Samuel Norton

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## Evil-doer

### Alias

The Warden
Warden Samuel Norton
Sam Norton
Mr. Norton

### Origin

*Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption*

### Resources

Strong and harsh authority
Manipulation
Charisma
Strategy

### Hobby

Reading the Bible.
Smoking.
Punishing prisoners.

### Goals

Kill Tommy and anyone else who is able to expose his crimes. (succeeded in killing Tommy)Have Andy imprisoned to prevent him from clearing his own name and to prevent word of Norton's crimes from becoming public (all failed).

### Moral Event Horizon

Making Shawshank into a hellish time for the prisoners where the weaker prisoners are raped, beaten, and tortured.
Killing Tommy to prevent Andy from clearing his name and to preserve his position.
Giving Andy 2 months in solitary confinement out of sheer spite.

### Crimes

Abuse of power
Money laundering
Terrorism
Torture (film only)
Racketeering
Blackmail
Murder (film only; indirectly)
Conspiracy
Corruption
Death threats
Cruel and unusual punishments

### Type of Villain

Greedy Gaoler

**Warden Samuel Norton** is the main antagonist of the 1982 Stephen King book *Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption* and he is also the main antagonist of its 1994 film adaptation *The Shawshank Redemption*.

He is a corrupt and fanatically religious warden of the Shawshank penitentiary, as well as the boss of prison guard Captain Byron Hadley. At first he took a liking for the inmate Andy Dufresne due to his abilities to launder money for him; but once Andy discovers a chance to regain his freedom, Norton does whatever he can to prevent Andy from getting out of jail in order to continue with his illicit schemes. He is also the archenemy of Andy Dufresne due to Andy disapproving of their money laundering scheme.

He is portrayed by Bob Gunton.

## What Makes Him Pure Evil?

* He is overall responsible for the very hellish nature of the prison, endorsed several rapes, beatings and killings that took place in Shawshank. Moreover, he didn't care about the actions of Captain Byron Hadley and Bogs Diamond as long he retained his position and his money despite having the power to actually stop them, as seen by him having given Andy protection from both the guards and having Byron beat up Bogs.
* While he placed Andy under the protection of the guards, Norton only did it so that he could help him with his illict activities - as Andy had financial knowledge from his life outside prison.
* He refused to contact a judge to investigate more about Elmo Blatch, an inmate from another prison who was the actual murderer of Andy's wife and her golf pro lover, who killed the golf pro simply because he insulted him and presumably his paramour to not leave behind witnesses. By refusing to do anything against Blatch in the end, Norton likely allowed Blatch in an indirect way to continue his criminal lifestyle - possibly ruining much more lives like he did with Andy.
* He ordered the death of Tommy Williams by Hadley so that Tommy couldn't testify in Andy's favor, eliminating the only loose end that knew about Andy's innocence.
* He put Andy in solitary confinement for a month due to Andy asking him to contact the authorities about Blatch and promising him to not talk about his money laundering schemes. He then threatened to undo all the development that Andy made in Shawshank and hand him back to the rapists, all for the sake of making sure that his money laundering can continue. Then as icing on the cake, Norton gives Andy another month of solitary confinement to "think about it".
* Before killing himself, he considered to use his revolver and shoot all the police officers he could to escape going to prison.
* Though he has a wife, Norton was never shown interacting with her throughout the events. As such, given his vile and despicable nature, it is more than very likely that Norton doesn't hold any real love for her.
* Norton lacks any excuse for his crimes and bears no remorse for them. Though he considers himself a good Christian man who runs a prison full of sinners, he is even more of a sinner than all of the convicts (aside from Bogs) and performs many criminal activities, like money laundering and accepting bribes. He just sees Andy Dufresne as a useful inmate who can help him on his crimes and is willing to severely punish him if he refuses to do his bidding. He also resorts to murder if he sees it necessary as long his schemes don't come to light and can even lie about it despite that two of the Ten Commandments are to never kill and lie, as well as committing suicide when the Bible condemns it. Overall, Norton may look like a brave Christian outside, but is a cowardly demon inside.
* Since the film is it's own continuity separate from King's novels, Norton easily meets the heinous standards.

## Trivia

* Only the film version of Norton qualifies as Pure Evil, as the novel version has insufficient characterisation and is much less cruel. Instead of having Tommy killed, he transfers him to another prison (where he can be paroled soon) to keep him quiet instead of having him murdered and didn't force Andy to be in solitary confinement for two months. He is also introduced later in the book. Thus, Norton is a bog-standard villain in the books (who massively fails the high heinous standards of *Stephen King*), but a Pure Evil villain in the movie.