Characters in Atlas Shrugged - Essay Example

There are several characters that can be considered as bad in the novel but the worst of them all is Lillian Rearden. She is the wife of Hank Rearden who owns his company named Rearden Metal and is successful in his business. She dislikes her husband as well as his habits which include thinking and taking sex as if it is nothing more than a subhuman instinct and not aimed to please at all (Rand, 2005). He is also secretly having sexual responses and affairs with another character Dagny Taggart even though the same responses are withheld from his wife.

He also subjects his wife to have to live with his brother and his old mother who demands care. Lillian is driven by her dislike towards her husband to scheme how to ruin him career-wise. She starts seeking incriminating information and she discovers about the affair with Dagny. She passes this information to Dagny’s brother James Taggart who also has issues with her sister. Armed with this information, the incompetent brother uses this as a weapon to force Rearden to give away the property rights of his company in a form of a gift card to others leaving him with nothing.

The irony of the character and what seals the deal of her as the worst character ever is the fact that he starts having an affair with James Taggart who satisfies her sexual needs which her husband fails to do. She goes ahead to commit the same heinous act as her husband and all these lead to Hank abandoning her (Rand, 2005).