aikaterini

I’ve been a fan of mystery novels for a long time. I’ve read many works by Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, and Sherlock Holmes have long been familiar names to me. I’ve enjoyed reading about them and their adventures and I’ve enjoyed seeing their cases unfold on screen. Nowadays, whenever I watch any modern-day versions of Holmes and Poirot that usually come in the form of cops, spies, or modern detectives, I think about those particular two male detectives whenever a rather troubling trend comes up involving female detectives and/or spies.

So, here’s another trope that bothers me. It also comes up frequently in fiction and it’s rather insidious. I’m not sure what its exact name is – if anybody knows what it is, please let me know – but for now, I shall give it a name of my choosing. Many people have heard of the expression, “the end justifies the means,” a phrase that is commonly (though incorrectly) attributed to Niccolo Machiavelli. This phrase embodies cold, ruthless pragmatism: the idea that anything goes as long as everything turns out well in the end. According to this philosophy, one can resort to truly despicable methods and measures, as long as the desired goal is achieved. Well, I’ve decided to twist this phrase into “the psycho justifies the means” to describe the trope. I believe that just as the original phrase is used to justify heinous crimes, this trope is used to justify the horrible behavior of the protagonist. And now I shall explain why.