Let’s Talk About Villains
by
Sarah Richmond
You know, those nasty
characters we love to hate. The writer can pluck the worst and best emotions from
a reader by creating believable villains. We keep turning the pages to find out
if these dastardly ne’er do wells get what he or she so justly deserves.
I’ve created a list of my Top
Ten Villains. I’m sure you have some hum-dingers of your own. Please share
them!
10.) King Edward Longshanks: In Braveheart, how very villainous of the
King to invoke Primae Noctis—the right of the a lord to take a newly married
Scottish woman to his bed. The injustice is enough to make him despicable.
9.) Snidely Whiplash: Snidely
holds the mortgage to Nell’s home and threatens to evict her if the mortgage
isn’t paid. I could never figure out why he tied her to the train tracks, but
we children booed anyhow. Also, Snidely has a villainous sneer and is sneaky.
More booing.
8.) The Sheriff of
Nottingham: The nemesis of Robin Hood, the Sheriff upholds the law not because
it’s the right thing to do but because he wants to curry favor with the King.
We’ve all known people like him. My favorite Sheriff was played by Alan Rickman
in Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves.
(1991) Boo. Hiss.
7.) Gordon Gecko: in Wall Street. First of all, lovely name. Second, greed
isn’t good and if you shuddered when he gave his famous iconic speech, we are
of the same generation. The oily hair helped make him a repulsive character.
6.) Fagen, from Charles
Dickens’ Oliver Twist. He did take in
those street kids and teach them a trade. However, anyone who hurts children is a
surefire villain. Unfortunately, we read about people like him in modern times.
5.) Boyd Crowder: The
smooth-talking bad boy in Justified.
(On the FX channel.) This character is taken from a book by Elmore Leonard
called Fire in the Hole. Boyd is complicated
because he is likeable and has good traits, (and is a hunk with great hair) but
the bad things he does are really bad, leaving a fan dazed and confused about
whether Boyd should be punished for his crimes.
4.) Grinch: We laugh at his
antics but the message is clear.
3.) Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz: Again a villain who
wants to harm children. Her laugh gives me the chills Bad dreams are made of
this.
2.) Inspector Javert: In Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo, no
amount of sympathetic backstory makes up for this dude’s obsession with Jean
Valjean, the man who stole a loaf of bread to feed his nephew and served out
his prison sentence.
Number One. None other than the
devil himself. The master Villain. Ironically,
just the thought of him interfering in our lives forces us to be good.
