Sticks and stones,

Earlier today, I was reading something in the paper that got me thinking - It was a quote from Helena Bonham Carter (you know the one, Bellatrix Lestrange, Alice in Wonderland, Sweeny Todd etc) - and she said she liked playing evil/weird characters because she found it interesting to think of reasons why they might've ended up that way.

And it's true isn't it, we are fascinated by "evil" people - and how they came to be "evil". In Psychology (yes, let us whip out our textbooks!) - there are two possible explanations for behaviour : Nature or Nurture.

Simple enough, isn't it? Well no, not entirely. Incase you hadn't already guessed, Nature refers to the qualities of which we are born with - eg: "I get angry easily because I got that from my Dad". Nurture, means that we learn behaviour through the environment in which we live - eg: "I'm angry because my Dad always yelled at me as a child and now I find everything agrivating"..... it's a stupid example but you get what I mean.

Not really nature nurture but it made me laugh :')

I just read the original Phantom of the Opera book, and thank God they've changed it for the purposes of the musical because if they hadn't it would've been a far more gruesome plot!

But just imagine - being born so devastatingly ugly, (with "death's head" - holes for eyes, nose and mouth and with yellow eyes) that your father could not look at you, and your mother put a bag on your head. Imagine then being taken off to a circus to be ridiculed, and then breaking free, to be used as a master of torture for all your screwed up inventions and magic tricks.... is it any wonder a boy who had been "nurtured" in this way would later have no sense of what's good, or evil, or no sense of humanity?

But then arguably, was it his "nature" which caused all this - as from the very day he was born, he was given this hideous face which caused all others to shun him, and as he never received love, he couldn't understand how to give it. So infact, despite the murders and the tortures, we actually PITY this man. And is this right? Well, that's for you to decide.

But I ask that you remember this - Screw the nature/nurture debate, as we all know both play their parts - but what we know for certain is that our words and our actions have an unimaginable impact on others.

"Sticks and stones may break your bones,

But words can break our hearts"

- Tim Minchin