설화에 나타난 악인의 형상과 그 욕망 —<눈 뽑힌 형제> 유형을 중심으로—

Abstract

It is ‘human being’ or ‘his life’ that is the most fundamental and ultimate subject of study no matter where it is the world they live or in literature. Several codes exist regarding the subject in the real world they live or in a fictional life of literature, and one of them is good-evil code. When people live a ‘good’ life, order will set up duly and the world does not have problems. However, such life will be dry and dull. That is why I think everything in the universe has the other side that makes up for one side: the opposite to each other. In literary works, especially for narrative literature, what matters is not ‘evil’ itself, but ‘doing evil’. Therefore, it is ‘a villain’ - a character doing evil- that hogs the whole show of a literary work. A character is an imaginary figure, but has a formed personality. Therefore, when the character does not fulfil its given roles properly, the work cannot accomplish the intended goal. Eventually, a character in a folk tale has to show its image as a human being leading an own life, not as one dissected and rearranged in the dimension of knowledge. Although a character is a hypothetic existence created from imagination, he or she often exerts greater power than a real man, making readers laugh and cry, and brings change into their life. For this reason, it is not composition or plot, but the roles of a character to lead a story. In the folk tale selected in this study, therefore, the young brother who plays a villain does not poke out his older brother (signifying ‘good’)’s eyes himself, but makes him do so with his own hands. And the younger brother pokes out his own eyes, too, to become rich, which is the very notorious act of a villain. In short, he plays a villain very appropriately. Such vicious conduct of the villain brother seem to result from the acquired poor environment, inferiority complex, superiority complex he falls in as well as his brutal born nature. The younger brother's evil deed, which is the outcome of such complicated circumstances originates from the desire of being well-off. Therefore, we can say that 'evil' comes out when it encounters excessive desire. However, desire is not bad itself because it can be a driving force and tonic for life to human beings. The villain brother's desire is not avarice from the beginning. It is the driving force and tonic for moving out to escape from poverty with his brother. But the next desire changes him to doing wrongdoing and makes him a villain that deserves being branded as evil. As found in this study, he pokes out his eyes and destruct himself. His desire is of a sense of purpose. However, this folk tale shows a set pattern of ‘moralized evil’ through the evil acts of the villain brother that the end doesn’t justify the means no matter how the end is of purpose. It indicates that evil is a realistic mechanism to be suppressed and rectified.