So much to talk about...and my Top Ten literary bad guys/gals

...and so little time.  I have a good idea for a blog entry.  Prior to that, I've watched a couple of movies (including The Hangover Part II, which I found kinda funny and mostly gross), accidentally bumped my knee on a seat on a city bus (I have the bruise to prove it), and saved my town from a horde of elephants armed with BB guns.  Okay, okay...I made up the last part but I'm also working on Chapter 1 of my Jane and Edward: Zombie Hunters fanfiction series that will debut on Fanfiction.net sometime in the near future.  Thanks to my new Blockbuster online rental account, I now have two "new" movies to watch: The Mechanic with Jason Statham and the original True Grit with John Wayne and Glen Campbell.

As I mentioned earlier, I came up with an idea for a blog entry.  I'm doing a Top Ten list of literary characters in "some" particular order that I loathe and/or perceive to be truly evil; in other words, it's a Top Ten literary bad guys list.  And they all come from books that I have read.  If you'd like to add your own choices in response to this blog, that's cool.  Just so you know that my choices come from books that I've read so if I miss someone, then I probably haven't read the book or didn't factor in their evilness welll enough...lol. 


10. Lady Macbeth from William Shakespeare's Macbeth - A power-hungry woman convinces her husband, Lord Macbeth, to bump off the current king of Scotland.  She's going to need to do a lot more than just wring her hands of blood.

9. King Claudius from William Shakespeare's Hamlet - We all know the story.  Hamlet's dad dies under mysterious circumstances and just like that (snaps fingers), his brother Claudius, marries Hamlet's mom.  Yes, there is something rotten in the state of Denmark and it's wearing a king's crown.

8. Iago from William Shakespeare's Othello - One way to gain a position of power is to frame an innocent woman for adultery.  Iago has it all; he's a lying manipulator.

7. Jack Merridew from William Golding's The Lord of the Flies - He represents the worst in humanity; an appetite, nay, a lust for blood and killing.  He and his "tribe" of fellow choir boys nearly killed Ralph, the elected leader of the island they were stranded on. 

6. Simon Legree from Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin - A ruthless, abusive slave owner, he has no sympathy or grief for the death of one of his slaves.

5. Cathy Ames from John Steinbeck's East of Eden - She burns down her parents' home, killing both her mom and dad and sleeps with her brother-in-law.  Oh, and she also leaves her husband after "their" twins are born.  Not necessarily mother material, methinks.

4. Jack Torrance from Stephen King's The Shining - Someone who slowly goes insane and then turns on his family to help quell the "voices" from the Overlook Hotel.

3. The White Witch from C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - Dictatorial tyrant of Narnia who has covered said land in enormous amounts of snow. 

2. Saruman from J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series - Y'know, that One Ring is lookin' pretty sweet right now...

1. Lord Voldemort from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series - With Harry Potter's geneology (and everyone else's family tree) aside, he is one bad dude.  Several people have been left dead in his "wake," if you will, including some much loved HP characters.

Honorable mentions (mostly characters I just didn't like very much):

*Scarlett O'Hara from Margaret Mitchell's Gone with the Wind.
*Becky Sharp from William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair.
*Mrs. Medlock from Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden.
*Lady Catherine de Bough from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
*Mrs. Reed from Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.
*Tybalt from William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
*Cynthia from Elizabeth Gaskell's Wives and Daughters.
*Etc.

That's it for now.  Fin.