Villains who aren't villains

I always seem to identify with -- or at least sympathize with -- disagreeable characters in books. Emma Bovary, Hamlet, Hedda Gabler, Holden Caulfield... Not in situation or in severity but in some fundamental feeling of dissatisfaction and offsetting wrongness with our way of life. I suppose one could contribute a lot of this feeling to the act of growing up, since that's when we're all meant to become adults and realize how harsh the world really is -- disillusionment comes with the territory.

I find myself wondering why I sympathize with these characters so strongly and how valid my empathy actually is. Like, how much of my defense of their character is based on the actual text of the novel? How much is it that I simply identify with the character and don't wish to criticize or condemn my own reflected thoughts or actions? I'm currently rereading Madame Bovary not only because I read it a month and a half ago and the details are starting to slip and I need to know if for school but also because I want to know if I'm rationalizing my defense of Emma based on what Flaubert actually writes or if I'm just projecting her situation to suit my own opinions. I overtly despise playing the victim, but I certainly believe that I subconsciously do it all the time. It's good to check myself.

I definitely think it's primarily the personal connection somebody, somewhere has with literature that keeps books alive so long. There's something markedly magnificent that in the fictional world I should identify more with a half-orphaned, vengeful prince from the sixteenth century than a sixteen year old girl living in the U.S. Sometimes I probably do accidentally victimize myself or try to make my life seem more tragic than it actually is, just so I can have a legitimate reason to feel sorry for myself. Still, more often than not, characters who don't fit into their community's definition of "proper" or "moral" or even "sane" have something valuable to say about the state of that community, whether or not we agree and even whether or not the character realizes they're saying it. Maybe that's one of the reasons why the "darker" characters are often the most interesting. I guess the only way to find out is to keep reading.