Welcome to the second round of Literary Hub’s inaugural Ides of March Madness bracket:
The Best Villains in Literature.Article continues after advertisement
After a vigorous first round of voting, 32 villains advance and 32 have been left in the dust. There were some shocking upsets: both the highly-seeded Captain Ahab and Moby Dick were knocked out, a bad first round for Melville fans. One of our staff favorites, Suburban Ennui, was defeated by the redheaded slaveowner from Kindred, Rufus Weylin. Anton Chigurh is out too, defeated by the toxic fandom of Misery‘s Annie Wilkes. And there was almost a huge upset in the Monsters & Boogeymen — Blood Meridian‘s Judge Holden barely beat Cruella de Vil 50.8% to 49.2%. You can see how all the votes shook out over on our round one post.
But like a lucky survivor fleeing through the woods, we don’t have a lot of time to look behind us, and round two has some pretty exciting match-ups. The dapper murderers Hannibal Lector and Patrick Bateman are clashing early to see who has the better combo of someone who would do well on Jeopardy and then dismember you. The Manipulators are heating up too, with bad assistants Iago and Mrs. Danvers facing off, and a round two meeting of two A-list dangerous charmers: Lady Macbeth and Tom Ripley.
Who will make it to the next round tomorrow? Voting is now open for round two!
Check out the updated bracket and start voting below:
[Click for a zoom-enabled version]
Rules
You may be wondering: What makes a villain “best”? That, friends, is really up to you. You can vote for the most iconic villains, the most memorable villains, or the most villainous villains. You can vote for the villain you enjoyed reading about the most, or the one that kept you up at night. You can vote for the cutest villain, if that’s your thing. The point is, there are no rules. Villains are rule-breakers, and so are we.
But that said, everyone likes a little bit of structure, so to start with, we’ve separated our villains into four “types”: Authority Figures, Manipulative Bastards, Monsters & Boogeymen, and Anti-Villains. Once we get a winner from each group, they’ll go head to monstrous head.
Voting Schedule
Ignoble Round of 64: Voting open now until Sunday, March 9th at 7:00 PM EST
Round of 32 Assholes: Voting open now, from 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM EST on Monday, March 10th
Not-So-Sweet 16: Voting open from 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM EST on Tuesday, March 11th
The Hateful 8: Voting open from 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM EST on Wednesday, March 12th
The Drawn and Quarter Finals: Voting open from 10:00 AM – 7:00 PM EST on Thursday, March 13th
The Final Showdown: Voting open until Sunday, March 16th at 7:00 PM EST on Friday, March 14th
And the Best Villain In Literature will be announced on Monday, March 17th!
How To Vote
Same as before: simply select the villain you think should advance, and we’ll tabulate the votes at the end of the day.
Authority Figures
(Power makes you nasty.)
O’BRIEN (1) vs. CORIOLANUS SNOW (9)
(1) O’Brien (George Orwell, 1984)
Our top seed for authoritarians is this extremely memorable villain from one of the most widely read books about villainy. Orwell’s O’Brien combines all the worst villains from the real world into one of the nastiest guys in literature: he’s a fascist, a boss, and a snitch all rolled into one, a sort-of fascist Megazord, if you will.
Weapon of Choice: Lying, Rodents, Party-Members-Only Wine
Grim Prediction: “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—forever.”
2+2: 5
Read: 75 Years of 1984: Why George Orwell’s Classic Remains More Relevant Than Ever and George Orwell’s 1984 is Always Just Around the Corner
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(9) Coriolanus Snow (Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games)
Another leader mad with power is Coriolanus Snow, the devious and cruel baddie of The Hunger Games. His only jobs as the dictator of Panem seem to be wearing fancy outfits, putting down rebellions, and overseeing the Hunger Games, which is powerful IP both in our world and in his. Not a guy you want to get on the wrong side of.
Weapon of Choice: Poison, Symbolic Roses
Cold Calculation: “But that aside, what purpose could it have served? We both know I’m not above killing children, but I’m not wasteful.”
Hunger Games Presided Over: 75
Read: 25 Works of Poetry and Fiction for Anger and Action
NURSE RATCHED (5) vs. THE WHITE WITCH (5)
(5) Nurse Ratched (Ken Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest)
Is Nurse Ratched a villain because of the corrupting pressures of the institution she’s a part of? Or would she be a villainous tyrant wherever she ended up? It’s a real chicken-and-egg situation – though no matter which came first, they’ll both end up in the same psych ward cafeteria frittata.
Maintains Tyrannical Control With: Drugs, Shock Therapy, Wicker Basket of Horrors
Technique: “… [she] taught him not to show his hate and to be calm and wait, wait for a little advantage, a little slack, then twist the rope and keep the pressure steady.”
Electroshocks Administered: At least 5
Read: Literary villains who were actually just suffering from burnout.
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(4) The White Witch (C.S. Lewis, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe)
The White Witch is the worst version of that friend who loves winter in a way that verges on weird. She’s villainous for her treatment of kids and for freezing all of Narnia for 100 years, but she did teach a lot of corny suburban kids (me) what Turkish delight is, so she’s not all bad.
Weapon of Choice: Turning Anything Into Stone, Dosed Turkish Delight, Yelling At Mr. Tumnus
Oh, The Humanity: “‘Why, it is she that has got all Narnia under her thumb. It’s she that makes it always winter. Always winter and never Christmas; think of that!’”
Haunting Height: 7”
Read: The Best Children’s Books Appeal to All Ages
RICHARD III (6) vs. THE COMMANDER (14)
(6) Richard III (William Shakespeare, Richard III)
The big baddie of Shakespeare’s dramatized War of the Roses, Richard will stop at nothing to gain and hold onto power. He kills, schemes, and has people drowned in wine on his way onto the throne, only to be surprised to be left abandoned and friendless.
Weapon of Choice: Blaming Murders on Women’s Beauty, Feigning Modesty
Just Coming Out And Saying It: “And therefore, — since I cannot prove a lover,/To entertain these fair well-spoken days, —/I am determined to prove a villain,/And hate the idle pleasures of these days.”
Children Locked in The Tower of London: 2
Read: How Three Royal Brothers Ended an English Dynasty
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(14) The Commander (Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale)
There are some novels that you wish the world could emulate more — The Handmaid’s Tale is one I wish would stop being so relevant. The Commander is a true and complete bastard, who is addicted to his patriarchal power — he isn’t content with his authority as the unquestioned head of household, he also bends Gilead’s rules to create more ways to control and abuse the women in his life.
Patriarchy’s Tools: Scrabble Boards, Privilege
Bad Justification: “You can’t make an omelette without breaking eggs, is what he says.”
Number of Real-Life Villains He’s Similar To: Far Too Many
Read: The Handmaid’s Tale Adapts More Than the Novel: Here is America
CARDINAL RICHELIEU (7) vs. NAPOLEON (2)
(7) Cardinal Richelieu (Alexandre Dumas, The Three Musketeers)
Everyone in this book manipulates women, but the Cardinal is arguably one of the worst offenders: rebuffed by the Queen, he dedicates his entire life and the power of a kingdom to taking her down. Becoming a dick of an ex on a geopolitical scale puts you high in the seeding. Plus the real-life Cardinal Richelieu established the Académie Française, which makes him one of the great grammar scolds in history — also very villainous.
Engineers Intrigue With: Seemingly Endless Minions and Underlings, Messing With Royal Jewelry
Rude Tone: “‘Yes, my friend, yes,’ said the cardinal, with that paternal tone which he sometimes knew how to assume, but which deceived none who knew him.”
Times He Rings A Bell To Summon Henchmen: Dozens
Read: At a Sword Fight with a Modern-Day Swashbuckler (in a Harlem Basement)
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(2) Napoleon (George Orwell, Animal Farm)
The most famous animal authoritarian of all time (unless you have some harsh notes for how Big Bird is behaving). The great socialist writer George Orwell spent his entire career asking questions of power, none more important than, “What if a pig were like Stalin?” It doesn’t turn out well, as it turns out.
Levers of Animal Power: Repression, Canine Secret Police, Rewriting History
Fawning Description: “Napoleon was now never spoken of simply as “Napoleon.” He was always referred to in formal style as “our Leader, Comrade Napoleon,” and this pigs liked to invent for him such titles as Father of All Animals, Terror of Mankind, Protector of the Sheep-fold, Ducklings’ Friend, and the like.”
Legs Walked On: 4, then 2
Read: Life in Interesting Times: What Orwell Can (and Can’t) Teach Us
Manipulative Bastards
(When rizz goes bad.)
IAGO (1) vs. MRS. DANVERS (8)
(1) Iago (William Shakespeare, Othello)
Iago is high up on our list, and an all time manipulative bastard. The first guy to claim that he wore his heart on his sleeve was actually scheming up a storm for no discernible reason—a truly two-faced man. If you ever cringe thinking about the relationship drama you got into in your twenties, rest easy there wasn’t an Iago in your friend group.
Manipulates With: Fatal Workplace Gossip, Handkerchiefs
Wicked Aside: “That thinks men honest that but seem to be so,/And will as tenderly be led by the nose/As asses are.”
Manipulation Count: Contrives at least 3 fights and 1 demotion
Read: Poison in the Ear: Why Iago is the Ultimate Thriller Character
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(8) Mrs. Danvers (Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca)
Poor Mrs. Danvers. She was devoted to Mrs. de Winter: the beautiful, elegant, fashionable Rebecca. And then she dies, and who should replace her but this mousy little upstart, a nothing of a woman, or at least nothing as compared to Rebecca. How could any detail-oriented housekeeper be expected to tolerate such a thing? Wouldn’t it be better for everyone if she just jumped out a window?
Deniably Devious Skills: Sartorial Suggestion, Intimidation, and Other Psychological Warfare
Sounds Nice, Really: “Look down there. It’s easy, isn’t it? Why don’t you jump? It wouldn’t hurt, not to break your neck. It’s a quick, kind way. It’s not like drowning. Why don’t you try it? Why don’t you go?”
Mrs. de Winters served: 2
Listen: Téa Obreht on Mrs. Danvers, Rebecca’s Lesbian Feminist Hero
LADY MACBETH (5) vs. TOM RIPLEY (4)
(5) Lady Macbeth (William Shakespeare, Macbeth)
In a grouping full of eloquent operators, Lady Macbeth is one of the most well-spoken — even overwhelmed by guilt, she’s quotable and convincing. But in the end, it’s her own conscience that gets the best of her — she’s so good at manipulation, that she even manipulates herself.
Lady Macdeath’s Weapons: Drugs for Possets, A Silver Tongue, Quick Apologies for Your Husband’s Ghost Fears
Queenly Quotes: “Hie thee hither,/That I may pour my spirits in thine ear;/And chastise with the valour of my tongue”
Damned Spots Outed: 0, alas
Read: Blood on the Big Screen: A Lady Macbeth Who Does the Killing
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(4) Tom Ripley (Patricia Highsmith, The Talented Mr. Ripley)
The talent of Mr. Ripley is his ability to erase himself in order to advance himself—after all, why be Tom when you can be Dickie? Alternately tender and cold-blooded, confident and paranoid, slick and bumbling, desperate and devil-may-care, Tom lives on the edge, but he never looks back.
Skills in a Pinch: Forgery, Impersonation, Charm, Beaning People with Heavy Objects
It’s Called Method: “If you wanted to be cheerful, or melancholic, or wistful, or thoughtful, or courteous, you simply had to act those things with every gesture.”
Headshot Kills: 3
Read: A Close-Reading of The Talented Mr. Ripley as Coming of Age Story, How Patricia Highsmith’s Mr. Ripley Rises from Genre to Myth, Let Them Be Morally Flawed: In Defense of Queer Villains in Stories, and On the Alarming Conflation of Patricia Highsmith and Tom Ripley… Encouraged by Highsmith Herself
PATRICK BATEMAN (6) vs. HANNIBAL LECTER (3)
(6) Patrick Bateman (Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho)
The famous yuppie killer of Wall Street was a tough one for us to place — should he be with the manipulative bastards or with the monsters? Bateman would be right at home in both categories, but ultimately we decided that what makes him more iconic is his manipulative obsession with consumption and appearance.
And credit where it’s due: there are a lot of dapper killers on this bracket, but no one has a better skincare routine or mixtapes than Bateman.
In The Bottega Veneta Murder Briefcase: Generational Wealth, Chainsaw
Admission: “‘I’m into, oh, murders and executions mostly. It depends.’ I shrug.”
Business Cards Analyzed: 4
Read: On the Decision to Make Patrick Bateman a Serial Killer and American Psycho and the Rise of Capitalist Horror
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(3) Hannibal Lecter (Thomas Harris, Red Dragon, The Silence of the Lambs, etc.)
When we were putting this list together, we knew immediately that Dr. Lecter would be a top seed. What other villain could turn Fava beans into a scary line? Though real Harris-heads know the famous meal in the book is served with Fava beans and Amarone—not Chianti.
Fillets With: His Memory Palace, Big Culinary Choices
Boiling Him Down: “He’s a monster. I think of him as one of those pitiful things that are born in hospitals from time to time. They feed it, and keep it warm, but they don’t put it on the machines and it dies. Lecter is the same way in his head, but he looks normal and nobody could tell.”
Menu of Victims: 28 killed, 7 eaten
Read: Hannibal Lecter: 20 Years Later; The Silence of the Lambs: The Seminal Serial Killer Novel, and Still the Best
PROFESSOR MORIARTY (7) vs. HUMBERT HUMBERT (2)
(7) Professor Moriarty (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “The Final Problem”)
“The Napoleon of crime” was introduced by Conan Doyle as both Sherlock’s worthy enemy, and as a way for Doyle to kill off Sherlock and wrench his writing career back from the famous detective. Moriarty is a planner: he rarely participates directly in his schemes — his villainous skill is his intellect. He is also, chillingly, good at math.
Connives With: An Airgun Cane, “A Treatise Upon The Binomial Theorem”
Sinister-est Threat: “If you are clever enough to bring destruction upon me, rest assured that I shall do as much to you.”
Sherlocks Killed: 1/2
Read: How the US Military Decided it Needed its Very Own Professor Moriarty
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(2) Humbert Humbert (Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita)
Surely the most eloquent pedophile ever to be immortalized on the page, a delusional, obsessive, disgusting, but ultimately tragic figure, who can swirl up a thousand pretty, if not remotely convincing, reasons why it’s definitely okay for him to have sex with his twelve-year-old step-daughter. He’s so awful that you hate yourself a little for marveling at him. And yet!
Call Him If You Enjoy: Long Road Trips, Rape Plots, Sedatives, Objectification
Giving it Away on Page 1: “You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style.”
Ludicrous Narrative Accidents Caused : 1
Read: From Nabokov to Erdrich: Reading Complex Portraits of Criminality; The Pure Pleasure of Reading Lolita‘s First 100 Pages; Lolita: From Transgressive Lit to Pop Iconography
Monsters & Boogeymen
(Things that go bump on the bookshelf.)
JUDGE HOLDEN (1) vs. PENNYWISE/IT (8)
(1) Judge Holden (Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian)
Our top seed is a character with the flaws and excesses of a human, but the core devotion to evil and mystical aura that you only find in religious texts: the Glanton gang’s brutal Judge Holden. Huge and hairless, he’s like a violent Mr. Clean. Holden is a truly hateful and haunting character — eerily well-mannered and intelligent, but with a lust for carnage and a hatred of all birds because their freedom personally insults him.
In His Saddlebags: Homemade Gunpowder, Fiddling, A Violent Worldview
Outlook: “War is god.”
Number of Reddit Threads Trying to Articulate Exactly What Holden Is: ∞
Read: Blood Meridian’s 10 most McCarthian sentences, Harold Bloom on Cormac McCarthy, True Heir to Melville and Faulkner, and Nine of the Most Violent Works of Literary Fiction
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(8) Pennywise/It (Stephen King, It)
It is an interdimensional alien malevolence with nearly limitless powers, but mostly known as Pennywise The Dancing Clown — I imagine It feels a lot like the band Oasis, bitter about the one hit song that made them famous. Because It isn’t just a clown, It has tons of other, equally frightening forms: flying leeches, a blood fountain, swirling lights that make you insane, and more. A reminder that even villains that live to eat kids can contain multitudes.
Weapon of Choice: Shapeshifting, Knowing Exactly What You Fear Most
Looks Scary: “And George saw the clown’s face change. What he saw then was terrible enough to make his worst imaginings of the thing in the cellar look like sweet dreams; what he saw destroyed his sanity in one clawing stroke.”
Next Year Pennywise Should Return: ~2040
Read: Hanging Out with Pennywise and My Grandmother’s Ghost and The Literature of Creepy Clowns
KURTZ (5) vs. RANDALL FLAGG (4)
(5) Kurtz (Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness)
A thoroughly evil man, Kurtz uses a mandate from a colonizing corporation to fashion himself as a mad demigod who rules over a cruel African outpost. Conrad’s novella was based on his own experiences on a Belgian steamer, and Kurtz is likely an amalgam of various violent Europeans who terrorized Africa—he’s one of literature’s most indelible sociopaths.
Weapon of Choice: Exploitative Colonial Capitalism, Monologues
Famous Last Words: “The horror! The horror!”
Kilometers He’s Hidden Himself Up River: >65
Read: “Invasion is a Structure Not an Event.” On Settler Colonialism and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
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(4) Randall Flagg (Stephen King, The Stand)
Flagg is a sinister mainstay in the Stephen King Extended Universe, appearing in a lot of his books and going by over a dozen nicknames: “The Dark Man,” “The Hardcase,” “The Tall Man,” and “The Walkin’ Dude.” Flagg makes his first appearance in The Stand as the charismatic and ruthless tyrant of post-apocalyptic Las Vegas. He’s a compelling messiah of violence and terrible powers, which is why he’s so high in our seeding.
Weapon of Choice: Public Executions, Balls of Fire, Forcing Motorcycles Off The Road
Horrifying Visage: “He was known there, and even the maddest of them could only gaze upon his dark and grinning face at an oblique angle.”
Age (If Applicable): 1,500
Read: Why Nature Always Makes for the Best Antagonist
ANNIE WILKES (11) vs. SAURON (3)
(11) Annie Wilkes (Stephen King, Misery)
One thing that these kids today don’t understand is that before social media, it took a lot more work to keep up a troubling parasocial relationship. Annie Wilkes deserves your respect as well as your fear—she’s violent and murderous, but also a devoted reader and fan. That being said, she gives some of the worst manuscript notes I’ve ever seen.
Weapon of Choice: Ax, Blowtorch, Medication, Toxic Fandom,
Plan to Keep Her Favorite Author Abducted: “If they caught them they made sure that they could go on working . . . but they also made sure they would never run again. The operation was called hobbling, Paul, and that is what I’m going to do to you. For my own safety . . . and yours as well. Believe me, you need to be protected from yourself. Just remember, a little pain and it will be over. Try to hold that thought.’”
Number of Paul Sheldon Novels She Obsessed Over (Pre-Abduction): 8
Read: The Depths of Stephen King’s Misery
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(3) Sauron (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings)
The Lidless Eye, The Monster from Mordor, The Rascal with the Rings—Sauron’s the all-seeing Orcs’ mate you love to hate. As readers, we’re told very little about Sauron’s appearance and we never meet him, but we see his presence everywhere. He’s a pervasive evil influence corrupting Middle Earth, a hazy darkness with vast influence. The one thing he seems incapable of doing, though, is holding onto jewelry—take off your all-powerful rings before a swordfight, dude! It’s like swimming with your wedding ring on: don’t do it!
His Horde Includes: Nazgûl, Uruks, Easterlings, Haradrim, Trolls, Tolkein Nerds Correcting Factual Inaccuracies in Articles Like This One
The Eye Gazes on Thee: “Its wrath blazed like a sudden flame and its fear was like a great black smoke, for it knew its deadly peril, the thread upon which hung its doom.”
Rings To Rule Them All: 1
RUFUS WEYLIN (10) vs. COUNT DRACULA (2)
(10) Rufus Weylin (Octavia Butler, Kindred)
Weylin is the spoiled, selfish, and brutish villain in Butler’s classic time travel novel. His casual cruelty is shocking, but the real depths of his depravity are in his delusions–Weylin repeatedly insists that he is actually kind and benevolent, but that his hand is forced into brutality. He’s a bad man in a terrible system, a noxious combo.
Weapon of Choice: Petulant Arson, Blackmail
No Loyalty: “If Rufus could turn so quickly on a life-long friend, how long would it take him to turn on me?” “Strangely, they seemed to like him, hold him in contempt, and fear him all at the same time.”
Time Traveled: 161 years
Read: How Octavia Butler’s Kindred Became a Novel
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(2) Count Dracula (Bram Stoker, Dracula)
The king of vampires is, of course, right near the top of our monster seeding, and I suspect that the Count’s influence, renown, and spookiness are going to take him far in the tournament. It’s hard to overstate just how iconic this character is: can you imagine our culture without charismatic bloodsuckers? Stoker’s novel set the template: What starts as an innocent international real estate deal gets quickly out of hand as Dracula arrives in London and makes life hell for a Victorian polycule and a poor young man who just wants to eat bugs.
Veapons Ov Choice: Transformation, Neck Biting, 50 Boxes of Dirt
First Sign of Trouble: “But my very feelings changed to repulsion and terror when I saw the whole man slowly emerge from the window and begin to crawl down the castle wall over that dreadful abyss, face down with his cloak spreading out around him like great wings.”
Victims: ~15
Read: The 52 Best, Worst, and Strangest Draculas of All Time, Ranked
Anti-Villains
(They picked a very wrong path.)
SATAN (1) vs. MISS HAVISHAM (8)
(1) Satan (John Milton, Paradise Lost)
Is evil incarnate just a misunderstood bad boy? Our top seed in the anti-villains category is the Western embodiment of wickedness, whom Milton treated with more depth of character and contradiction than anyone else in his poem. Milton’s Satan is still a fallen angel who corrupts Adam and Eve with sin, but as readers, we feel his alienation and frustrations. It turns out even Satan struggles with big decisions.
Weapon of Choice: Army of Fallen Angels, Apples
Reasoning: “Here we may reign secure, and in my choice/to reign is worth ambition though in Hell:/Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.”
Number of Furies Fierce As: 10
Read: Satanic Sympathies: On the Demon Depictions That Helped Jamie Quarto Write Two-Step Devil
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(8) Miss Havisham (Charles Dickens, Great Expectations)
If anyone’s looking for a fan fiction idea, I would love to see a remorseful Miss Havishman survive and become a wellness influencer who uses therapy-adjacent buzzwords to explain herself and atone for years of manipulation. Because though for most of this novel she’d be right at home alongside our bracket’s manipulators, her heart isn’t fully in it. It’s always clear that her cruelty and bitterness are symptoms of her break from reality. She deserved better, like a career doing sponcon for text therapy services and CBD drinks.
Puppet Strings She Pulls: Limited Wardrobe, Making Her Trauma Other Peoples’ Problem
Mission Statement: “Break their hearts my pride and hope, break their hearts and have no mercy!”
Stopped All Her Clocks At: 8:40
Read: I regret to inform you that Miss Havisham, Dickens’ embittered crone, is actually only . . . 40.
BELOVED (5) vs. JAVERT (4)
(5) Beloved (Toni Morrison, Beloved)
Beloved is a symbol and victim of many of America’s darkest institutions and histories, and the discord and wickedness she sows in Sethe’s life is small in comparison to America’s sins.
Creates Chaos With: Her Anger, Growing Larger and Larger
Haunting Arrival: “All day and all night she sat there, her head resting on the trunk in a position abandoned enough to crack the brim in her straw hat. Everything hurt but her lungs most of all. Sopping wet and breathing shallow she spent those hours trying to negotiate the weight of her eyelids.”
Sethe’s House Number: 124
Read: Toni Morrison’s Powerful Vision of a Revival as a Ceremony for Healing Black Bodies
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(4) Javert (Victor Hugo, Les Miserables)
On the D&D alignment chart, Inspector Javert is Lawful Neutral: he believes what he’s doing is right and correct, because, well, it’s the law! How could upholding the law be villainous? Even when you’re bending over backward to obsessively hunt down a man who broke his parole after serving hard time for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving family. After all, that man is a criminal. He can’t be also a good person. Because if he is a good person . . . what kind of person is Javert?
Weapon of Choice: Justice
ACAB: “Javert had been born in prison, of a fortune-teller, whose husband was in the galleys. As he grew up, he thought that he was outside the pale of society, and he despaired of ever re-entering it. He observed that society unpardoningly excludes two classes of men,—those who attack it and those who guard it; he had no choice except between these two classes; at the same time, he was conscious of an indescribable foundation of rigidity, regularity, and probity, complicated with an inexpressible hatred for the race of bohemians whence he was sprung. He entered the police; he succeeded there. At forty years of age he was an inspector.”
Jean Valjeans Identified: 2
Read: Inspector Javert: The Archetypal Cop with an Obsession
GOLLUM (11) vs. CAPTAIN HOOK (14)
(11) Gollum (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings)
At the risk of sounding like a terrible ‘90s comic whining about marriage: Gollum’s not inherently a bad guy, he’s just been corrupted by a ring. And not to mention that he’s named after the horrible sound his throat makes — mortifying! Imagine being named for your worst physical tic? No wonder Gollum got so bitter and villainous.
Tools of Lurking: Eating Fish Horribly, His Precious
Vow: “Thief, Thief, Thief! Baggins! We hates it, we hates it, we hates it forever!”
Age At The Time of The Ring’s Destruction: ~600
Read: Is The Lord of the Rings a Work of Modernism?
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(14) Captain Hook (JM Barrie, Peter Pan)
There are a lot of reasons to hate Peter Pan’s nemesis (not the least that he kills a lot of natives in the original text), but what’s been lost in the Disney-fication of Hook is that Peter is the one who chopped off Hook’s hand and then fed it to the clock crocodile. So much to say that this crook with the hook has got a pretty good reason to hate Peter Pan.
Wrist Attachments: The Eponymous Hook, Cigar Holder
Sinister Description: “His eyes were the blue of the forget-me-not, and of a profound melancholy, save when he was plunging his hook into you, at which time two red spots appeared in them and lit them up horribly…He was never more sinister than when he was most polite…”
Hands: 1
Read: Why Does Hollywood Keep Returning to Peter Pan?
MEDEA (10) vs. FRANKENSTEIN’S MONSTER (2)
(10) Medea (Euripides, Medea)
Before Gone Girl and all the country songs about keying your ex’s pickup, there was Medea, taking charge in a man’s cruel world. Like others in the anti-villain division, Medea takes her revenge too far, but the target of her anger – her unfaithful Argonaut husband – definitely deserves it.
Weapon of Choice: Robe & Crown Poison, Big Knife
Vengeance Vowed: “…and, lo, he sets me free/This one long day: wherein mine haters three/Shall lie here dead, the father and the bride/And husband—mine, not hers!”
Place in Athens’ Dionysia Festival Competition: 3rd
Read: How Ancient Tales Became a Rallying Cry for Modern Women
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(2) Frankenstein’s Monster (Mary Shelley, Frankenstein)
We all have issues with our parents to a certain extent, but the Creature’s issues with Victor Frankenstein take the cake. Victor refers to his creation as a “vile insect,” “abhorred monster,” “fiend,” and “abhorred devil.” Not a loving parent.
After all that, the Creature, who is sensitive, well-read, and a vegetarian on moral grounds, tries desperately to fit in, but is shunned, chased, and shot. Naturally, he swears vengeance on all mankind.
Weapon of Choice: Fists, Eloquence
Heel Turn: “Everywhere I see bliss, from which I alone am irrevocably excluded. I was benevolent and good – misery made me a fiend.”
People Killed: 3
Classic Books Read: 3
Read: How Reading and the Thirst for Knowledge is at the Heart of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; 200 Years of Frankenstein On Stage and Onscreen; Nature and Human Nature in Frankenstein; “An Unnatural Body”: Queerness, Monstrosity, and Frankenstein
Thanks for voting! See you in the next round!
