The Bad Seed

The Bad Seed, written in 1954 by William March, was my favorite of all the plays we have read so far, mostly because I found myself on edge during the reading, anxious to learn more about the characters and reach the end. The characters, in fact, were probably my favorite part of reading this play since each once, whether or not they possessed a large or small role, were somehow significant and interesting all the same. Of course, probably the best character in my mind, was Rhoda Penmark, as twisted as it seems. It's not often when you read a story that the most evil character happens to be a child, of which you would expect to be the most tender and innocent. I found Rhoda's character to be incredibly unique; she seemed to possess no scruples whatsoever and acted much like a manipulative adult when it came to her intelligence and ability to kill, but at the same time, her character still had some hint of childishness in her since she murdered poor Claude Daigle simply because he won the award she thought she deserved. In The Bad Seed, another character that I came to like was Rhoda's mother, Christine. Christine suspected what her young daughter was doing and was in fact capable of, and at first, I believed she tried her hardest to "right her wrongs" in raising Rhoda and change the inherited evil that had been passed down to her daughter. But in the end, she did what I think only the most extreme of mothers would do and attempted to kill her daughter before committing suicide herself. This play is perhaps the prime example when it comes to "nurture versus nature", and how no matter how hard a mother tries, she cannot change what traits were bound to show up in her daughter. For example, because Christine's mother was a heartless murderess, no matter what or how Christine attempted to raise her daughter, that sadistic trait of being able to claim another life was bound to show up in her child at some point, and that point just happened to occur at a very young age. Like the saying, it goes to show how some people are more than likely born evil, and not made that way as they grow up, although how you are raised could most certainly also contribute to what kind of person you become. Either way you look at it, The Bad Seed was indeed a captivating play with an appropriate theme, and certainly considered something different during its time.