Alex

> "But you, O my brothers, remember sometimes thy little Alex that was. Amen. And all that cal."
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Alex is the both the central anti-hero in the book version and the villainous protagonist in the film version of 'A Clockwork Orange', the novel is written from his point of view and speech patterns, including repeated words, repetitive uses of the word 'like' and use of Nadsat slang. At the beginning of the novel Alex is 15 years of age, but through the book ages to end up 18. Alex addresses the reader throughout and refers to himself as 'Your Humble Narrator'.

## Life

Alex, attended a correction school when he was young, which is why P. R. Deltoid watches over Alex. At the beginning of the novel he lives with his parents in a flat in 'Municipal Flatblock 18a', his parents remain unaware of his current criminal activities. Alex is the leader of a youth gang, or his 'droogies' , Alex is left for the police by his 'droogs' who despise his leadership. Alex is arrested and sentenced to 14 years in prison, after killing a woman, however he only serves two year before being selected for a course of aversion therapy: known as the Ludovico Technique.

After the therapy, Alex is sickened at the thought of violent acts and is forced to act 'good', unintentionally the technique has conditioned him against classical music, however his parents have given him room to a lodger, which tempts Alex into running away and commiting suicide at a library; during this, he is recognized by one of his victims and attacked, he is then rescued by three police officers two being his old droog Dim and a rival gang leader Billyboy (Georgie in the film); the two assault Alex and leave him in the wilderness to cry alone in agony.

Alex wanders to a home of another of his victims F. Alexander (who's wife Alex raped with his gang), although he doesn't recognize him. He looks after Alex with the intention of using his experiences to destabilize the government. F. Alexander realizes who Alex is and with the help of 3 friends forces Alex to try to kill himself by playing classical music, Alex does not die from the fall, and the group is arrested by the government and Alex is offered support by the government in return for his cooperation. Alex is given a job in the 'National Gramodisc Archive', and after talking to Pete who has decided to give up crime and start a family, he does the same.

## Appearance

> "The four of us were dressed in the heighth of fashion, which in those days was a pair of black very tight tights with the old jelly mould, as we called it, fitting on the crutch underneath the tights, this being to protect and also a sort of a design you could viddy clear enough in a certain light, so that I had one in the shape of a spider, Pete had a rooker (a hand, that is), Georgie had a very fancy one of a flower, and poor old Dim had a very hound-and-horny one of a clown's litso (face, that is), Dim not ever having much of an idea of things and being, beyond all shadow of a doubting thomas, the dimmest of we four. Then we wore waisty jackets without lapels but with these very big built-up shoulders ('pletchoes' we called them) which were a kind of a mockery of having real shoulders like that. Then, my brothers, we had these off-white cravats which looked like whipped-up kartoffel or spud with a sort of a design made on it with a fork. We wore our hair not too long and we had flip horrorshow boots for kicking."
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## Personality

Alex is an intellectual but eccentric boy, often thinking about philosophical topics such as free will and morality; he has unusual tastes for his age and peers enjoying classical music. Alex also elevates his sadistic and sociopathic behavior to the status of art. Alex, like many of his generation with the reduction in the policing effectiveness, he controls a small gang of his 'droogs' who together commit multiple crimes ranging including theft, assault, rape and ultimately murder.

Alex is controlling quelling a rebellion by his droogs to put an end to his dictator like leadership of the group, which he does by fighting first Georgie then Dim, he can think tactically in a fight changing is fighting style while fighting Dim to give himself the advantage.

## Film

Alex is very similar in the film as he is in the novel, but his full name is revealed to be Alexander Burgess DeLarge, he wears a white Oxford button-down, collarless, long-sleeve that ironically resembles a straitjacket with the silver Y-suspenders as the restraining buckles, completed with bloody eyeball cufflinks; at the bottom he wears cricket-gear such as cricket-whites and as his only armour wears a cream-colored codpiece outside of the pants in a similar fashion to an apron; other accessories he has includes a top-derby bowler-hat, paratrooper boots, a phallic-shaped sword cane that has a concealed "nohz" (knife), and a single eyelash which are all black.

Alex is portrayed to be more manipulative as well as being a victim of sexual abuse from authority figures such as P.R. Deltoid. To decrease controversy, Alex is as well portrayed as being much older, 17-years old when introduced. The final chapter of the book is omitted from the film, consequently, so is Alex redemption, ending on a bitter note, as he is suggested to return to his violent and criminal ways with his sardonic reply:

> "I was cured all right."
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## Trivia

* In the book, it has been speculated that the teenaged Alex was born in the year 1965 (1963 in the film), because the settings take place in 1980 - 1983 throughout all 21 chapters.
* During development of the book in the late-1950s, Alex was originally going to be named "Fred Verity".
* In the film, despite Alex's obsession with Beethoven, the soundtrack contains more music by Rossini than by Beethoven. The fast-motion sex scene with the two girls, the slow-motion fight between Alex and his Droogs, the fight with Billy Boy's gang, the invasion of the Cat Lady's home, and the scene where Alex looks into the river and contemplates suicide before being approached by the beggar are all accompanied by Rossini's music.
* Alex's ideal woman is a "devotchka with real horrorshow groodies", he would constantly prey on them the most as a droog in the book version.
* Alex is 15 years old by the beginning of the book and 18 by the end of it. However, to minimize controversy and to avoid hiring a teen actor to play a heinous character, Alex's age started from 17 and ended at 20 in the film.
* The first line of the novel is "What's it going to be then, eh?" and this line is repeated frequently throughout the book. Another recurring phrase is "dressed in the heighth [sic] of [insert adjective here] fashion," which is how Alex describes every single set of clothes that he or anyone else is wearing. The movie omits all but one occurrence of each phrase. Prison Chaplain Godfrey Quigley is introduced with the line "What's it going to be, eh?" In the next scene Alex imagines himself as a first-century executioner "dressed in the height of Roman fashion."
* In the film, the tape that Alex removes from his stereo in order to play Ludwig van Beethoven bears the name of fictitious artist Goggly Gogol, mentioned later by one of the girls in the music store.
* In the film, when Alex returns home from prison one of the smaller headlines in the newspaper his father is reading says: "Marty Feldman's Wife Banned."
* In the film, the music system in Alex' bedroom consists of a Transcriptors turntable, Bang&Olufsen Beomaster 5000 FM tuner, and Beolab 5000 amplifier. The cassette player is a prop, and not related to any existing product. It is shown to use the Philips mini-cassette system. The Deutsche Grammophon Beethoven and Polydor Gogol tapes shown are also props. The mini-cassette system was of low quality, intended for dictation only, and was never used for commercial music releases.
* When Alex returns home after being released, the song "I Want to Marry a Lighthouse Keeper" by Erika Eigen is heard playing on the radio. However, the second verse is not the same as that on the soundtrack album.
* Alex is generally considered to be more of a psychopath than a sociopath. He has an antisocial personality disorder and a disregard for how his actions harm others. In fact, he takes pleasure from acts of violence, seeing it as an art form.
* The story itself has very sadomasochistic undertones at times. When Alex isn't violating other people; he's constantly being violated himself.