Scariest Characters in Literature
In the spirit of Halloween, I have decided to create a list of those who I believe are the scariest characters in literature. It’s easy to make a character seem scary in film because you can show it, but it’s a skill for an author to create fear of a character with only words. Here are some of my favourites (in no particular order):
Patrick Bateman
(American Psycho, Bret Easton Ellis)
It’s hard to look past a character that lives a duel live, neither of which are likeable. Even in his ordinary life, Patrick Bateman is a character easy to despise: rich, shallow, and addicted to sex and drugs. However, that is not what makes him fearsome. In his secret life as a serial killer, Bateman has no moral boundaries, which leaves him free to indulge in many crimes, including rape, torture, necrophilia, and cannibalism—all of which are described in graphic detail.
He is a controversial character, but that is what makes him a great fictional character—and an even better scary one.
Miss Havisham
(Great Expectations, Charles Dickens)
On one hand I pity Miss Havisham as the tragic character she is, but it’s hard to overlook that she’s a woman who sits around for generations in the wedding dress in which she was jilted, all the while using two innocent children to avenge her unrequited love. If that’s not creepy I don’t know what is.
Lord Voldemort
(Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling)
It’s inevitable that a Harry Potter character has made my list because the books were a big part of my childhood. It is, therefore, not a surprise that Lord Voldemort has makes this list. He Who Must Not Be Named is not only gruesome in his snake-like appearance but he has no morals or boundaries when it comes to power—even if it means killing innocent people to ensure his immortality. Thanks to Lord Voldemort I spent my formative childhood years thinking that turbans hid faces on the back of heads and souls could control people through diaries—thank you J.K. Rowling for simultaneously making and ruining my innocent childhood.
Bellatrix Lestrange
(Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling)
I couldn’t resist another Harry Potter entry, but I don’t think anyone could begrudge of me this one. In certain respects Bellatrix Lestrange scares me more than Voldemort himself. As his right hand woman, Lestrange has no morals and a deep seated need to see Voldemort rule the wizarding world. Her dark and twisted loyalty to the dark side, combined with her unstable mentality, means that she kills and tortures as easily as most of us hug our parents. It’s the fact that she is so inhumanly human that makes her terrifying.
Tyler Durden
(Fight Club, Chuck Palahnuik)
Tyler Durden is scary in the simple fact that he’s inherently crazy, but you just don’t know it straight away. He draws you in, let’s you think that he’s this great, fun guy, and then BAM, his MO is causing destruction and making bombs. I think any guy playing with bombs makes the scary list.
Humbert Humbert
(Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov)
Humbert Humber seduces a twelve year old girl and spends the novel trying to justify himself… need I say more?
Mrs. Trunchbull
(Matilda, Roald Dahl)
Mrs. Trunchbull is a character scary enough to terrify any child, and probably a lot of adults—she definitely makes going to school a scary prospect—what with reliving her shot-putting days on the children and inventing torture chambers.
Lady Macbeth
(Macbeth, William Shakespeare)
One word: deranged. She is certainly not a woman likely to roll over and play the subdued wife. Instead, she uses her expert skills in manipulation to mastermind her husband’s murderous crimes. It takes a scary kind of person to pull of regicide without getting a speck of blood on her hands.
Count Dracula
(Dracula, Bram Stoker)
I feel like it would be blasphemous to leave the original horror vampire out of this list. Dracula takes us back to a time when vampires were actually scary and not sparkly. In the 19th Century, readers were genuinely terrified of Dracula, and even if you read it today you can’t help but feel a little bit scared—I mean he really wants to suck your blood.
Cruella De Vil
(The Hundred and One Dalmatians, Dodie Smith)
She kills puppies to make a coat and terrified me as a kid. Enough said.
Who would make your list?
