In a 2011 interview, Game of Thrones writer George R. R. Martin was asked in regards to the worlds of Westeros and Winterfell—two of the key geographic areas in Game of Thrones. The interviewer notes that, unlike many other fantasy stories, Martin’s world is reasonably dark. It is a world of beauty and brutality.
Though Martin admits to being a “dark author,” he believes his work is more “realistic” than dark. He notes, “I prefer to work with grey characters reasonably than black and white. I actually have an instinctual distrust of conventional comfortable endings. The best fantasy does have a thread of darkness that runs through it.” Martin goes on to juxtapose the importance of friendship and the fact of affection with the experience of loneliness and the death that each one of us will suffer.
Martin’s characters reflect life’s ambiguity. They exist within the space between heroes and villain,s performing seemingly virtuous acts while plotting and scheming as they pursue their very own ambitions. Despite their poor selections and flaws, Martin’s morally grey characters are oddly likable. There is a way through which we discover with them. While we may not lie, steal, and kill to, as an illustration, protect our families, avenge an enemy, or secure a position of power, we will often appreciate the motives of the characters whilst we cringe on the means.
What Are Morally Grey Characters?
Morally grey characters are compelling, partially, because they reflect the complexity of our own thoughts and feelings. We are all able to callousness and compassion, cruelty and kindness. As we glance in on morally grey characters, we’re invited to contemplate our own understanding of truth, goodness, and wonder while negotiating the bounds of human behavior. Morally grey characters add suspense to a story because they’re unpredictable—they’ve conflicting motivations and unique strengths and weaknesses that condition their behavior in a given situation. We get to observe as they face not possible circumstances with limited resources and cope with the fallout of their decisions in “real time.”
As we move into metamodernity—the mood through which, in response to Jonathan Rowson, we’re “caught up within the co-arising of hope and despair, credulity and incredulity, progress and peril, agency and apathy, life and death”—we’re less susceptible to resonate with pristine heroes without relatable flaws or weaknesses. While morally grey characters existed well before metamodernity, the metamodern turn almost actually makes morally grey characters more compelling, if not normative. We usually tend to appreciate seeing characters wrestle with irreconcilable thoughts, emotions, and selections oscillating between conflicting perspectives and attitudes. Morally grey characters hold together despite the conflicts evident inside them—they embody ongoing tension.
Morally grey characters are inclined to be motivated by something. They operate inside an ethical framework though that framework doesn’t necessarily constrain the character’s actions. Instead, morally grey characters are willing to have interaction in seemingly justifiable yet morally questionable activities. To some extent, the actions of morally grey characters can seem compelling since the means bring a few positive result.
Consider, as an illustration, the hit television show Yellowstone, which is stuffed with morally grey characters. John Dutton, played by Kevin Costner, is driven to guard his land from urbanization and to preserve his family’s legacy, each, in certain respects, noble pursuits. In the technique of doing so, nevertheless, Dutton just isn’t shy about using political leverage, blackmail, and violence. In his mind, the tip justifies the means, irrespective of how unsavory those means could also be.
We may additionally take a look at the Gregory House (played by Hugh Laurie) on House, M. D. House is an excellent diagnostician who saves lives that other doctors can’t. To achieve this, nevertheless, the House pushes the bounds of medical ethics. For instance, in a single episode, there may be an unknown disease killing babies within the maternity ward. Knowing that each one the babies have the identical disease, House instructs his team to offer one child a distinct treatment than the opposite as type of a mini-diagnostic trial. Guessing incorrect and giving each babies the identical treatment will lead to the death of each children, whereas giving each child a distinct treatment saves one and offers the team the reply needed to avoid wasting the remainder of the sick children.
His team tends to follow his lead. For example, when Dr. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer) is treating President Dibala, a brutal African dictator, Chase finds out that Dibala is planning a genocide. Chase takes matters into his own hands by utilizing a blood sample from a dead patient to diagnose Dibala with scleroderma. When the team treats Dibala for scleroderma, the treatment finally ends up killing him. The episode and people following it highlight the ethical and moral ambiguity of Chase’s actions.
All of those morally grey characters are, in certain respects, likable. There is an odd sense through which their actions feel justifiable because we start to understand their motivations, as we share them. Why shouldn’t John Dutton fight against progress to avoid wasting his land and protect his family’s legacy? Maybe we wouldn’t kill to do it, but would we be willing to cross another moral lines? Isn’t saving one child higher than losing two? Is giving the children two separate treatments really worse than giving each babies the identical treatment once we don’t know if it is going to work? Why not kill one man to stop the slaughter of hundreds of thousands? Even if we wouldn’t do what these characters do, their actions are usually not so evil that they change into pure villains. These characters, to some extent, remind us of ourselves.
As Florence Mendoza notes, “It seems that, sooner or later, popular culture, TV specifically, stopped reflecting who we wish to be, and commenced reflecting to us who we actually are…The reason, it follows, that morally relativistic characters are popular, is that we’re a morally gray audience living in morally relativistic times.” Perhaps Mendoza is correct. Perhaps we’re more morally grey than we’d wish to admit. However, that doesn’t mean we must always resign ourselves to a lifetime of moral ambiguity. In fact, as Christians, we shouldn’t be morally grey.
Are We Supposed to Be Morally Grey?
As relatable as a morally grey character, being Christian and morally grey don’t mix. Why? There are a minimum of a couple of reasons:
1. Christians recognize that God is present and lively.
Morally grey characters may not deny God’s existence, but they have a tendency to assume they have to take matters into their very own hands to attain their goals. When morally grey characters get into difficult situations, they don’t consider the chance that God will act through their faithfulness. Instead, they take matters into their very own hands, acting with whatever resources they’re able to muster within the moment. Christians recognize that God is present and lively. We understand that obedience is the best way that we collaborate with God—being faithful to God allows us to take part in all that he’s doing on this planet. Christians aren’t morally grey because we’re theologically informed.
2. Christians understand the world reasonably than manipulating it.
Part of the explanation morally grey characters are compelling is that they get things done. They often have a way of enacting “justice” when the prevailing systems fail (e.g., Chase saves hundreds of thousands from genocide by killing President Dibala, House saves patients nobody else can by taking ethical risks, Dutton protects his family’s land until his death). Still, morally grey characters don’t understand the world though they will manipulate it. Their actions, while accomplishing a specific aim, don’t fix the world—in lots of cases, the world gets worse. Christians understand how the world works because we all know God. We understand that the underlying dynamics of reality involve relating rightly to the Lord, they involve an unqualified devotion to the Triune God (Deut 6:4-5; 30:20; Rev 7:14).
3. Christians don’t determine their very own goals.
Morally grey characters set their very own targets. They resolve what they need and the way they are going to pursue it. As such, for morally grey characters, the ends often justify the means. Christians don’t separate ends and means because Jesus just isn’t solely our goal but “the best way” (Jn 14:6). Our aim is to mimic Christ, which suggests that we put aside our desires and adopt the desires of Christ. As I note in Christian Resistance, “When we’re willing to permit something apart from Christ to find out our desires, we don’t imitate Him. Instead, we reproduce through imitation a type of life patterned on distorted images of God.”
Morally grey characters do reflect the state of humanity. Apart from Christ, humans are left to navigate the complexities of the world on their very own. They are left to find out which goals are worthy of their pursuit. Moral greyness, in some ways, appears to be a comfortable medium between sappy idealism and absolute evil.
Still, Christians cannot accept being morally grey. We are those that fear the Lord—we stand in awe before the Triune God whose presence inspires each awe and respect. This awe and respect are like standing at the sting of the Grand Canyon. We are struck by its beauty while recognizing the hazards it poses. As we stand within the presence of God, we’re amazed by his presence while respecting the danger of coming near to a holy God.
Morally grey characters are tragic because they’re rudderless. They have embraced an ethical code and direction for all times of their very own making. They can compromise because they don’t answer to anything beyond their very own conscience, though they are sometimes subject to the law of the land or the law of the jungle. As we consider these characters, we must always not have fun their actions but recognize with gratitude God’s self-disclosure that governs and guides the lives of those that have committed to following Jesus Christ.
Photo Credit: © Getty Images/Paul Bradbury
