The present Bachelor thesis deals with the portrayals of evil in the two novels Dvärgen (The Dwarf) and Bödeln (The Hangman), both written by Swedish author Pär Lagerkvist and published in the first half of the twentieth century. The theoretical starting point of the thesis is based on a text centered analysis in which I will assume that the fictional characters can be treated as if they were real. In two separate analyses of how evil is portrayed and what functions it can fill, I illuminate a number of examples of how evil is expressed in the narratives. I also show that evil can be portrayed as something that creates meaning within the framework of the literary texts.