The Innocent Villain

The Evil Queen is typically viewed as the “villain” of the story of the show, “Once Upon A Time” as she has cast a dark curse which banishes all the other characters from the magical world to the town of Storybrooke with the characters having no memory of their true identities or previous life altogether. The Queen herself is the Mayor of this town with a firm grip over the activities of the town and unlike the other characters, she remembers everything. 

A neglected aspect of the story which may explain or justify the seemingly unfair or evil actions of the Queen is to locate her motive behind it all. Perhaps the queen feels that by trapping those around her in another world she may be able to escape her unhappiness and dread as she won’t be in her ordinary state of consciousness but rather in an extension of reality. By existing in a world parallel to her reality, the Evil Queen is ultimately attempting to shut out a feeling of loss or unhappiness which she may have felt in her real (fairytale) world. Her unhappiness may prove to be minimized when she is not surrounded by the awareness of the people around her of her unhappiness. Therefore, she places herself in a fake or denial state of mind to provide herself with comfort.

It is true that she is evil, however, there has to be an explanation of her behavior as to have the determination to destroy the happiness of others with such strong effect means that she has somehow been previously hurt by these people which causes her to feel a sense of pain or loss. If closely observed, her portrayal is not purely evil. The fact that she names her adopted child after her father, Henry shows how she feels the loss of her father and possibly the guilt of killing him to achieve her happiness. A woman who is capable of killing the one person she loves the most for the sake of gaining revenge or happiness for herself is clearly someone who has suffered through a loss which is unbearable. Furthermore, she wouldn’t have named an adopted child with a name so dear to her if she did not truly feel any love for him. This shows her capability to love or care for someone which she continually attempts to ignore or dismiss by performing evil actions. Therefore, her actions come from fear. Fear of not being happy. This results in her detaching herself from positivity as she is afraid to get hurt. Thus, it remains to be seen whether the Queens fight for protection of happiness is as important as the other characters fight to break her curse. Ultimately, she strives for and expects to be given what every other character wants- happiness and love.