Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” shows evil through colonial greed and power corruption. Marlow, the book’s protagonist, journeys into the Congo, where exploitation and obsession reign in Kurtz, an ivory trader lost to darkness.
As Marlow moves further into the jungle, he confronts how easily civilization can slip away, replaced by cruelty and madness. Conrad asks readers a troubling question: is evil inherent within us, lurking beneath society’s thin surface?
Or is it something external, a darkness we encounter and absorb from the world around us?
William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” places innocence against humanity’s brutal nature. A group of young boys stranded on an isolated island try to maintain order, but soon descend into savagery.
Through the struggles between Ralph’s order and Jack’s chaos, evil emerges not as an abstract external force, but as something present within each individual. When civilization fades away, primal instincts and violence take center stage.
The question raised is uncomfortable but clear: does deeper darkness live inside all of us, waiting for the chance to break free?
Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray” uses art as a direct connection to evil. Dorian Gray trades his soul for eternal youth, while his portrait ages and reveals his monstrous acts and cruel pleasures.
Wilde explores vanity, corruption, and moral decay hidden behind a beautiful facade. Dorian’s ruthlessness grows unchecked, causing destruction around him, yet he himself remains outwardly unchanged. Soon, the portrait shows the truth he desperately hides.
As readers watch Dorian’s disturbing moral descent, Wilde captures evil’s seductive disguise beneath an elegant surface.
In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s “Crime and Punishment,” evil arises from deep psychological torment and moral confusion. Raskolnikov commits murder, convinced he stands morally above ordinary people, believing his deed will prove his superiority.
But guilt, fear, and paranoia consume him in the aftermath, causing his mind to spiral into darkness. Dostoevsky examines human weakness and pride, exposing how evil emerges not from absolute cruelty, but from flawed reasoning and distorted morals.
Raskolnikov’s internal battle reveals the complexity of evil, rooted deeply within the troubled mind.
“American Psycho” by Bret Easton Ellis examines evil through the guise of superficiality and consumerist obsession. Patrick Bateman, a successful Wall Street banker with a polished exterior, lives a double life as a brutal serial killer.
Ellis portrays disturbing violence behind affluence, suggesting a society that measures self-worth by material status might conceal irredeemable darkness.
Furthermore, Bateman’s horrific actions contrast starkly with his shallow daily concerns of fashion, restaurants, and luxury items. Through him, readers witness evil hidden blatantly in plain sight, masked only by vanity.
Thomas Harris’s “Silence of the Lambs” delves into evil through the minds of serial killers and psychological manipulation. The gifted but twisted psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter assists FBI trainee Clarice Starling in hunting down another deadly murderer, Buffalo Bill.
Through disturbing conversations between Clarice and Lecter, Harris portrays how evil can possess intelligence, charm, and sophistication, making it dangerously captivating.
Lecter’s unsettling insights into human psychology reinforce the uncomfortable awareness that evil can manifest not only in brutality, but also in manipulative intelligence and charm.
Patrick Süskind’s “Perfume” explores evil through sensory obsession and twisted genius. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, born without scent yet gifted with an extraordinary sense of smell, becomes dangerously obsessed with capturing the perfect fragrance.
To achieve this sinister goal, Grenouille commits disturbing crimes. Süskind vividly portrays evil arising from unchecked desire, manipulation, and single-minded fixation.
Grenouille’s acts of evil stem not simply from cruelty, but from ruthless ambition to realize his artistic passion, suggesting evil’s terrifying ability to disguise itself as inspiration.
Ira Levin’s horror novel “Rosemary’s Baby” depicts evil infiltrating and corrupting normal lives from within. Young Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse move into a seemingly ideal apartment to begin their family. Soon, Rosemary suspects sinister intentions behind her pregnancy.
Levin skillfully unveils how ordinary situations conceal malevolent intentions and manipulative conspiracies.
Rosemary’s increasing isolation and paranoia build tension, reflecting a chilling exploration of everyday evil lurking unnoticed, embedded within trusted communities, neighbors, even loved ones.
In Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic tale, evil materializes as duality and hidden self. Dr Henry Jekyll creates a potion to separate his respectable self from dark impulses, unleashing the monstrous Mr Hyde.
Stevenson explores how good and evil reside within a single human, revealing the inner moral struggle many individuals quietly endure.
The blurred lines between Jekyll’s noble intentions and Hyde’s depravity provoke thoughts about evil’s potential within every person, waiting to surface under certain conditions—an unsettling reflection of our inner complexities.
George Orwell’s “1984” presents evil as absolute governmental power, surveillance, and manipulation. Winston Smith struggles against the oppressive Party regime, specifically against Big Brother’s chilling totalitarian control.
Orwell vividly portrays the evil inherent in absolute authoritarianism, which crushes individuality and truth through deceit and oppression.
Through Winston’s defiance and eventual psychological defeat, readers experience evil as not only human cruelty, but also the calculated destruction of hope, independent thought, and love—the ultimate dark potential of political power unchecked.
Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” portrays evil as a seductive, supernatural presence embodied by Count Dracula. Traveling from isolated Transylvanian castles to Victorian England, Dracula threatens society’s stability and morality.
Evil in Dracula is alluring, aristocratic, intelligent, powerful—attractive yet deadly. Stoker connects evil directly to sexuality and primal instincts, showcasing how easily society’s norms unravel beneath supernatural temptation.
Through determined heroes confronting Dracula, readers face the terrifying yet enticing nature of evil as dark temptation undermining innocence and virtue.
Iain Banks’ “The Wasp Factory” offers unsettling insights into evil emerging from isolation and disturbed family dynamics. Frank, a troubled teenager isolated on a Scottish island, engages in unsettling rituals and violence.
Banks illustrates how evil can germinate from distorted perspectives shaped by family secrets, violence, and warped identity.
The disturbing reality Frank inhabits reveals how evil sometimes spawns not from external wickedness but from internal confusion, misguidance, and fractured childhoods—a chilling presentation of evil formed in isolation.
Lionel Shriver’s “We Need to Talk About Kevin” questions evil emerging not only internally, but also within interpersonal relationships and parent-child dynamics. Eva, the reluctant mother of Kevin, recollects life with her disturbed son who commits a horrifying act.
Shriver examines difficult truths about parental responsibility, nature versus nurture, and evil shaped through complicated family bonds.
The novel reveals how evil can grow unnoticed in ordinary homes, complicating traditional views that evil exists solely as external violence rather than subtler emotional neglect or family dysfunction.
In Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road,” evil emerges starkly from dire survival conditions in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. A father and son journey endlessly through landscapes reduced to desolation by human cruelty.
McCarthy portrays evil realistically through desperation, violence, and cannibalism among survivors. Without social structures or morality to restrain them, groups submit to brutal impulses.
The novel asks if morality still holds value when society collapses, effectively highlighting how survival can unleash human evil dormant within us, awaiting the loss of constraints.
In “Red Dragon,” Thomas Harris investigates evil through psychological manipulation and innate savagery. FBI profiler Will Graham tracks down serial killer Francis Dolarhyde, known as the Tooth Fairy.
Harris explores psychological scars, family trauma, and twisted motives leading to abhorrent acts. Evil collides with empathy here, as readers see Dolarhyde’s deeply disturbing personal backstory shaping his monstrous actions.
Harris portrays evil as arising from painful traumas, emphasizing how darkness in human history and psyche can distort individuals into frightening violence and cruelty.