Editing Alex (A Clockwork Orange) (section)

==Character overview==
Alex is the narrator in the novel ''[[A Clockwork Orange (novel)|A Clockwork Orange]]''. The character is portrayed as a thrill-seeking [[antisocial personality disorder|sociopath]] who robs, rapes, and assaults innocent people for his own amusement. Intellectually, he knows that such behaviour is morally wrong, saying that "you can't have a society with everybody behaving in my manner of the night". He nevertheless professes to be puzzled by the motivations of those who wish to reform him and others like him, saying that he would never interfere with their desire to be good; he simply "goes to the other shop".

Alex dresses in the "height of fashion", which consists of a [[waistcoat]] jacket with big shoulders and no lapels, a frilly off-white cravat as neck-wear, tight black pants with a spider symbol on the crotch and a codpiece underneath, and big boots. He speaks [[Nadsat]], a teenage [[slang]] created by author Anthony Burgess. The language is based on largely English and [[Russian language|Russian]] words, but also borrows from other sources such as [[Cockney]] [[rhyming slang]], [[Romani language|Romani]] speech, and schoolboy [[colloquialism]]s. His beverage of choice is milk spiked with various drugs, which he and his fellow gang members ("droogs") drink to fortify themselves for "ultraviolence". Alex is very fond of [[European classical music|classical music]], particularly [[Ludwig van Beethoven]], whom he habitually refers to as "Ludwig Van". While listening to this music, he [[fantasy (psychology)|fantasises]] about endless rampages of rape, [[torture]] and slaughter. Alex's favourite melee weapon is a "cut-throat britva", or [[straight razor]].