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The worst fathers in literature, as readers nominated them in a 2025 discussion, include James Mortmain, Heathcliff, Zeus, the unnamed father in John Cheever’s “Reunion,” Kev, Albion Gidley Singer, Sam Pollit, Allie Fox, Captain Ahab, Victor Frankenstein, and Thomas Sutpen. The list is a set of individual nominations with reasons attached, not a ranked poll, so no single character wins. Their alleged failures run from violence and coercion to neglect, abandonment, controlling behaviour, and putting children in danger.
What the list is, and what it is not
The candidates come from a reader-contribution feature that Scroll.in ran on October 9, 2025, republishing a discussion from The Conversation edited by Suzy Freeman-Greene. Each contributor argued for a particular father, so the feature records opinions and their reasons. It does not record how many readers voted for each name, and it does not establish a consensus among critics.
That distinction matters for how you cite it. “Readers nominated Victor Frankenstein” is accurate. “Victor Frankenstein is the worst father in literature” is not something the feature shows. The judgments below belong to the named contributors, and they are most useful as a map of the kinds of paternal failure that fiction keeps returning to.
The candidates at a glance
| Candidate | Work and author | Main charge in the feature |
|---|---|---|
| James Mortmain | I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith | Threatens his first wife with a cake knife, assaults a neighbour, and leaves the family in poverty in a crumbling castle |
| Heathcliff | Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë | Neglects, abuses, and dominates his son Linton, and forces a marriage that serves his revenge |
| Zeus | Homer’s Iliad | Sexual violence and abuse of family power, read against the war at Troy |
| The father in “Reunion” | John Cheever’s short story | Drunken and disruptive during a meeting with his son, who is taken away with him from several restaurants |
| Kev | Last Ride, Denise Young | Takes his ten-year-old son Chook on the run after committing murder |
| Albion Gidley Singer | Dark Places and Lilian’s Story, Kate Grenville | Remembered as incestuous and menacing; the contributor says the details had faded with time |
| Sam Pollit | The Man Who Loved Children, Christina Stead | Mocks, cajoles, and insults his children, and makes them spy on one another |
| Allie Fox | The Mosquito Coast, Paul Theroux | Moves his family to an isolated part of Honduras because he believes the world is ending; the project ends in catastrophe |
| Captain Ahab | Moby-Dick, Herman Melville | Abandons his wife and son in pursuit of the whale |
| Victor Frankenstein | Frankenstein, Mary Shelley | Abandons the creature he makes and repeatedly rejects its appeals for compassion |
| Thomas Sutpen | Absalom, Absalom!, William Faulkner | Pursues a self-created dynasty ruthlessly, at the expense of his family |
Five kinds of paternal failure
The candidates cluster around a few recurring harms. Sorting them this way helps readers see what a nominator was actually objecting to, which is often more useful than the name alone.
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Violence and sexual abuse
Some nominations rest on physical or sexual violence. Mortmain’s threats and assault, Heathcliff’s cruelty toward Linton, and the sexual violence attributed to Zeus are the clearest examples. Albion’s reported incest sits in this group too, though the contributor’s memory of it is admittedly vague. These are the cases where a reader is least likely to argue that the father was doing his best.
Coercion and control
Other nominees do harm through domination rather than force. Sam Pollit’s demand that his children spy on each other, and his insistence on his own version of family life, are the feature’s examples of this. Allie Fox belongs here as well: his charisma is what lets him drag his family into the jungle, and the feature presents that charisma as part of the damage. Heathcliff’s forced marriage for revenge also fits, since it uses a child as an instrument.
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Neglect and abandonment
Several candidates fail by leaving. Victor Frankenstein abandons his creature almost at the moment of its birth, and Captain Ahab leaves his wife and son for the chase. The father in Cheever’s “Reunion” is a quieter case: the feature stresses drunkenness and disruption rather than a dramatic exit, and it treats the story as a mixture of comedy and inherited damage.
Endangering children
Kev is the clearest case. Taking Chook on the run after a murder puts a ten-year-old into real danger, and the feature’s contributor says so directly. Allie Fox’s collapsing jungle project also exposes his family to a risk they did not choose.
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Father as symbol
Two nominations are read as much for what the father stands for. Zeus is judged through the consequences of divine patriarchy, linked to the war at Troy. Thomas Sutpen is read by one contributor as a figure for the antebellum South and its refusal to face slavery and colonial violence. Both are the contributors’ literary interpretations, and a reader can disagree with them while still following the argument.
Where the verdicts get harder
The feature does not treat every nominee as a plain villain, and the complications are the most instructive part of it.
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- Mortmain is funny. Cassandra’s narration softens his portrait, but the feature holds that the humour does not erase the harm to his family.
- Kev is both. The contributor acknowledges his genuine love and protective impulse alongside the danger he creates. The nomination depends on holding both at once.
- Albion’s memory is unreliable. Natalie Kon-yu remembers him as menacing, but says the details had faded over time. Treat the recollection as hers, not as a reconstruction of the novels’ plots.
- Ahab is not Melville. A contributor judges the captain for abandoning his family, while also reading Moby-Dick as engaging with patriarchy. The fictional man’s conduct is a different question from the author’s own life, which the feature also discusses.
- Pollit has several advocates. Multiple contributors chose him, but they read his “oppressive optimism” and cruelty in different ways, so his nomination is the most widely shared of the group without being a single agreed verdict.
Why the everyday villain stands out
Among the nominations, the most persuasive argument may be the one that rejects the monster altogether. Carol Lefevre writes: “Perhaps the worst parent is not an obvious ‘monster’, but one you can all too easily imagine as your own.” That idea runs against the instinct to nominate the most extreme figure. It suggests that the father most worth reading about is the one whose failures look like ordinary bad judgment, the kind a reader might recognise.
Julian Novitz’s contribution on Frankenstein presses the same point from another side. Victor, he writes, “abandons his ‘monster’ at almost the moment after its birth, and repeatedly rejects its appeals for compassion and empathy.” The novel is a sharp example because Victor is not an abuser in the usual sense. He is a creator who refuses responsibility for what he made, and the feature treats that refusal as fatherhood gone wrong.
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How this differs from an earlier list
Publishers Weekly ran a separate selection, “The 10 Worst Dads in Books,” by Fiona Maazel on June 14, 2013. It considers how fictional fatherhood is judged against reader expectations and offers its own set of names. It is a useful comparison, but it is an earlier editorial choice rather than the 2025 reader nominations, and it should not be cited as evidence for them.
Where to start reading
- Frankenstein, Mary Shelley is the most direct entry point, since Victor’s fatherhood is the centre of the argument about his abandonment.
- The Man Who Loved Children, Christina Stead suits readers who want to see domestic control built slowly. Pollit’s cruelty is the feature’s most widely shared nomination.
- I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith is the case to read for a father whose harm sits alongside real charm and a narrator who finds him funny.
Before choosing an edition, check its format and publication details on the publisher’s or bookseller’s page, since this article does not verify current listings or prices.
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