“Terrified, John locked the door” — Is the comma necessary?

Which one would sound better?

Terrified, John locked the door and switched off the lights.

OR

Terrified John locked the door and switched off the lights.

Solution 1:

The first one is best, because John is a name and terrified is an adjective describing John. If you don't add a comma, then you're naming him Terrified John.

If you need a grammatical explanation (the rule), then I'll let the other people explain.

Solution 2:

I think the way to think about this is that the word "terrified" is actually the result of ellipsis applied to the phrase "feeling terrified". The implied full sentence is "Feeling terrified, John locked the door and switched off the lights."

A comma should be used because when you say "Terrified, John locked the door" you would insert a brief pause after the word "terrified". Leaving out the comma implies that it shouldn't be spoken with a pause, which as the others have said would mean that the person's name was "Terrified John".