We find out further into the book that Sir Percival has bad intentions, and an anonymous letter is sent to Laura, which warns her about him. The letter stated, ‘I saw down into his inmost heart. It was as black as night’. The sender has seen Sir Percival’s true personality, but because of Laura’s loyalty to him she does not believe it. Sir Percival has, again, used his status and force to his advantage. This can be seen as villainous trait.
Un-like most villains in English literature, Sir Percival has a weakness in that he is not intelligent enough to stay undetected by others. His true side starts to show when he becomes more abrupt, he is not polite any more, he is more serious, and a two faced idea of him comes into play. At this point Sir Percival’s villainous side becomes more exposed. As a general term, a villain has little respect for people, and Sir Percival lives up to this role. He has an argument with Laura, and he is very demeaning and rude in the way he speaks to her. He shows little respect and huge force against her, he shows that when he is under pressure he is not afraid to man handle people. Fosco tells Laura after their argument ‘You have just seen Sir Percival at his worst’ and Laura’s opinion of him changes. It is now that not only the reader that can appreciate Sir Percival’s villainous side, but also the characters. This is unusual as in most other English literature the villain is always well known by other characters around them, and can go undetected.
Sir Percival’s reputation becomes more intense when Marian reveals that she also dislikes Sir Percival. ‘His obstinate disposition and his domineering temper’ she states, this shows that she does not like his attitude in general, she then goes on to describe his manner as, ‘Practised duplicity’, she thinks that he is so rude that he must practice it. Marian is obviously offended by Sir Percival, by his short temper, which he often loses. This is another weakness for him as people can appreciate what he is actually like.
As in other well-known books, the villain always reveals his motive and Sir Percival does not break this rule. He reveals to Laura that he does not love her and only married her for money, and even when she is crying all he can do is laugh at her, this shows him as a very cold hearted and careless person, much like a villain. He then goes on to not let her have a divorce because of his secret, he feels intimidated when the mention of a divorce occurs and is very forceful to make sure it does not happen. This can be seen as a villainous trait.
Count Fosco, on the other hand is a different type of villain from Sir Percival all together. He is one who is very unpredictable and has many different sides to his character. He is first talked of as a decent and generous character when we find out that he saved Sir Percival from robbery. We are led to believe that Fosco is a giving and sentimental man. Later on of course, we see his true colours. Count Fosco is a very complex character with many sides to him, some that allow him to be viewed as a decent man, and others that show him as the deathly-determined villain that he truly is.
It is obvious that Count Fosco only helped Sir Percival to gain wealth and power, although through what he does he only earns a comparatively small amount compared to Percival. Through helping Sir Percival, Fosco gains the respect of him, which also earns him almost the equal amount of power that Sir Percival already has. With this added to Fosco’s superior knowledge of not only medicine but of how to deal with people, and his control over Sir Percival, he is in a key position to carry out his plans.
The count uses his newfound power and peoples respect for him to his advantage, he is seen as a perfectly good person with only good intentions at heart but as we know he is putting on an act to fool others. His true motive is one very close to Sir Percival’s. He is also after Laura’s inheritance, and he knows that if he stays with the control he has over Sir Percival that he has a very good chance of gaining it.
Unlike Sir Percival, Count Fosco uses his intelligence and manipulative ways to get the better of people. This makes him powerful but in a completely different way to Percival. He uses his many sides including his charm, and cunning to get the better of even the most powerful people, including Sir Percival and Marion. This brings in the idea that if Fosco can, so easily, control and undermine Sir Percival then perhaps Sir Percival is not the ideal villain after all and Fosco is. If Fosco can use his wit and intelligence to hide his villainous tendencies, then he is the ideal villain with no real weaknesses. The physical side of matters is not even a problem for him as he can bully people such as Sir Percival into doing his dirty work for him. Fosco knows that he can gain the control of anyone around him with relative ease and is not even put off by the thought of having to murder somebody in order to receive his prize. This in total makes Count Fosco a villain to reckon with.
It is true to say that Sir Percival is a standard model of a villain which everybody would immediately think of, and is very similar in fact to Fagin from Oliver Twist. It is thought from the start of both books that both of the villains are good and upstanding people, when Fagin meets Oliver he is kind and treats him well, similarly to the way that Sir Percival treats Laura. But later go on to reveal their real intentions and plans for the people in question. Another similarity between the two villains is that they are both manipulated by their close associates; Percival by Fosco and Fagin by Sykes. They are both sacred of the power and control that the two have over them and are also scared of what they could do to them.
Fosco, on the other hand is much harder to compare to other well know villains in literature. But if anyone, he is similar to Sykes from Oliver Twist. One reason is that he has supreme control over Percival in a similar way that Fagin does over Sykes. They both start off as intelligent and have decent reputations and use their associate’s power to their advantage.
To conclude, I believe that a cunning and intelligent mind will always beat brute force and money. I believe that because of Fosco’s superior knowledge and control of Sir Percival that Percival does not even stand a chance against a villain such as Fosco. This is why I believe that Count Fosco is more of a villain than Sir Percival Glyde.