Re: Good or bad?

HH is clearly a "bad" guy when you're judging him from any typical standpoint, simply looking at the facts. I think the point of the book is that HH is creating a different lens through which you should view his case- a lens that makes his actions appear justified. He does this in a number of ways. For example, he makes his summer with Annabelle seem whimsical and dreamlike and he relates his current perversions to it, somehow making them whimsical and dreamlike by association. He repeatedly refers to past relationships similar to his being socially acceptable, as if to say that his actions are right, it's just our society that is skewed. The list goes on. So, in a way, in the book, which is entirely a world created by HH, he is the point of reference for truth, or "the good guy."

Aside from all that, I thought a protagonist was simply the central character of the novel. Do they necessarily have to be heroic or nobel?