Willard

Willard is a meek and timid isolated man who is constantly bullied and belittled by his boss, Frank Martin. Willard used to live/lives with his elderly and demanding mother, Henrietta, and he has no friends or romantic relationships. Willard is socially awkward, depressed, extremely anxious, timid, paranoid, obsessive-compulsive, suicidal, depressed, passive, lacks of self-confidence, is unable to stand up for himself, had low self-esteem, is extremely anxious, emotionally numb, mentally unstable, easily manipulated and is also deeply traumatized by the suicide of his father when he was a child. Willard is prone of intense bouts of emotion.

Around others Willard is extremely insecure and introverted, he always looks down rarely making eye contact. He therefore has trouble standing up for himself. He’s easily shaken and makes nervous gestures like squeezing his suitcase handle tightly, sweating, stuttering, halting and mumbling. When Willard can’t run away from a problem or feels strongly that something is unfair he will be literally shrieking, his face will freeze in permanent pain, he'll cry helplessly throwing himself around then he’ll succumb to frantically begging.

He usually wears light gray or dark business suits with a tie and leather shoes. He's always clean shaven and parts his neatly trimmed hair in the middle.He isn't unattractive, but his piercing eyes and pointed nose, along with his strange demeanor, make him creepy.

Willard is 6'1, tall and thin build, with pale skin, sharp cheeks, thin lips, thin eyebrows, a pointed.nose, strong angular jaw and piercing aquamarine blue eyes.

His mother, Henrietta Stiles is ailing and verbally abusive. She is a frail and eccentric woman who berates her son for being single and feels that his life has been wasted. She is nevertheless anxious over her son, presumably related to the suicide of his father several years before. Henrietta Stiles gave him the nickname "Clark". She did this because she believed that Willard was not living up to his full potential. She thought that his name was weak and indecisive, and that he needed a more assertive name.

Willard lives in the Stiles' mansion, located somewhere in the US. The mansion, inheritance from his father's hard work, is mortgaged and Willard's family, now reduced to just Willard, still owes a large sum of money to the bank. He's almost broke, with only $1000 in his possession, rats to feed, debts and bills to pay and not being paid at job, despite working overtime.

Willard Stiles works for a former family-owned company called 'Martin Stiles Manufacturing'. The company was founded by Willard's father, Alfred Stiles, but it is now owned by Frank Martin, a ruthless businessman and old friend of the family who took advantage of Alfred's suicide to buy out the company. Willard has a desk job, and is also the only employee who is not allowed to take breaks or leave the office early. Willard has problems getting from home to work, since he doesn't have a car and has to take the subway. He is constantly late for work

Frank is a physically 55 year old imposing man with a booming voice, white hair, thick dark eyebrows and brown eyes. He is always dressed in expensive suits and has a polished demeanor. His veneer of civility is just a mask for his true nature, which is cruel and sadistic. He is Abusive, manipulative, cruel and dishonest.

Frank takes pleasure in humiliating and belittling Willard. He constantly calls him names, makes fun of him, and threatens to fire him. He also makes Willard do all the dirty work around the office, such as cleaning up his messes and running his personal errands.

Willard is terrified of Frank and does everything he can to avoid his wrath. He tries to stay invisible and to avoid drawing attention to himself. However, Frank always seems to find a way to make Willard's life miserable.

The story features two rats with personalities of their own. Socrates, a white albino rat who is Willard’s first rat and Big Ben, a gambian pouched rat which Willard mistreats and despises for some reason. He keeps his rodent friend, Socrates with him, even sharing his bed and carrying it in his coat pocket, while Ben is treated abusively and coldly.

Socrates is a curious, loyal, independent and intelligent rat. Even communicating with Willard through squeaks and actions.

Big Ben is a smart, ambitious, cunning, large and powerful gambian pouched rat, twice the size of a normal rat. He is not as loyal as Socrates, and is Willard's rival.

Willard's basement becomes overrun with a rapidly growing population of rats, leading to financial difficulties. Unable to feed them all, Willard makes a fateful decision to give ben Ben the role as the leader of the rats. Ben becomes both Willard's ally and rival. Instead of leading the rats to safety as Willard hoped, Ben moves them upstairs and begins devouring everything in sight. When Willard returns home, he finds his mother dead on the basement stairs with a terrified expression, while the rats wreak havoc by destroying furniture, food, and even intentionally breaking the urn containing his father's ashes.

Among the rats, Ben and Socrates are the only ones with distinct personalities, while the rest display aggression towards anything apart from Willard, Ben, or food. This violent incident triggers a change in the rats' behavior, leading them to kill small animals like cats, raccoons, birds, and even small dogs that they can overpower. Willard is unable to regain control over Ben or the rat colony, which remains a menacing force.