Great Antagonists

[davidbeall]

It seems that far too often the antagonists I encounter in novels are flat and one dimensional. How exciting is it for us serious readers when we encounter an antagonist who’s not a typical monster? I recently read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, and I loved the way she showed the variety of forms monsters take. So varied were her real monsters, and

Comments

[elisabethx]

I'll have to give some thought to whose my favorite... but I do agree that (literary) monsters are often pretty rote creations. I remember one best-seller I read--actually, a very fine book--that so disappointed me when I discovered that at the root of the evil I'd been reading about was an incestuous child molestation. That's become such a trope in contemporary literature (perhaps because it's such a commonplace horror in real life) that a writer has to be extra clever when using it in a plot.

[davidbeall]

Good point about commonplace horror. Thanks!