When I did A-Level English Literature (aged 16 to 18), one of our two drama texts was Volpone by Ben Jonson. It is, in essence, about a psychopath who cons other people, in Venice where it is set, out of their money. However, we, the audience, take a certain delight in Volpone managing to do this because all of his victims are revoltingly avaricious. Volponedisplays traits which we are evolved to admire – wit, cunning, fearlessness, intelligence, charisma – and we admire them so much that we are able to ignore the fact that what he is doing is wrong. In addition, he is only mistreating bad people anyway and, further, we are privy to Volpone’s schemes; in a sense we are complicit, so we wish him to succeed.
