Got Character?
Traits of Your Favorite Character
Posted by EavesdropWriter • 9/20/07 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS]
Topics: endearing, favorites, traits
What did you like most about one of your favorite ficticious characters in a novel you read recently or long ago? What do you remember most about them? Something they said or a particular behavior? What did you like least?
User Comments
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Precious Romotswe, the main female character from Alexander McCall Smith's "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency" series remains so very familiar to me. She is unassuming, caring, funny and proud all at once. Her dialogue and introspections show me these traits and McCall spends very little time 'telling' me about her. She has flaws and self doubts, which make her all the more believable. She loses her temper, apologizes and sometimes behaves stubbornly, but she always checks herself in the end. She shows me some very mundane habits, like drinking red bush tea everyday, and some very private ones, like continuing to honor her deceased father in hopes of making him proud.
All these traits are quite vivid in my memory and my own interpretation of Precious. I think that's what makes a character beloved, a reader takes them into there hearts and makes them their own.
If you're curious: www.alexandermccallsmith.co.uk/-
Absolutely LOVE those books
They made me want to travel to Botswana and compliment people by calling them fat -
Yes, me too! I am seriously considering a safari vacation with a long stop in Botswana. Doesn't it sound like a wonderful culture? Mr. Smith might have used some creative license, but from what I've researched, not too much!
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Gosh. This means I have to pick a favorite character.
Well, two favorite characters are Merry and Pippin from The Lord of the Rings. Somehow they manage to go through all these crazy scary battles and such still able to tell jokes.
They have their serious moments, but usually they're amusing and incredibly British. My favorite bit was how they were sitting on the ruined wall of Sauromon's tower eating and smoking and telling jokes.-
Yes, I like them too. "Resilience" comes to mind and also the admirable notion of not taking oneself too seriously. Two traits that attract me to people. Would you perhaps agree that getting to know these 2 and identifying with them throughout the story made the unbelievable battles more believable?
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So would you say, then, that the same characteristics that attract you to real people "attract" you to characters? -
@EavesdropWriter: Yeah, I suppose so. Though I'm so used to fantasy that I really never noticed the unbelievability of the battles.
@MadameX: Doesn't everybody like characters for the same reasons they like real people? At least most of the time.
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Hi MadameX, you caught me in the middle of an edit. In answer, it's a bit dependent upon the plot as well, but yes, generally characteristics I value or admire in others (that I may or may not possess myself) are what draws me to characters. It relates to familiarity, I think.
But then, I have been very interested in characters that have nothing but mostly detestable qualities, like Miranda Priestly in "The Devil Wears Prada".-
It's an interesting issue that I'd never (at least consciously) thought about before--your comment really got me thinking. I think that perhaps for me that's not so true...I think that I find things very interesting in characters, especially contradictions, that I would not enjoy in live people. My "hero" on paper may be very different from the one in real life. I have to give it more thought, though. It seems like a significant question for a writer, and it's one I never saw before.
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Well, that's a good point. There's a character in a comic book I read who I really like, but he can be a real jerk and more than a little overbearing. I think in real life I wouldn't get along with him much. On the other hand, in stories the author is able to reveal background and thoughts the characters have that you'd never learn in real life, making the negative traits understandable.
So beyond the negative traits I can like the character for his persistence, loyalty, and integrity.
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I have always loved Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Predujice, especially when she realises she misjudged Darcy. Then my mind wanders to him in wet breeches
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I've been thinking a lot about bad behavior and negative traits, lately. Mostly because I'm trying to bring a villian to life who seems very cordial and controled on the surface; everyone's "Mr. Nice Guy", I like to say. I've realized that nasty characters who show some kind of vulnerability, even fleeting, can win me over depending on what happens to them at the end. If they ultimately suffer loss, I find myself thinking 'well, everyone makes mistakes'. Prada's Miranda Priestly fits this precisely for me.
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Like crpitt, my favorite character is Elizabeth Bennet from "Pride and Prejudice." She is the perfect mixture of witty and proud and most of all, she's flawed. She has problems, she's judgmental when she perhaps should not be and she's forgiving about things she should be harsher about. She's idealistic, but not perfect.
Looking toward the more modern, I really like Anita Blake from Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series. Some people love her, others hate her, but one thing is undeniable, she's incredibly strong. Strong but not perfect.-
Elizabeth Bennett is definitely one of Jane Austen's best characters. I like her spirit and determination.
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The Narrator from 'Fight Club', most are familiar with the movie but the character from the book is a little more raw and unknowing about his surroundings. His name isn't given since he doesn't care, and going an entire book without giving a character a true name is amazing too me. He has many names in the book, but non are his. Plus the character is the true first person self-discovery book, the narrator starts you out with a gun in his mouth and basically says, 'maybe i should explain how i'm here with a gun in my mouth.'-
I saw the movie but never read the book. First person narrative is my favorite technique, so I'm always looking for good books in this tense.
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I'm writing a first person narrative, so been reading a lot of them lately. Just read - 'Forget about it' and was dying with laughter. Yes a guy who reads some chic-lit.
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For my creator there have been many....Hannibal Lector and his lip smacking, left a great impression. On pondering my creator says that many aspects of a character appeal, is the way they are built up and shown to the audience. Whether that be through the books or movies. If the characters traits are made believable they effect the audience. A lasting impression is a great sign of a great character. -
I rarely stay with a book unless I like the character or else find him or her infuriating. The characters I like most come across not only as real but as people with a consistent point of view, so recalling exactly why I liked them is difficult, other than to say I like this one's mind and soul.
One classic and infuriating character, though, stands out for me. I have always greatly disliked Anna Karenina, so much so that it took me many attempts to read the book through--I kept throwing it across the room every time the great Tolstoy fawned over her exquisitely tiny hands and feet. Sick. But worse than her minute appendages was her utter lack of character in its other definition. What a miserable wimp she was. Can anyone think of a more tepid heroine?-
You do have to admit that it took a certain bit of chutzpah to throw her tiny self in front of a train. :-0 -
I love how expressive you are, Kathleen. It's also nice to find someone else who throws books across the room. I confess, I never finished Anna Karenina after 2 attempts. Although it still occupies 3" on my bookshelf.
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Just adding on to this point - I read Anna Karenina, quite enjoyed it but I absolutely despise that character. I don't know what Tolstoy's thing about her was, I kept waiting for her to redeem herself throughout the book but the more I read, the more I hated her. I loved some of the other characters, but I really don't understand her at all.
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In the past couple of weeks I've heard three authors (well, two directly, but one quoting a third) talk about the power of ordinary people as characters. Regina Doman cited G.K. Chesterton's assertion that fairy tales endured for centuries because they were not about extraordinary people, but about ordinary people who found their adventures amazing precisely because they were ordinary. Then, this week Jacquelyn Mitchard said that all of her characters were people you already knew from your neighborhood.
Giving that some thought, I realized that some of the characters I've become most attached to really were "everyday" people--Hemingway's Nick Adams springs to mind as one of the clearest examples.-
This sense of 'ordinary' speaks to me, MadameX. I think when I try to describe it to others, I tend to use the word 'familiar' for some reason. Maybe because oridinary is familiar? What you explain about fairy tales is so true. I'll take a recent example of a modern fairy tale, the movie "Stardust". Tristan Thorne, the male lead character, is very completely ordinary - in dress, habits, job, insecurities. He remains ordinary for a good third of the movie until his adventure begins. It's absolutely extraodinary and he realizes it every moment because he is, of course, so ordinary, until the end when he's transformed.
Dennis Lehane is great at pushing ordinary people into very unsettling situations in a believable context. "Mystic River" and "Shutter Island" are books I was so immersed in I easily saw each page in my mind's eye. I felt like I knew the characters and was in sync with them, feeling what they'd think or do. This is different from prediction, like when you just know what the villain will do next. This is more personal and, well, familiar...I think because the characters are ordinary people. -
Great example--and you UNDERSTAND why they're doing what they're doing, too, even if it might be outside what you'd think acceptable or rational at a glance. The lead character in Mystic River is probably one of the best examples in fiction (at least, that I've read) of a character making decisions that taken in isolation sound dramatic and even alien, but in context one step leads almost naturally to the next, and it's very easy to understand.
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I love strong hero and heroines who are vulnerable and need to overcome a tragic incident in their lives so they can move forward. Flaws are great because they show they are human, but if characters are too flawed one starts to question their morals. I tend to lay books like that down.
I'm currently in love with Deidre Knight's Midnight Warrior series, which is paranormal romance. All of her heroes and heroines are flawed and lovable. It's hard to choose which characters I favor, but Marco McKinley, an alien, is a tortured soul and Hope Harper, a human, is almost blind but soldiers on in a magnificent way. PARALLEL ATTRACTION, PARALLEL HEAT, and PARALLEL SEDUCTION are all great reads!!! I am counting the minutes until PARALLEL DESIRE comes out in December. Did I say I loooove Deidre too!!!
Hugs, JJ-
Hi JJ, it's interesting that you say you love strong characters who are also vulnerable; some people might see that as a contradiction. I agree with your sentiments, though. I also see almost any triumph over adversity as a strength and the character's initial vulnerbility ususally makes me cheer harder for them.
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Strong and vulnerable, definitely big plusses. Inuyasha has got to be one of the most emotionally vulnerable character I've ever seen but he's got an extremely strong will (read, stubborn as a mule) and he's almost certainly the second strongest character in the series, physically speaking. His older brother is physically stronger in some respects, but I'd be willing to bet that a real duel to the death between the two would be a very close match.
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Jane Eyre - My favourite character of all time, especially considering the time the book was written. Rochester is also one of my favourites - I like him because of the imperfections I think. I've read the book so many times because I find these characters so appealing.
Two characters that I really like who are not the main character in a book are Milo Sturgis out of the Jonathan Kellerman novels featuring Alex Delaware and Jacob Black in the Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer.
I would LOVE to create characters that people connect with as much as I do.
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