Personality
King characterizes Annie Wilkes as a cunning, brutal and dangerously disturbed woman who hides her psychosis behind a cheery facade. Both the novel and the film portray her as extremely paranoid, and also suggest that she may suffer from bipolar disorder. In the novel, she has day-long bouts with depression, during which she is seen maiming herself; Sheldon also finds evidence that she gorges herself on vast quantities of food. She has an unhealthy obsession with romance novels, particularly Sheldon's Misery series. Her house is very well-ordered and she is a control freak who feels a strong need to have power over others. She displays obsessive-compulsive personality disorder. Her moods, self-harm, violence and extreme feelings indicate she has borderline features.
She abhors profanity, to the point that she will fly into fits of rage if it is used in front of her. She instead expresses anger with childishly strange words and phrases like "cockadoodie," "mister man," "dirty bird," "dirty birdy," "oogie," "fiddely-foof", and "rooty-patooties." In the novel, however, she lets more conventional profanities slip on occasion. The film is also consistent in depicting Wilkes' behavior towards profanity. She frequently has unexpectedly violent tantrums over insignificant matters. For instance, when Sheldon complains that the packet of Eaton's Corrasable Bond paper she bought for him is smudge-prone, she smashes his still-healing knee; in the book, when he mentions that her typewriter is missing a key, she cuts off his thumb.
In a special feature on the collectors' edition DVD, forensic psychologist Reid Meloy said that Wilkes' personality (as portrayed by Kathy Bates) is a virtual catalog of mental illness. According to Meloy, Wilkes suffers from bipolar disorder, a severe personality disorder and sadomasochism. He also believes her profile is typical of people who stalk celebrities.
In his commentary on the film available on the DVD, director Rob Reiner notes that Wilkes' killing spree is loosely based on that of Genene Jones, a nurse who is believed to have killed as many as 50 children who were in her care over a two-year period.
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