This is a list about the best Shakespeare villains; it answers the question, “Who are the bad guys in William Shakespeare’s plays?” Every play has a hero and a villain: who, in your book is the top villain of all-times in one of Shakespeare’s plays?While most villains are purely evil, the interesting thing about Shakespeare is that his villains are not always overtly evil. Some of them seem to only be facing a moral dilemma of sorts; they’re not the typical in-your-face evil plotters like other stories usually have. As a result, a lot of Shakespearean villains play very subtle roles.
In addition to characters that are dubbed a villain but don’t play the typically evil roles that we think of when we hear that term, Shakespeare’s best plays also included some of the most notoriously evil characters in history, including: Richard III, Iago, Cornwall and Aaron the Moor. He was also notorious for making the audience fine sympathy for the bad guys (like Julius Caesar). The up-and-down emotions he caused the audience to feel are what made him famous. Shakespeare was also known for making his villainous characters seem incredibly real, struggling with common problems we each face like jealousy, heartbreak, greed and bitterness. He seemed to thrive on showing his audience the ironies of being judgmental since we are each the same in the end....more
1
30962Iago
Othello2
22865Lady Macbeth
Macbeth3
12148King Claudius
Hamlet4
12255Macbeth
Macbeth5
10350Edmund
King Lear6
14746Richard III
Richard III7
10335Aaron the Moor
Titus Andronicus8
9455Tybalt
Romer and Juliet9
7534Cassius
Julius Caesar10
7033Aaron
Titus Andronicus11
8439Goneril
King Lear12
8056Shylock
The Merchant of Venice13
5632Proteus
The Two Gentlemen of VeronaPowers & Abilities: Telepathy, Reality warping
14
7138Regan
King Lear15
5855Falstaff
Henry IV16
5532Cornwall
King Lear17
8147Richard II
Richard II18
5043Don John
Much Ado About Nothing19
3234King John
King John20
4323Brutus
Julius Caesar21
3225Iachimo
Cymbeline22
3037Lancelot Gobbo
The Merchant of Venice23
4749Caliban
The Tempest24
2328Duke Frederick
As You Like It25
3375Puck
A Midsummer Night's Dream