evil’ (badness, wrongness) are delineated ; but what the  \nAlex Rieneck is a Sydney writer of speculative fiction.  \n1 This article originally took the form of an English Literature (Honours) thesis submitted in 1985 in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Sydney. At that time, eternal thanks were due to Christina G. Brooks, Merrill Pye, Jo O’Carroll, Margaret Rieneck, Brent Thorpe anda humble electric typewriter, without which it would have hurt a lot more. No thanks at all were due to Shirley Bassey. In 2020 thanks are due to Carole Cusack, Monica Quirk, and Venetia Robertson, who guided the publication process.  \n2 Joseph Addison cited in L. Sprague De Camp, Lovecraft: A Biography (New York: Doubleday, 1975), p. 143.  \nLiterature & Aesthetics 30 (1) 2020 181  \nEvolution of the Concept of Evil  \nconcept means is usually ignored. When used in context the word always connotates more than its visible parts. Things are described as evil when they exhibit no physical properties whatever (i.e. , Satan), or when the physical machinations are implied to be only a small part of a larger more powerful force.  \nTo further complicate matters the attributes of evil undeniably change with time, forcing us to ask whether this affects the basic concept? In western culture morality and jurisprudence have changed dramatically with the passage of time, fantastically since Chaucer’s Pardoner rode his way to Canterbury, and almost as drastically again since the advent of the industrial revolution. Humanity’s needs and desires remain, arguably, the same, but the notions of‘good’ and‘evil’change almost from year to year with the growth of ideas, and the proliferation of communications. As society evolves, the artist’s perception of reality grows with it; morality and the problems of the time are mirrored and examined in literature, which provides an acceptable way to study how society views ‘evil’, how the concept develops and, perhaps, whether ‘evil’ is one of humanity’s motivating forces, negative or positive?  \nChanging moral values may be seen clearly in letters and diaries of abygone era, and in contemporary news media. But humans have more thana purely physical existence ; their total is more than the sum of their parts. Factual writings provide the ‘reality’, but literature provides fictitious characters who live, breathe, think and relate to archetypal human problems within the bounds of their societies, more real than the real. The Indian railway station in Rudyard Kipling’s Kim (with the shrieks of ‘the tree-ain! the tree-ain!’),3 the fog and smell of Sherlock Holmes’London,4 the friends we once had in the Bennets of Hertfordshire,5 and the bru","cbCaisLwDkfHpGHR","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaisLwDkfHpGHR","pdf",411351,28,"English","# Introduction\n## The Context of Evil in Western Literature","[{\"question\":\"Why does fiction about terror and pity feel agreeable to readers?\",\"answer\":\"The pleasure is linked less to the direct description of what is terrible and more to the reflection and reassurance readers experience while reading.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the article define “evil” beyond dictionary meaning?\",\"answer\":\"“Evil” is treated as a contextual concept that connotes more than visible badness or wrongness, including cases where evil lacks physical properties or reflects a larger overpowering force.\"},{\"question\":\"How does cultural change affect the portrayal of evil and supernatural horrors?\",\"answer\":\"The text argues that as morality, society, and communication evolve, artists reinterpret reality, causing old horrors to lose dignity and new fears to emerge, often influenced by technology and changing cultural views.\"}]","An Evolution of the Concept of Evil in Macabre Fiction - Introduction | PDF",1791354187,43]