Alex is a fictional character in Anthony Burgess' novel A Clockwork Orange and Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation of the same name, in which he is played by Malcolm McDowell.

[1] In addition to the book and film, Alex was portrayed by Vanessa Claire Smith in the ARK Theatre Company's multimedia adaptation of A Clockwork Orange, directed by Brad Mays.

The language is based on largely English and Russian words, but also borrows from other sources such as Cockney rhyming slang, Romani speech, and schoolboy colloquialisms.

One night, the gang breaks into a woman's house, and Alex assaults and kills her by ramming her face with a sculpture of a penis and testicles (in the book it is a bust of Beethoven).

As Alex flees from the house after hearing police sirens, Dim hits him with a milk bottle (his chain in the book) and the gang leaves him to be arrested.

Eventually, prison officials recommend him for the Ludovico Technique, an experimental forced re-education treatment designed to eliminate criminal impulses.

During the treatment, prison doctors inject him with nausea-inducing drugs and make him watch films portraying murder, torture and rape.

Alex is particularly affected by watching footage of Nazi war crimes set to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, one of his favourite pieces of music; as a result, he can no longer hear it without feeling sick.

His parents take him back and the government, smarting from the bad publicity, gives him a well-paying job where he can channel his naturally-violent tendencies against the enemies of the state.

When he runs into Pete at a coffee shop and learns he got married, Alex begins to think about starting a family, but worries that his children will inherit his violent tendencies.