Ten Literary Characters You Love to Hate

What’s the only thing better than a literary hero you can root for like a rabid cheerleader? How about a villain whose imminent demise you yearn for so badly, you actually put it on your Christmas wish list? Though there are many quality antagonists in the history of western literature, there are only a few who inspire such total, uncomplicated, unadulterated loathing that we detest them with the wildest and most gleeful abandon. These characters aren’t merely unlikable, they’re the ones we love to hate. Make no mistake: true-blue despicability is a rare literary beast, indeed. So many times, we hate a character not because he is inhumanly evil, but because he isn’t, and because he embodies the flaws we most fear might be lurking within the quiet confines of our own hearts.

But this is not one of those times. In honor of the fictional folks who make our blood boil, we present the worst of the worst:

Joffrey Baratheon
A Song of Ice and Fire, by George R.R. Martin

A sniveling brat from the beginning of Martin’s epic fantasy saga, little Joffrey slowly evolves into a power-mad sadist—and because Martin hates us and wants us to be miserable, he continues to survive for book after book while other, better characters drop like flies.

Iago
Othello, by William Shakespeare

The scheming, manipulative villain of Shakespeare’s tragic play, Iago is the originator of all the worst mean-girl moves ever to take place in a high school cafeteria.

Dolores Umbridge
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, by J.K. Rowling

Okay, so she’s not the most evil character to grace the pages of the Harry Potter saga; that distinction goes to Lord Voldemort. But Voldy had a miserable childhood, is an inbred orphan, and is also out of his mind, whereas Umbridge has no such excuse for the self-righteous delight she takes in the misery of those she deems beneath her. HAAAAATE.

Humbert Humbert
Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov

Does the hateability of a pederast protagonist who justifies his predatory behavior by claiming that he was seduced by a 12-year-old require further explanation? Didn’t think so. Next.

Olivia Foxworth
Flowers in the Attic, by V.C. Andrews

This murderous matriarch imprisons her grandchildren in an attic for years—and when she’s not killing them off with arsenic-laced doughnuts, she’s gluing them to their beds with tar. No need to temper your hatred, she’s awful!

Ashley Wilkes
Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell

Is Ashley evil? Nope! And that only makes us loathe the milquetoast little weenie even more. The appeal of this weak-willed, spineless sad sack to the magnificent Scarlett O’Hara is a sad, strange mystery which will never be solved.

Tom Buchanan
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Not that any character in Gatsby is particularly sympathetic, but Tom’s myopic entitlement makes him decidedly easy to hate.

Lydia Bennet
Pride & Prejudice, by Jane Austen

Lydia’s selfishness and lack of self-awareness make her the least likeable by far of all the Bennet sisters, and her tone-deaf nattering is a delightful agony in every scene. She and the caddish Wickham totally deserve each other.

Miss Trunchbull
Matilda, by Roald Dahl

Though Matilda’s parents give a good showing in the despicable characters department, Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood are ultimately too stupid for a truly satisfactory hate-read. Not so with the Trunchbull, the sadistic headmistress who has a remarkable gift for coming up with creative ways to torture the children in her care.

Hannibal Lecter
Red Dragon, by Thomas Harris

Hannibal Lecter is the rarest of beasts: not only a villain you’ll love to hate, but one you’ll also hate to love. It’s not that you want him to escape from prison wearing someone else’s face as a hat; face-stealing is clearly bad. And yet? AND YET. It’s a complicated relationship and it makes us very uncomfortable.

Who are your most delightfully detestable literary characters?