Shawshank Redemption Wiki
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Warden Samuel Norton is the main antagonist of the novel Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption and its 1994 film adaptation The Shawshank Redemption. He was a corrupt and heartless warden of Shawshank State Prison. During the film Norton's character arc doesn't change very much, until the final moments of his screen time. He is mostly seen as a ruthless thug who runs the prison.


In the book, Norton resigned not long after Andy's escape. In the film however, Norton committed suicide in his office via a gunshot to the head. This was probably done for fear of being publicly exposed and sent to prison with the same inmates he had bullied and inflicted fear upon for many years.

In the 1994 film adaptation, Norton was portrayed by Bob Gunton.

Character Biography[]

Norton is first seen when he introduces himself to the new inmates. He portrays himself as a no-nonsense man and a devout Christian, but this is most likely a façade to maintain a good public image. He has no problem with ordering Captain Byron Hadley to beat any inmate that interrupts him with his nightstick. Warden Norton says that he believes in two things: "discipline and the Bible", and that the inmates at Shawshank will receive both. Norton says that he will not tolerate blasphemy in his prison and then tells the prisoners that their asses belong to him when they put their "trust in the Lord". Norton then has all of the prisoners hosed down and then deloused with talcum powder.

Norton is not seen for much of the film, although he does appear around midway through the first half of the film upon learning of Andy Dufresne's financial expertise from Hadley. Norton pulls him out of the laundry so he can do taxes for all of the guards at Shawshank. Later on in the film, Andy is quickly forced to participate in criminal activities. Norton creates the "inside-out program", where inmates leave the prison to work on public service projects, such as the building of roads. Because independent contractors can't compete with the "army of slaves" Norton is taking up all of the projects they need to make a profit. Norton makes them bribe him so they can get the contract instead of Norton's men. Also, Norton would skim off of the top by buying expensive equipment at a discount and then steal all of the extra money.

He uses Andy's accounting skills for his own illicit uses, mainly for embezzlement of the laundered money and transferring it into various accounts. Andy gets the idea to create a fictitious person for all of the accounts to be tied back to, so nobody will get blamed for the money laundering should anybody stumble across the crime. After Andy learns from another inmate, Tommy Williams who knew the identity of the real killer that murdered Andy's wife and her lover; Andy sees a chance that he could finally prove his innocence and be released from prison. Andy tells his story to Norton, who doesn't believe him. When Andy says that should he be released, he would never say anything about the corruption going on inside the prison walls, Norton flies into a rage and has Andy put in solitary confinement for a month.

Later, Norton has Tommy shot dead in the prison yard after learning that he would be willing to testify on Andy's behalf. Norton then tells Andy that Tommy was killed because he was trying to escape, which is a lie. Norton, who knows that Andy is almost ready to expose the corruption, tells Andy to forget about the whole mess. When Andy threatens to stop helping him with his illegal transactions, Norton tells him that if he were to do this, he would do the hardest time there is, with no protection from any of the guards and being moved out of his one-bunk cell into a cell filled with violent male rapists. He then threatens to burn all of the books in the Brooks Hatlen Memorial Library and "sealing it off brick by brick", and then keeps Andy locked up for another month.

Andy Dufresene's escape

Norton finds Andy's escape hole in 1966.

When Andy is released from solitary, he decides that he has been in prison long enough. On a stormy night, Andy switches the Warden's incriminating bank deposit records with his Bible, which he'd hollowed out to store his rock hammer. The Warden also orders Andy to buff his best dress shoes and take his suits down to the laundry. Andy does so, using the opportunity to steal both the shoes and one of Norton's suits. That night, under the guise of the storm; Andy escapes from Shawshank. He does so by crawling through a tunnel he had been slowly digging for nearly twenty years, then navigating the prison's sewage networks to emerge at a nearby river.

The next morning, the irate Norton orders a search for Andy after his failure to report for morning roll call, and has Red released from his cell for clues on Andy's whereabouts. Not finding anything useful, Norton flies into a rage and starts throwing rocks that Andy had left in all directions. One of which, hits the giant poster of a pin-up girl hanging on the wall, but to his astonishment; it passes right through. Stunned, Norton tears down the poster and discovers the secret escape tunnel Andy had dug slowly over his sentence at Shawshank. With the local police notified of an escaped prisoner, the guards carry out a fruitless search for Andy. All they find however, is Andy's filthy prison uniform in a river with a bar of soap and his rock hammer.

Meanwhile, Andy under the false identity of "Randall Stephens", made withdrawals from all of the Warden's accounts at twelve different Portland bank branches that same morning. At the Maine National Bank, he mails the crooked bookkeeping records to a local newspaper, which soon reports the corruption and murder going on at Shawshank Prison. After reading the headline in the newspaper and hearing ominous police sirens in the distance, Norton checks his records and discovers the book swap. The ledger had been replaced with the Bible that Andy received upon his arrival at the prison nineteen years earlier. Inside is a message from Andy taunting Norton about his victory, as well as a hollowed out section where Andy had hidden his rock hammer.

Realizing that he had been played all along, Norton drops the book. He looks out the window just in time to see Captain Hadley arrested. With no intention of surrendering, Norton takes out a pistol from his drawer and loads it. With the authorities literally knocking at his door, the corrupt Warden prepares to take as many cops with him as possible. However, a comment from the lead officer ("make it easy on yourself Norton") causes him to reconsider. After a moment's hesitation, he decides to take the easy way out and turns the gun on himself. Red (in voice-over) says he likes to think that besides the bullet, the last thing to go through Norton's head was wondering how Andy ever got the best of him.

Appearances[]

  • Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption
  • The Shawshank Redemption

Trivia[]

  • Norton is a composite of two characters in the book: Greg Stammas and Samuel Norton. In the book, Stammas, whose corruption was exposed by the journalist sting, which happens nearly two decades before the escape, avoided arrest by resigning from his post. Norton, who was the warden during the escape, and who kept Andy locked up, was not threatened by prosecution and resigned due to breakdown caused by the escape.
  • Norton isn't as cruel in the book (this aspect is taken from Stammas, who was rumored to have killed several people), as he had Tommy transferred to a minimal security prison where he would be paroled soon instead of having him murdered.
  • In the novel, the source of Norton's fortunes is explained in more detail: Norton was a prominent, Newsweek-featured, advocate of prisoners' re-integration into society through jobs training. He used convicts as slave labor on major construction projects, and, as a result, could undercut any construction bid on public projects if he wanted to. As a result, he took money from the construction companies not to bid on certain projects of interest.
  • In the novel, Andy had no role in exposing Stammas' corruption, neither did he take Norton's money; instead, Andy systematically syphoned off funds during money laundering in preparation for his release and life post-prison.
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