15 of the Best Crazy Characters in Literature

Craziness has always been a popular element in literature; it’s a dependable way of adding chaos and suspense to the narrative. After all, who knows what will happen next when someone crazy is leading the action?

Depending on how you portray it, “crazy” can encompass anything from the odd and quirky, to downright mentally unhinged. And sometimes these characters are only perceived to be insane, but they’re actually the only reasonable ones around.

Crazy Characters in Literature

Crazy characters aren’t necessarily evil, though this kind of portrayal does dominate much of literature. Mental instability is just too good a reason to explain a person’s wrongdoings. We didn’t limit this list to just villains, though.

Check out the best characters in literature who embody craziness—from the vaguest sense of the word to its most extreme.

1. Humbert Humbert from Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Lolita is a novel about obsessions. Our unreliable narrator, Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged professor who becomes sexually involved with 12-year-old Dolores Haze, whom he calls “Lolita” in private.

Not surprisingly, Humbert’s a controversial character. Not only is he an unreliable narrator, but his unhealthy obsession makes him hate himself as much as he loves the object of it.

2. Everyone from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol

The Cheshire Cat did say they were all mad. I’ll take his word, considering all the wondrously weird stuff they’re up to in Wonderland. From putting butter on a watch to painting white roses red, everyone seems to be a bit out of their minds.

That’s not to say it’s a bad read. This whimsical tale has been popular since its release, and has never been out of print since 1865. That’s more than 150 years!

3. Captain Ahab from Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Captain Ahab’s obsession with an albino whale leads him into a hunt without care. The hatred he exhibits is all-consuming, with no concern over his and his crew’s safety.

He’s been widely considered a megalomaniac, given his unshakeable determination to beat a force of nature in its own habitat.

4. Jack Torrance from The Shining by Stephen King

Jack Torrance is an aspiring writer with serious anger issues. He’s broken his own kid’s arm and assaulted a student, for starters. To be fair, it’s not his fault he went insane. Getting possessed by a hotel’s spirit does that, no doubt.

What’s interesting about Jack is he isn’t possessed outright. Rather, the hotel first exacerbates his existing issues and then pushes him to insanity.

5. Gregor Samsa from The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Waking up to discover he’s a bug is Gregor Samsa’s newest problem. And in no way does Kafka say it’s metaphorical—as time goes on, Gregor becomes more buglike in both his thinking and mannerisms, even eating rotten food and crawling on the walls and ceilings.

Now this is kind of a cheat in the list, since anything Kafka’s written is guaranteed to have surreal and incomprehensible elements, but Gregor’s devolution is just too interesting to ignore.

6. Frederick Clegg from The Collector by John Fowles

Frederick Clegg has a hobby of collecting beautiful things. Setting his sights on pretty Miranda Grey, he convinces himself he loves her and seeks to add her to his collection.

Fowles takes us inside the mind of madness, showing us how people justify horrible acts and connect inconsistencies to arrive at a conclusion that’s only sensible to themselves.

7. Gollum from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien

Poor little Smeagol was just fishing with his relative Deagol, when they chanced upon the One Ring. Immediately under its influence, Smeagol strangles his cousin for it and slowly devolves into the creature now known as Gollum.

Gollum was first introduced to many as a miserable creature who had only one interest, and would do anything for it. But his backstory’s pretty sad, with his degradation brought about by the one thing he now loves the most.

8. Alonso Quixano from Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

Alonso Quixano is a nobleman who loses his mind after reading too many chivalric romances. Now he’s on a path to reviving chivalry by becoming a knight-errant and recruiting a simple farmer as his squire.

He’s probably everyone’s favorite madman just for the reason of how he became insane. What’s fun about his craziness is how he rejects how the world works and instead chooses his own version of it. It’s basically a daydream put to the extreme.

9. The Children from The Lord of the Flies by Willian Golding

What would you expect when a bunch of kids are stranded on a deserted island with no adult supervision? They’re physically and mentally unprepared for the burden of survival. As time goes by, they slowly devolve into feral beings that fight among themselves while worshipping an imaginary beast.

William Golding’s novel is an allegory on how civilization is kept “sane” by its rules and rationality. Without these elements that keep us in check, society will collapse or regress.

10. Rodion Raskolnikov from Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Rodion is an ex-student living in poverty. Desperate to escape his poor life, he plans and succeeds in killing an amoral pawnbroker for her money. But the consequences of what he’s done slowly degrade his mental energies.

Dostoevsky’s novel is a tale of remorse. Brought about by his situation, Rodion takes to the easier path only to discover the full significance of what he’s done.

12. Victor Frankenstein from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Victor Frankenstein’s goal is achieving mastery over death. To do so, he assembles a mishmash of body parts and creates a sapient creature through experimentation—but the results are far from what he imagined.

Frankenstein’s possibly the most famous mad scientist of all time, going about his experiments with reckless abandon. To borrow a line from Jeff Goldblum, he’s so preoccupied with whether or not he could that he didn’t stop to think if he should.

13. Henry Jekyll from The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Luis Stevenson

Henry Jekyll is another case of pushing through science’s boundaries without proper thought. Experimenting on himself, he manages to isolate his good and evil halves. As time goes by, he slowly loses control over his transformations and must find a way to finally end it.

Brought about by his desire to indulge in any vice without fearing repercussions, Jekyll’s fate is a case of flying too close to the sun, only to plummet down with no control.

14. Dr. Moreau from The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells

Dr. Moreau is a brilliant but amoral scientist who is driven away from London due to his extreme experiments. But instead of being discouraged, he turns an uninhabited island into his personal lab, where he creates human-animal hybrids.

He’s already crazy as is, but the added confusion brought down on the island’s poor unexpected guest is its own brand of madness.

15. The Narrator from Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

The unnamed narrator’s boring life is turned upside down when he comes under the wing of enigmatic Tyler Durden. Both of them establish a popular fight club that turns into a cult. But they’re not exactly two separate people, are they?

What makes the unnamed narrator an excellent crazy character is how he’s only revealed as unreliable at the big reveal at the end—a twist that essentially changes the story.

Is Mental Illness a Theme in Literature?

In its infancy, mental illness in literature was more or less attributed to supernatural or unknown causes. But as science improved, writers began to create mentally unhinged characters that were based on known disorders.

Mad characters have always been a favorite for many writers. They’re easy elements to add in when you want more spice in your stories. These kinds of characters naturally create tension that hooks readers into reading longer, and makes your stories memorable.

Currently, with society being more open to topics of mental health and illnesses, we’re experiencing an era where it’s openly talked about and accurately portrayed. That’s why more books, films, and other mainstream media are including mental illnesses in their narratives.

Do you have a favorite crazy character? Share them in the comments below!

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