Samuel Norton

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## Complete Nightmare

### Alias

The Warden
Warden Samuel Norton
Sam Norton
Mr. Norton

### Resources

Strong and harsh authorityCharisma
Manipulation
Strategy

### Goals

Kill Tommy (succeeded).
Kill anyone else who is able to expose his crimes.
Have Andy imprisoned to prevent him from clearing his name (both failed).

### What Makes Them Ridiculous

Turning Shawshank into a prison where the inmates are tortured and beaten.
Having Tommy killed for a very petty motive.
Giving Andy 2 months in solitary confinement out of sheer spite.

### Most Evil Crimes

Money laundering
Murder
Torture
Corruption
Cruel and unusual punishments
Forced isolation
Abuse of power
Treason

### Type of CN

Hypocritical Disciplinarian

**Warden Samuel Norton** is the main antagonist of the 1994 drama film *The Shawshank Redemption*, an adaptation of the 1984 Stephen King novella *Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption*.

He is the extremely fraudulent and underhanded prison warden of the Shawshank penitentiary, working alongside top prison guard Captain Byron Hadley. His primary goal is to make sure that word of his and Hadley's corrupt activities do not get out of prison. As such, he cruelly manipulates prison inmates to do his dirty work.

He was portrayed by Bob Gunton.

## What Makes Him a Complete Nightmare?

* He is overall responsible for the very hellish nature of the prison, endorsed several rapes, beatings and killings that took place in Shawshank.
* When orchestrating the prison's guidelines, 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.
* He ordered the death of Tommy Williams by Hadley so that Tommy couldn't testify in Andy's favor.
* He put Andy in solitary confinement for a month out of sheer spite. In fact, the motive was very petty because Andy just asked Norton for help but Norton refused to listen.
* He planned 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 schemes can continue.
* He considered to use his revolver and shoot all the police officers he could to escape going to prison before his death.
* He displays no love or care for his wife.
* Overall, Norton may look like a brave Christian outside, but is a cowardly demon inside.

## Trivia

* In the original *Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption* novella, Norton is much less evil and escapes arrest by resigning from his post. He is also much less cruel, as he had Tommy transferred 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. In the film, Norton is technically a combination of all his predecessors at Shawshank. Thus, Norton is a Complete Nightmare in the movie, but not in the book.

## External Links

* Samuel Norton on the Villains Wiki
* Samuel Norton on the Stephen King Wiki
* Samuel Norton on the Pure Evil Wiki