Thursday, November 21, 2013

Book Talk: Bad Girls, Bad Girls

After recently reading Doctor Sleep by Stephen King, I really got to thinking about villains.  Have you ever noticed how most real evil villains are men?  For example, Sauron from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, Voldemort of Harry Potter, Pennywise from King's It, or Stoker's Dracula.  Few females hold the role of evil in literature.

In King's latest release, his villain is Rose.  She is a woman with special powers bordering on vampiric and the leader of a group of RV-driving individuals like herself.  They travel around the country killing "special" kids to ensure their powers and immortality.  King is also famous for his female villain in Misery, a woman named Annie who imprisons her favorite author.  Beyond King, I can only count a small number of bad girls in fiction.  Here are a few that come to mind . . .

  • The Wicked Witch in Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
  • Dolores Umbridge and Bellatrix LeStrange in Rowling's Harry Potter
  • The White Witch in The Chronicles of Narnia series by Lewis
  • Maleficent from Pearson's Kingdom Keepers series
  • stepmothers in so many well-known fairy tales (i.e., Cinderella, Snow White, Hansel & Gretel, etc.)
This is all I've got!

Let's be honest.  Girls can be mean in real life.  They can be sneaky and downright nasty, yet tend to be portrayed as nurturing and kind.  Yes, sociopaths tend to be men, but women can still have evil tendencies.  Don't you think that this needs to be better reflected in literature?

What do you think about female villains?  Can you name other female villains that I have not already listed?  Which of these bad girls is your favorite?

4 comments:

  1. Cathy from East of Eden was one wicked mother.
    Amy from Gone Girl. Another piece of work for sure.
    Rachel from My Cousin Rachel. She was particularly bad.

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    Replies
    1. Ti ... I have not yet read East of Eden or My Cousin Rachel. BUT, I have read Gone Girl and completely forgot about Amy! She is a really good bad one!!!

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  2. Morgause from Queen of Camelot was awful. She is pretty rough in all the Arthurian spin-offs, but she was particularly bad in this one.

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    Replies
    1. jensbookbloggin ... I have not read many Arthurian spin-offs, but you have me intrigued! I will have to check out Queen of Camelot to get the real bad girl version!!

      Delete

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