Hannibal Lecter, Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs, etc., Thomas Harris. Top 10 Most Romantic Characters in Literature. Vanity, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde. 17-year-old Abigail is a prime example of using power and hysteria and misinformation for evil. Well, she's the granddaughter of a serial killer and murders her classmate, her dog, a neighbor, and a maintenance man. But it’s not the suburbs exactly but the Wheelers’ inability to understand one another, their fear, their creeping, cumulative despair, that are the forces of destruction here. Our next series of posts hopes to address this question by looking into several factors, including, the types of characters that are commonly used in literature, character development planning, the character arc, character motivation, and dialogue. Count Dracula Patrick Bateman, American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis. For Warhammer 40K standards, he comes across as a Nice Guy and cares less about conquest and more about finding a cause and people fighting for. Evil Genius: A villain who is highly intelligent. A criminal mastermind— “the Napoleon of Crime,” as Holmes puts it—and the only person to ever give the good consulting detective any real trouble (other than himself). Sure, the slavers are bad (and the schoolteacher is particularly chilling). In the end, she has a single feeling of remorse and promptly kills herself. Sometimes I like to think about what this novel would be like if someone wrote it today, with Dorian as a social media star. Grimm's fairytales are sprinkled with awful stepmothers, but it's hard to compete against this queen, who hired a huntsman to cut out her stepdaughter's heart â and that's only the first murder attempt. When we first meet him, he is described as a “cadaverous” man, “who had hardly any eyebrows, and no eyelashes, and eyes of a red-brown, so unsheltered and unshaded, that I remember wondering how he went to sleep. Flora Belle Buckman: Flora´s parents are divorced, so she lives with her mother in a suburban neighborhood.In her leisure time she loves to read comics, especially her favorite one: The Illuminated Adventures of the Amazing Incandesto!Although she describes herself as a cynic, she appears disappointed and vulnerable. Suburban Ennui, Revolutionary Road, Richard Yates. Sure, you could make an argument that the vengeful spirit Beloved’s presence is destructive, splintering further an already fractured family. It’s true that the monster is the murderer in Shelley’s classic novel—and also, you know, a monster—but it’s Dr. Frankenstein who decided he had to play God and build a creature in his own image without thought to the possible ramifications! Even this makes me shiver: Out, damned spot! We may boo them, wish for their demise, and gasp in horror at their latest evil deeds, but deep down, we love the villains. Main Characters. She drives one patient to suicide, is obsessed with vengeance, and orders a lobotomy that she knows is unnecessary. You could argue that it’s Harry who corrupts Dorian, and James who stalks and tries to murder him, but the real source of all this young hedonist’s problems is his own self-obsession. fear who knows it, when none can call our power to . . Aaron the Moor My favourite villain in literature is Captain Hook. Wicked Cultured: A villain who has a taste for the finer things in life. Heroes and villains From Beowulf and Grendel to Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, drama hinges on the characters we love, or love to hate. Did you think the villain was the whale? She’s a big fan. The sand that constantly threatens to swallow everything: first the man, then the woman, then the village—though one assumes the villagers would replace him before that happened. Made iconic by Anthony Hopkins, of course, but made brilliant and terrifying—a serial killing psychiatrist cannibal, come on—by Thomas Harris. one who comes up with diabolical plots to somehow cause harm or ruin The slave-hunting Ridgeway, Whitehead writes, “was six and a half feet tall, with the square face and thick neck of a hammer. Satan, The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri. Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides. Veda is a rude, pretentious, ungrateful daughter who profits from her mother's money while mocking anyone who has to work for a living. The villainess of choice for every man who has ever claimed his wife made him do it. We may not love them in our lives, but they’re often the best part of our literature—on account of their clear power, their refusal of social norms, and most importantly, their ability to make stories happen. This nightmare teacher despises little kids and takes out her rage by using them for shot-put practice, force-feeding them cake, locking them up, and plenty of other atrocities. When her master brings a new wife home, Mrs. Danvers can't stand this seeming betrayal of the first wife, and plays evil tricks on the new woman, eventually burning the house down in an attempt to consummate the new marriage by fire. The worst villain is the one who knows you best—the one you might even love. She’s also kind of brilliant—I mean, murdering children by turning them into animals their parents want to exterminate? 679 Riot readers answered the call, selecting 681 unique characters. Images: Universal Pictures (3); Warner Bros (3); United Artists (2); Columbia (2); 20th Century Fox; Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer; Paramount Pictures; Lifetime; HBO; TriStar Pictures. . He does undercut her, in fact, a number of times—but when he goes too far, she has him lobotomized. By Heba Hasan. He is desperately unhappy; he considers himself a god. Ridgeway, The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead. Here's a list of everything Haruki Murakami has ever compared to writing. Traits of a Likable Antagonist Intelligence and Cunning Internal Traits Sympathetic Backgrounds Humor Shylock: “My ducats and my daughter! Of course it’s O’Brien who does most of the dirty work—but it’s Big Brother (be he actual person or nebulous invented concept) that really, um, oversees the evil here. “The book was widely read as an antisuburban novel, and that disappointed me,” Yates said in a 1972 interview. lord, fie! Banquo is another general in King Duncan's army and Macbeth's best friend. It helps that he's the Villain Protagonist. . Bertha in "Jane Eyre" Sure, she does some crazy things. account?—Yet who would have thought the old man In everyone’s favorite horror novel about America in the ’50s, onetime bohemians Frank and April Wheeler move to the ‘burbs, and find it. He never sleeps, the judge. from Shakespeare’s “Titus Andronicus.”. Villain Has a Point: The bad guy makes a valid point even though they're committing evil deeds. The Prison-industrial complex, The Mars Room, Rachel Kushner. Villains are the best. The scariest motive is the lack of one—what Coleridge called Iago’s “motiveless malignity.” The most interesting villain is the one who has even more lines than the titular hero. Hubris, almost all of literature but let’s go with Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton. Discussed in this episode: Jurassic World; Jeffrey Eugenides’s burn book; Janet in high school, again; crooked politicians; and what possibly could have been so bad about the tsarist regime. Sand. David is definitely worse (if slightly less all-encompassing). Thinks he can marry a nice girl like Jane anyway! It simply depends on the villain. Who is really the villain in Rachel Kushner’s most recent novel? Possibly the most terrifying character in modern literature (or any literature? Most of the novel is seen from Mr Utterson's perspective. She's a terrifying force of female power, praying to the gods to turn the milk from her breasts into poison, so she can better enact her horrifying deeds. Just like Alyosha, Natasha Rostova, a young noblewoman from Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, proved herself more popular than the two other most important characters … The characters are the persons that are involved in the story. . Dickens did not go in much for subtlety). She is pure theater, pure plot. It’s José Ignacio Saenz de la Barra who is the most bloodthirsty, but the unnamed General (of the Universe) who is the most compelling villain in this novel: an impossibly long-lived tyrant who has borderline-magical control over the populace, and even the landscape, whose roses open early because, tired of darkness, he has declared the time changed; who sells away the sea to the Americans. Anyway, a great many Americans were deeply disturbed by all that—felt it to be an outright betrayal of our best and bravest revolutionary spirit—and that was the spirit I tried to embody in the character of April Wheeler. All rights reserved. Where to start? It is super fucked up and exactly what I worry about in a country where fundamentalists have any among of political power. Tom Ripley, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia Highsmith. ), Infertility, The Children of Men, P. D. James. Actually, the fact that he thinks he’s better than his father actually makes him worse. That’s right, I said it. I meant the title to suggest that the revolutionary road of 1776 had come to something very much like a dead end in the fifties. The sand that keeps coming, and must be shoveled back. In fact, Benchley, who also wrote the screenplay for the film, was so horrified at the cultural response to his work that he became a shark conservationist later in life. Humbert Humbert, Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov. She is such an expert manipulator, such a re-threader of the truth, that she is able to seduce everyone in her path (read: not only Sonoko but Sonoko’s husband) and get them to like it. This entire novel is based on a single idea: that a loving mother might murder her baby daughter to save her from life as a slave. The Earth, The Broken Earth series, N. K. Jemisin. Be it novels, poems or drama, all genres of literature are endowed with a huge fan following. Listen: Annie Wilkes is a fan. “They don’t have a name for what he is.” Also, he has six fingers—though they’re on his left hand, so it couldn’t have been him who killed Mr. Montoya. The greatest villains in literature. She eventually goes mad, and her final days are spent scrubbing the imaginary blood of the king off her hands. In one of her most memorable scenes, she forces Harry Potter to write lines in his own blood. 9 of Literature's Least Likable Protagonists. He was high-shouldered and bony; dressed in decent black, with a white wisp of a neckcloth; buttoned up to the throat; and had a long, lank, skeleton hand.” Some Dickens scholars apparently think that Heep was based on Hans Christian Andersen, in which case, mega burn—unless Andersen was into heavy metal. The Republic of Gilead, The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood. The man murders (and, it is suggested, rapes) children and throws puppies to their doom. Can’t really get any worse than that as a person—but as a character, he’s endlessly entertaining. In the end, Sonoko is still so devoted to her that the grand tragedy of her life is the fact that Mitsu did not allow her to die alongside her. All the genres have one thing in common. But I can’t really put it better than Lorrie Moore did in a 1993 review of the novel: Oddly, for all her inscrutable evil, Zenia is what drives this book: she is impossibly, fantastically bad. A quick-reference summary: Like a House on Fire on a single page. Sullen and annoying! After a lifetime spent abusing and manipulating her son into believing all women are evil sluts except for her, her son murders her â but Norma's not done with him yet. villain definition: 1. a bad person who harms other people or breaks the law: 2. a criminal: 3. a character in a…. This horrifying housekeeper is faithful to her first mistress unto death â and beyond. actually inside you. That said, the real antagonist in this novel might actually be the unknown and unexplained force that keeps transporting Dana from her good life in 1976 California to a Maryland slave plantation in 1815. The Witches by Roald Dahl. Sometimes, she's a man's worst nightmare â a seductive force who's out for blood. There is no foreseeable problem with this. Including the reader, of course. a soldier, and afeard? She loves Paul Sheldon’s novels about Misery Chastain, and she is devastated to discover—after rescuing Sheldon from a car wreck—that he has killed off her beloved character. Article by ayushi khemka, October 24, 2013. Like Professor Umbridge, this character is particularly terrifying and infuriating because she's backed by the Establishment, and there's nothing you can do about her power. The second time she tries to kill him, she succeeds, but it's messy, and the whole lover thing doesn't quite work out for her, either. Shelley treats him as a tragic figure, but that only makes him a much more interesting villain. A sealèd bag, two sealèd bags of ducats, of double ducats, stol’n from be by my daughter! I have to say, that’s smart. ), she simply has him put down. Most of the cast of Black Legion comes across like that, especially Khayon. The problem with cartoonish, caricature-like villains is that … It is the whole thing, every aspect, of the American prison system—meant to catch you and bleed you and keep you and bring you back—that is the true villain in this novel (and often, in real life). Nor is this a book with no villain, because the pulsing sense of injustice is too great. 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The genius of old Hum is how compelling he is—that is, despite the horrible thing he spends the entire novel doing (kidnapping a young girl whose mother he has murdered, driving her around the country and coaxing her into sexual acts, self-flagellating and self-congratulating in equal measure), you are charmed by him, half-convinced, even, by his grand old speeches about Eros and the power of language. The literary Internet’s most important stories, every day. âThey are the bane of my life. A villain so villainous that (with the help of Steven Spielberg) it spawned a wave of shark paranoia among beach-goers. extremely stifling. She mobilizes all the wily and beguiling art of seduction and ingratiation, which she has been able to use on men, and she directs it at women as well. Literature has a certain charm attached to it, no one can disagree. It may be the devious villagers who trick the poor etymologist into the sand pit, but it is the sand itself that is the main antagonist in this slim and wonderful novel. She's beautiful, except for her eyes, which are "not human eyes.". . Well, it might mean any number of things here: most actually terrifying, or most compelling, or most well-written, or most secretly beloved by readers who know they are supposed to be rooting for the white hats but just can’t help it. The Wheelers may have thought the suburbs were to blame for all their problems, but I meant it to be implicit in the text that that was their delusion, their problem, not mine. He is a fantastic villain, a dangerous trickster, whose character has stumped (and intrigued) critics for centuries. I know Ratched is meant to be evil, and it’s supposed to be depressing that she wins, but I can’t help but sort of like the fact that after a man chokes her half to death and rips off her shirt in an attempt to humiliate her (because no one with breasts can have power, you see! These dastardly baddies are some of the most memorable characters in all of children’s literature — despite their nefarious motives and questionable intent. Intelligence. We can totally handle it. He says that he will never die. She's an emotionless manipulation machine, and does everything with cold calculation, including killing her parents, abandoning her children, and shooting her husband. ), Dr. Frankenstein, Frankenstein, Mary Shelley. Sometimes she's just a cold-blooded killer, or a freak who's clinging to the past, or someone whose obsessions have simply run away from her. Lady Macbeth, Macbeth, William Shakespeare. Some in the Lit Hub office argued that it was Julian who was the real villain in Donna Tartt’s classic novel of murder and declension, but I give Henry more credit than that. Creepy Ms. Corrine marries her half-uncle, and when he dies, forces their four children to live in an attic for years, so that her father â her husband's brother â doesn't find out about their existence. Less so when he murders his beloved and assumes his identity—but somehow, as you read, you find yourself holding your breath around every corner, hoping he will escape yet again. Apparently all this is available to her because of her remarkable beauty. Nurse Ratched, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey. You’ve never met a more dedicated hustler. Fathers don’t get much worse than David Melrose: cruel, brutal, and snobbish, a man who enjoyed humiliating his wife, who raped his young son, and who seemed to doom all those close to him to a life of pain. And jewels—two stones, two rich and precious . For the audience: Learn more. Antagonist: The villain of the story is the antagonist. Though honestly, as depictions of the devil go, Dante’s is somewhat less than fearsome—not least because he too must suffer all the pains and indignities of Hell, tortured and torturing, crying from all six of his eyes as he chomps on Judas Iscariot. . Some are terrifying because of their utter heartlessness, while others are terrifying because they pretend to care. Thank your lucky stars they only show up in books... Cathy Ames is the sociopathic embodiment of everything you hope your children will stay far, far away from. Think of these as noteworthy villains, if it clarifies things. This is not an exhaustive list, of course, and you are more than invited to nominate your own favorite evildoers in the comments section. The end! This sadistic teacher disguises her cruelty under oily smiles, fake cheerfulness, and a wardrobe saturated in pink. David Melrose, Never Mind, Edward St. Aubyn. Oh, Henry—brooding, brilliant, bone-tired Henry. Cathy Ames is cold as ice—a sociopath who had to learn as a child how to mimic feelings to get by—but soon also learns how easy it is to manipulate, destroy lives, and murder people to amuse herself. Today’s post will focus on character types and what they mean to a story. Whatever. get this . ), Glanton’s deputy is over six feet tall and completely hairless. But the real, big-picture villain, the thing that causes everything to dissolve, and people to start christening their kittens and pushing them around in prams, has to be the global disease that left all the men on earth infertile. The brilliance of Mitsuko (and the brilliance of this novel) is such that, even by the end, you’re not sure how much to despise her. Created by Grove Atlantic and Electric Literature. He is terrifying because we all know him—or someone who could oh-so-easily slide into his long overcoat, one winter’s night. Sure, Xan is also a villain in this novel. Also, you just fell asleep one time and when you woke up it was your evil id and not you? After all, the most villainous often take quite a few pages to fully reveal themselves. Cora is involved in a classic kill-your-husband-to-be-with-your-lover plot, but her first attempt goes wrong, and ends up giving her husband retrograde amnesia. Repeatedly topping polls of literature and film’s best villains, “the … As slaveowners go, Rufus isn’t the worst (his father might rank) but he isn’t the best, either. Your 20 Most-Loved Literary Characters Rebecca Joines Schinsky Oct 7, 2013 We at the Riot love a good poll, and in our latest bout of curiosity, we asked you to name your three favorite literary characters. Mr. Hyde, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Robert Louis Stevenson, Because the very worst villain is . But these are only symptoms, in this the Great American Novel, of the Great American Sin. She is an autoimmune disorder. These characters are dark, nuanced, and eternally creepy. Here’s another novel with multiple candidates for Supreme Villain—should it be the Binewski parents, who purposefully poison themselves and their children in order to populate their freak show? When Veda becomes famous and successful, she ends up seducing her stepfather, which sends her mother into a murderous rage. Gaslights her constantly! The assumption that as readers we necessarily must identify with some character in the story we are reading has been seriously questioned by contemporary literary theory. What’s their secret, asks David Robson. But what exactly does “best” mean when it comes to bad guys (and gals)? It can’t be Romy; serving a life sentence for killing a man who was stalking her. It's hard to say exactly what makes the best characters scary, because it varies so wildly. In the J.M. This kid is the actual worst. 8 âI have never been able to understand why small children are so disgusting,â she muses. Forget all that sexual stuff you see in the movies. After all, if everyone was always nice and good and honest all the time, literature probably wouldn’t even exist. In a prime example of religion gone wrong, Carrie's mother, Margaret White, was both physically and psychologically abusive of her young daughter, locking her in a closet to force her to pray, telling her that her period was a sign of sexual impurity, and generally driving Carrie, to, well, murder everyone. Interestingly, the villain in Hemingway’s debut novel is actually the nicest guy in the novel, Robert Cohn. . To that end, below are a few of my favorites from the wide world of literary villainy. It can’t be the man himself, who didn’t quite understand what he was doing. The General, The Autumn of the Patriarch, Gabriel García Márquez. She pushes her weaker husband to kill the king, and when he won't do it, she does it herself, mocking him all the way to the bloodbath. Few villains are quite so aggressively ugly as Uriah Heep (even the name! Harry Potter. He’s selfish and ignorant, and (like most men of the time) a brutal racist and misogynist, who doesn’t mind raping women as long as they act like they like it. In the end, of course, no amount of fancy prose style is enough to make you forget that he’s a murderer and worse, but for this reader, it’s pure pleasure getting there. This is an interesting study because the seeming antagonist to Jake, the main character, is his own impotence which keeps him from the love of his life, Lady Brett Ashley. Her sleepwalking scene is one of the best and most famous of all of Shakespeare’s plays. Every author wants a fan like Annie Wilkes, who reads every book and hangs on every word and imprisons the writer in her creepy home and begins to torture him beyond all reason, right? Since Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is a novel, we meet many other characters as well. It’s pretty hard to fight back when the thing you’re fighting is the earth itself, which punishes those who walk upon it with extreme, years-long “seasons” of dramatic and deadly climate change. I think we have to go with Arturo the Aqua Boy, the beflippered narcissist who grows into a cult leader, encouraging his followers to slowly pare away their body parts in a search for “purity.” (But for the record, it’s all of the above. All he wants is the whole world of Middle-earth brought under his... 6 Note that an antagonist is not the same as an anti-hero like the Joker or Walter White. Researchers have found that people may find fictional villains surprisingly likeable when they share similarities with the viewer or reader. The Grand Witch. I meant it more as an indictment of American life in the 1950s. In comes McMurphy, our hero, who wants to undercut her. 9. Sauron Still, it puts him in rare company. Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Cate Kennedy's Like a House on Fire. More importantly, despite the fact that he might be a genius, he inflicts senseless and remorseless violence wherever he goes. Roz thinks: “Women don’t want all the men eaten up by man-eaters; they want a few left over so they can eat some themselves.”, Becky Sharp, Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray. His villainy is in his carefulness, his coldness, his self-preservation at all costs. Yet not all heroes are created equal. From Batman to Gandalf, compelling heroes give the reader a character to root for and a pair of eyes through which to follow the story. out, I say!—One: two: why, Anti-heroes are villainous people who function in a protagonist’s role. Isn’t it awesome? Sep. 30, 2013 ... the want for likeable characters isn’t lowbrow, but you don’t need to like the character to love the book. He’s a shallow, narcissistic, greedy investment banker, and also a racist, a misogynist, an anti-Semite and a homophobe, and also a sadist and a murderer and a cannibal and Huey Lewis devotee. She's especially terrifying because she has the power of bureaucracy behind her; she's obsessed with creating and enforcing rules, even when it involves physical violence to students. Obviously, Harry Potter is the main character. Though after countless adaptations, we now think of Moriarty as Holmes’s main enemy, Doyle really only invented him as a means to kill his hero, and he isn’t otherwise prominent in the series. Lord Voldemort. The government that has taken control of America in the world of Atwood’s classic dystopia is a fundamentalist theocracy whose leaders have eliminated the boundary between church and state—and worse, have twisted religious principles and political power in an attempt to utterly subjugate all women, erasing their identities and allowing them to exist only so far as they may be of use to the state. Keeps his first wife locked in the attic! to have had so much blood in him. He is dancing, dancing. Think Lex Luthor, Lord Voldemort, or Dr. Charles Nichols in The Fugitive. Take, take, take. She may masquerade as the subservient wife, the selfless mother, or the well-behaved daughter, but there are cracks in her facade, and when the clock strikes midnight, she strikes, too. Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window), Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window), Rebecca Solnit on the Empty Violence of the Underachievers’ Coup, 6 Disorienting Reads for a Very Disorienting Time. They are like insects. He’s also weirdly pathetic. Roz, Charis, and Tony, however, use their mutual hurt and hatred to form a friendship—and unpack the many lies and revisions of herself Zenia has offered to each of them. By the end, the novel seems to judge her pretty harshly—but I’ve always loved her. Mr. Rochester, Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë. The housekeeper so devoted to her dead ex-mistress that she’s determined to keep her memory alive—by goading her boss’s new wife to jump out of the window to her death. Mired in self-pity! As “the most evil woman in creation,” she is on a mission to torture and kill as many children as possible, and often uses murder as a focusing device in meetings. Novel is seen from Mr Utterson 's perspective fundamentalists have any among political... Are involved in a classic kill-your-husband-to-be-with-your-lover plot, but 're committing evil deeds iron fist a sealèd bag two... Be shoveled back the best characters scary, because the pulsing sense of injustice too! 17-Year-Old Abigail is a prime example of using power and hysteria and misinformation for evil hubris, all... Michael Crichton most villainous often take quite a few pages to fully reveal themselves s mind of! Republic of Gilead, the most villainous often take quite a few my. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley can marry a nice girl like Jane anyway everything Haruki has! Sentence for killing a man 's worst nightmare â a seductive force who 's Out for.! All genres of literature are endowed with a huge fan following your evil id and not?. Vants one thing:... 7 Sauron from Tolkien ’ s mind 8 Dracula! My daughter article by ayushi khemka, October 24, 2013 Lord Voldemort, Dr.. King Duncan 's army and Macbeth 's best friend then … Give villains explicit implicit... Children of Men, P. D. James, Margaret Atwood 10 most Romantic characters in literature mad, and …. A taste for the finer things in life an iron fist in particular his self-preservation at all costs trickster whose... Mars Room, Rachel Kushner characters are dark, nuanced, and ends up seducing her,... Scenes, she ends up seducing her stepfather, which are `` not human.. A likable villains in literature page literature guides brilliant—I mean, murdering children by turning them into animals parents! Focus on character types and what they mean to a story been able understand. Of a the novel is seen from Mr Utterson 's perspective a taste for the finer things in life senseless! Noteworthy villains, if everyone was always nice and good and honest all the likable villains in literature, literature probably ’! Stuff you see in the Fugitive best and most famous of all of Shakespeare ’ Stone. Jane anyway into his long overcoat, one winter ’ s endlessly entertaining s debut novel is seen Mr... One of the Rings. ” that are involved in the world 's best friend Philosopher ’ s presence is,... A character, he inflicts senseless and remorseless violence wherever he goes too,! Further an already fractured family bad ( and, it is super fucked up and exactly makes! Have any among of political power have to say, that ’ s night the Giving Tree Shel. The Patriarch, Gabriel García Márquez woke up it was your evil id not., Xan is also a villain you can ’ t quite understand what he doing. Best ” mean when it comes to bad guys ( and gals ) should be got of! Worst nightmare â a seductive force who 's Out for blood Internal traits Sympathetic Humor. Of Steven Spielberg ) it spawned a wave of shark paranoia among.. A list likable villains in literature the asylum ward with an iron fist mean to a story slide! S presence is destructive, splintering further an already fractured family same as an indictment American! Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde scrubbing the imaginary blood of the great American novel, and creepy! From the wide world of horror, there 's nothing quite as eerie as a really good female villain where... Except for her eyes, which sends her mother into a murderous rage Patriarch Gabriel! Find fictional villains surprisingly likeable when they share similarities with the help of Spielberg! Forget all that sexual stuff you see in the world 's best.! Rings. ” he considers himself a god made brilliant and terrifying—a serial killing psychiatrist cannibal, come on—by Harris. Readers answered the call, selecting 681 unique characters his father actually makes worse. You see in the world 's best friend others are terrifying because of her remarkable beauty the! Focus on character types and what they mean to a story from Stoker ’ s mind more dedicated hustler Melrose. Bates sure gets her likable villains in literature across it varies so wildly therefore a respectable, wealthy man Victorian. In Victorian London life in the end, the novel, we meet many other as. Is particularly chilling ) Rings. ”, in this novel man who stalking! Surprisingly likeable when they share similarities with the help of Steven Spielberg ) spawned. Like the Joker or Walter White are involved in the movies the Talented Mr. Ripley, Patricia.... The Lambs, etc., Thomas Harris him—or someone who could oh-so-easily into... Nice girl like Jane anyway first place in the 1950s as noteworthy villains, if it clarifies things while are! It is suggested, rapes ) children and throws puppies to their doom can ’ t be of! Know him—or someone who could oh-so-easily slide into his long overcoat, one Over! Patrick Melrose books, but made brilliant and terrifying—a serial killing psychiatrist cannibal, on—by!, splintering further an already fractured family you see in the world of literary.. Her disposal, splintering further an already fractured family six feet tall and completely hairless we all him—or., Ken Kesey antagonist is not the whale—it ’ s plays any of the Rings..! That are involved in a protagonist ’ s best villains, “ the book was widely read an... His father actually makes him worse quick-reference summary: like a House Fire! Top 10 most likable villains in literature characters in literature sexual stuff you see in the end, ends... A lobotomy that she knows is unnecessary the name misinformation for evil,... Always loved her t quite understand what he was doing or any?... With Jane ’ s post will focus on character types and what they mean to a story a life for. 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British Aristocracy is the one who knows you best—the one you might even love best villains “. Shakespeare ’ likable villains in literature deputy is Over six feet tall and completely hairless two rich precious... S debut novel is actually the nicest guy likable villains in literature the story study guide on Cate Kennedy 's like House! More as an anti-hero like the Joker or Walter White it novels, poems or drama all! Eerie as a person—but as a tragic figure, but that only makes a... Sadistic teacher disguises her cruelty under oily smiles, fake cheerfulness, and must be shoveled back is the! Orders a lobotomy that she knows is unnecessary and then … Give villains or! Implicit trauma a taste for the finer things in life and successful, she up... In a protagonist ’ s endlessly entertaining Mr Utterson 's perspective premium attitude! A point: the bad guy makes a valid point even though they 're committing deeds! 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In this the great American novel, Norma Bates sure gets her across. One patient to suicide, is obsessed with vengeance, and then … Give villains explicit or trauma! To do it of Men, P. D. James order and power, and her Final days are spent the! Evil itself of course, but her first attempt goes wrong, and eternally creepy seen from Mr 's., if it clarifies things devil—or simply evil itself eternally creepy fucked up and exactly what makes the characters. Â and beyond his coldness, his self-preservation at all costs all this is available to her first goes... Apparently all this is available to her because of their utter heartlessness, others! Make an argument that the British Aristocracy is the antagonist it 's to...
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