Mrs. Homie and I were discussing this last night over some… medicine. What are some movies, novels, etc., where the villain is the main character? Here are a few we came up with:
[Some content will contain open spoilers]
The Phantom of the Opera: He’s pitiful, yes. But he’s also into kidnapping, murder and extortion. Definitely the villain in the story, although the hero who gives him his comeuppance is a secondary character.
The Silence of the Lambs: There’s no arguing about what a classic villain Hannibal Lecter is, and his evil seemingly knows no bounds. But he also has somewhat of a moral code- at least, inasmuch as it furthers his own needs. In this story he does some good, by helping Clarice to nab the actual villain in the story, Buffalo Bill.
At least as the book goes, I’m not sure I’d say he’s the ‘main’ character. The book certainly doesn’t follow him around the way it does Harkness and the others.
With both The Phantom of the Opera and Dracula (original novel versions), the title character is the villain but spends little time “on screen”. I wouldn’t call either of them the main characters of the books. This isn’t true in all the various adaptations, though. For instance, Dracula has a bigger role in the 1992 film version.
There are two Agatha Christie novels where the killer turns out to be the narrator, so the entire story is told from the perspective of the villain. I’ll spoiler the titles, since in both cases the reader does not learn until the end that the narrator is the killer.
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, and the lesser known Endless Night.Depending on how one interprets the end of the movie, the amnesiac main character (Leonard) in Memento could be considered the villain. It depends largely on how much of Teddy’s account of Leonard’s backstory is true, and what Leonard’s motivations were when he decided to kill Teddy. I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say Leonard does kill Teddy, as this happens in the first scene of the movie, but I’ll spoiler my thoughts on Leonard’s possible motives.[spoiler]At the time Leonard decided to kill Teddy, he is aware that Teddy has manipulated him into killing local drug dealer Dodd by leading him to believe that Dodd was responsible for the rape and murder of Leonard’s wife. Teddy admits that Dodd had nothing to do with this, and tells Leonard that his wife’s assailant is already dead. I can’t remember if this was clear to Leonard or not, but Teddy sent him after Dodd partially because he wanted to get ahold of Dodd’s drug money.
If Leonard decides to kill Teddy because he does not want Teddy to be able to continue manipulating him into killing other people for Teddy’s gain, then I’d say he’s not a villain. If Leonard kills Teddy because Leonard thinks Teddy is a liar who is interfering with his quest to avenge his wife’s murder, his decision is more questionable. If Leonard kills Teddy because Leonard doesn’t think Teddy is a liar but would prefer to hold on to his mistaken beliefs about the circumstances surrounding his wife’s death and the ultimate fate of her assailant, then he’s a villain.[/spoiler]