This goes back very far. In a world where there’s little hope for improving the status quo, evil is the main thing which moves things. That’s why for example the Ten Commandments have a lot more thou-shalt-nots than thou-shalls. This is probably connected to a general societal attitude of change being bad. Another example is how in Shakespeare a lot of the villains are more interesting than the heros. Iago and Othello would be the prototypical example. And in the two cases where Shakespeare made somewhat competent villains as protagonists (Richard III and arguably Lady Macbeth), there are scenes which almost feel inserted to remind the audience that these are bad people who will suffer for their actions.
This goes back very far. In a world where there’s little hope for improving the status quo, evil is the main thing which moves things. That’s why for example the Ten Commandments have a lot more thou-shalt-nots than thou-shalls. This is probably connected to a general societal attitude of change being bad. Another example is how in Shakespeare a lot of the villains are more interesting than the heros. Iago and Othello would be the prototypical example. And in the two cases where Shakespeare made somewhat competent villains as protagonists (Richard III and arguably Lady Macbeth), there are scenes which almost feel inserted to remind the audience that these are bad people who will suffer for their actions.