It's hard for me to decide who's the worst of the two but I have to give the slight edge to Warden Norton because he was more aggressive and a bit more corrupted of the two, plus he wrongfully sent Andy to the hole and didn't do a thing when Captain Hadley was brutally assaulting the inmates.
shareEasy call for me.
Percy Wetmore was far worse than Norton IMO. Percy sought out ways to hurt people and actually enjoyed the pain and suffering he brought to those too weak or too defenseless to stop him. His very reason for his actions were for his own perverse enjoyment.
Norton's violence was by "necessity". His motivation was to protect the money laundering which was making him rich and also to keep Andy behind bars forever to prevent him from exposing the plot (which is exactly what Andy did when he got the chance).
Going further, I think it's a closer comparison to compare Percy Wetmore with Shawshank guard Byron Hadley, who maimed and killed without good reason, and also seemed to enjoy the violence.
Definitely Percy!
Norton was just a money grabbing theif. Percy was a cruel bully who hurt other people for his own amusement.
Percy. He was just psychotic.
However of the two the Warden had the potential to do more harm.
It really depends how you look at it. Personally I think that Percy was more of a coward and he was even terrified of Wild Bill. Norton did what he did for his love of money, but he was also in a higher position and he endorsed rapes when he had all the power to stop them. On the one hand Norton had a purpose/motivation behind his actions (money) whereas Percy was just hurting people for fun, which you could argue he was more evil. But on the other hand, I highly doubt that Percy would endorse rapes.
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