What makes a great character? What draws us back to a story we’ve read before just so we can revisit a fictional character we’ve begun to think of as a friend? I contemplated that after reading Pride & Prejudice. Although I love Colin Firth’s Mr. Darcy in the BBC version, what is it about Jane Austen’s written words that caused me to fall even more in love with the character? I think it’s the insights we’re privy to when we read, rather than watch, a story. In a book we’re allowed inside the character’s mind and so we see exactly what motivated a certain action. It’s a much more intimate interaction, maybe that’s the key.
I also got to thinking about some of my favorite fictional characters and why I love them so much. I like Mr. Darcy because he’s awkward around strangers, like I am. He gets caught up in trying to behave the way he should even when his heart tells him something different. Eventually tho, his heart wins him over and he confesses his feelings to Elizabeth.
I have a couple of characters that I revisit often in books. There’s Ender Wiggin of Ender’s Game and the subsequent series it spawned. But it’s in this first book that I made friends with the lonely, ambitious, brilliant boy who would save the world. I can’t help but root for Fiver and Pippin of Watership Down even though I know how the tale will end since I’ve read it so many times. I weep every time I read about Hadassah’s family perishing in Jerusalem in Francine Rivers’ AVoice in the Wind.
My list could go on and on but I’m wondering about you. Who are the characters you revisit on a regular basis and why? Let me know.
Oh, you make me want to read those books. Characters stay with me too, I love the father in Peace Like a River. The love he has for his son, whose taken up crime. I love Will Tweedy in Cold Sassy. His description of his grandfather and his uncle’s suicide. His uncle couldn’t do anything right, so he fixed a leaky faucet just b4 he shot himself, Will, 13 years old, heard the drip, drip, drip & the boy fixed it, so no one could say his uncle couldn’t.Of course, Katniss in the Hunger games. And one of my personal favorties the pregnant girl in Snow Island.
I also feel that way about some movies. Stalag 17, Sefton…. what an amazing character. Based on a broadway play, based on a true event in WWII. I’ve watched it so many times, I can say the dialogue b4 the character does. To Kill a Mockingbird… of course the book too… but Gregory Peck’s character is unforgetable.
One of my favorite characters is George Smiley. A rumpled, underestimated man of genius. Another is Arkady Renko, a dedicated- to- the- truth- cop in the Soviet Union. A man who understands the system is against him, but plugs along searching for truth anyway. I’m not sure why they appeal to me as I’m not a genius or a cop; although I am rumpled alot.
Haven’t read those Cher, I’ll have to give them a try!