Patrick Wathen March Madness Rough Draft For every hero, there must be a villain to challenge it.

Many fall at the hands of their foe, yet their actions throughout the tale may continue to haunt a readers mind long after the end. Heroes are a dime a dozen, but villains require the strongest abilities to create. They must be fierce, destructive, and prove to be a real struggle for the hero. In the long history of British literature, many iconic villains have come and gone. I believe God from A Paradise Lost is the greatest villain from British literature through his power, intelligence, and great leadership abilities. In terms of pure power, Grendels brute strength and force deserves a definite place among the ranks of the other villains. Grendel has an immense size, far greater than that of men. In the story of Beowulf, it is mentioned that he killed 30 men at one time before dragging them off to his lair. He has swift hard claws, powerful jaws, and great teeth. Grendel also possesses magical powers, "...but their points/Could not hurt him, the sharpest and the hardest iron/Could not scratch at his skin, for the sin stained/demon/Had bewitched all the men's weapons, laid spells/That blunted every mortal man's blade," (800-804). As strong as Grendel was, he did have his own faults. Most notably, Grendel was a coward. He only attacked during the night, when all of Hrothgars men were asleep, presumably to avoid any chance of a real fight. Without the ability of magic, he is left powerless against Beowulf, who destroys him empty-handed. In contrast to Grendels brutality, Draculas power is more supernatural. However, Dracula also possesses the strength of 20 men, superhuman agility, and the ability of flight,

according to Bram Stokers original novel. Dracula is immortal and cannot be killed through conventional techniques. He is able to control a variety of animal species through the use of telepathy, as well as manipulate weather to suit his needs. His real power comes through his skill of passing on his unique vampiric powers through a simple bite to a human. On the contrary, Dracula has a large share of weaknesses. He has a natural disgust for any holy object, such as crosses and holy water. His powers are non-existent in daylight, though the sun will not kill him. He cannot enter premises until invited in, and he can be killed by decapitation, followed by impalement through the heart. Lord Voldemorts prowess as a wizard gives him his strength. He is known to be the strongest wizard in the world, and acquired extensive knowledge of the subject while he was still a young boy. He is amoral and generally lacks emotion, allowing him to push his own abilities as far as he wished. He is extremely hard to kill, considering that he split his soul into seven parts and scattered them inside various objects around the world. Lord Voldemort really only has one weakness, the inability to love. He has accepted this and even admitted that he had overlooked this magic on his rise to power. The lack of love ultimately forms his undoing. Love is the strongest of all magic, and because he had not experienced the emotion, Voldemort falls to his nemesis, Harry Potter. For sheer intelligence, look no further than Professor Moriarty. His brainpower rivals or even surpasses that of Sherlock Holmes, one of the greatest detectives in literary history. Referred to as the Napoleon of crime, Moriarty protects most of the criminals in London, and oversees much of the citys crime. In terms of his aptitude, Holmes once stated: He is a man of good birth and excellent education, endowed by nature with a phenomenal mathematical faculty.

At the age of twenty-one he wrote a treatise upon the binomial theorem, which has had a European vogue. On the strength of it he won the mathematical chair at one of our smaller universities, and had, to all appearances, a most brilliant career before him. Moriarty almost got away with all of his crimes, until he and Holmes battled on Riechenbach Falls, ultimately ending ultimately ending his life. Iago from Othello possesses a strong mind; however he uses his skill on a much smaller scale. Iago is the puppet master behind all of the drama of the play. He manages to outwit most everyone over the course of the action, as well as setting himself up to lay innocent of all evil. Iagos genius is his strongest asset, and uses it to its full potential by manipulating Othello, Desdemona, Emilia, Roderigo, Cassio, and Bianca into taking the course of action the play follows. Leadership is another good quality in villains. Mordred the illegitimate son of King Arthur possesses several qualities of leadership that all villains should have. One, he places no man above himself. Mordred only cares about destroying Arthur even if it he sacrifices his entire army to the kings. Two, a good villainous leader must be treacherous. Mordred seizes the throne of England whilst Arthur is away, and uses his foes to prepare an attack against Arthur. Three, a good leader must be willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for his own evil intentions. Mordred allows himself to be slain in the midst of ending Arthurs life. Big Brother is amongst the best villainous leaders of literature. Big Brother is more of an idea rather than a human being. It rules in a totalitarian government which oversees all aspects of life and society. Big Brother closely monitors all of its citizens, and will make sure to fix any who choose act against it. Big Brother manages to maintain control throughout, and never has

any real trouble with resistance. It changes certain parts of history and culture for the benefit of society. In the end, Big Brother only wants to keep peace within its nation and sometimes the only way to do so is smudge the facts a little bit. A good villain should possess at least one of these qualities, but a great villain should have all three, and bearing that in mind I consider God from A Paradise Lost to be the greatest villain in British literature. God has no faults and no limitations of power. He can literally flood the whole world and start anew; he can create and destroy anything he creates at any given point in time. There are no imperfections known for him. As far as intelligence goes, he is an all knowing deity. His knack for leadership has served him well with only a few blemishes. He is a very jealous leader who merely wants to maintain control, and never give anyone else a spot at the top. He was willing to sacrifice any of his angels to stop Lucifer for having any power, power that wouldnt have necessarily been used for evil. He has similar qualities to Big Brother in that he wished for humanity to remain stupid, ignorant, and only know what he wished for them to know. That was ended when Eve ate the fruit of knowledge through Lucifers guidance. If God doesnt like what he sees from his denizens, then he will be sure to make them suffer. In conclusion, usually God is seen as a deity of undying love and care. However with an open mind and close examination of his actions, he can also be a spirit of unstoppable power, immense intelligence, and a firm believer in totalitarianism.