Of male and female characters

**Taliesin** · 10-26-2004, 10:26 AM

The thing is, I have seen that male writers have done quite well when picturing male characters, as have female writers with female characters.

But now the thing is the opposite sex. There are not many writers who can acccurately picture the oppossite sex's character's mind.

So, the question is:

Female forumers, which male writer do you think has most accurately described the mind of a woman; the same question to male forumers: which female author has most accurately described the mind of a male character's inner world?

And, oh yes, sorry for my terrible english.

**amuse** · 10-26-2004, 10:42 AM

i'd forgotten how well james baldwin did this, until my intellectual heritage teacher mentioned him. can't think of anyone else right offhand though...

sidenote: my bf's mom went to this book signing and the authoress told of how her hubby got great laughs at her multiple attempts to write a love scene from a man's perspective.

**bjortan** · 10-26-2004, 11:18 AM

It's especially hilarious when male writers write female characters who fall hopelessly in love with a character who looks suspiciously like the face on the book jacket...

**mono** · 10-26-2004, 02:53 PM

Firstly, being a male, to me both Virginia Woolf and Emily Bronte tend to describe well the makings of an increasingly masculine mind. Wuthering Heights best distinguished the various types of male minds, not to deviate the male from the female mind too much.

**nothingman87** · 10-26-2004, 09:24 PM

To me, Willa Cather perfectly describes the desires of a man both young and old in her characterization of Jim Burden, in her work My Antonia.

**Jester** · 10-27-2004, 01:32 PM

I thought Charles Frazier did a good job portraying Adah and Ruby in Cold Mountain...

**crisaor** · 10-27-2004, 04:40 PM

Originally Posted by Taliesin

So, the question is to male forumers: which female author has most accurately described the mind of a male character's inner world?

Your question has brought my attention to a weird fact: I cannot recall owning a book by a female author. Strange. Also, I can't recall which book written by a female author was the last one I read. It goes without saying that I don't care about an author's gender, but this is too curious. Problably it was something by Agatha Christie, but I'm having trouble remembering another one. I'll check.

**subterranean** · 10-27-2004, 07:42 PM

I don't know, from all the books that I read so far, the best description in female characters are given by female authors, like the Awakening or Jane Eyre. Same thing with male characters, like the one i'm reading now (Jude the Obscure).. But Dostoevsky also gave good descriptions for the female characters in the Poor People.
So I dont really know which female/male author give the best description of male/female charaterisation

**subterranean** · 10-28-2004, 07:49 PM

how about Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. This book gives a good description of woman with her sensibility and sufferings. Sad ending though..

**EAP** · 10-31-2004, 10:28 AM

On the flip side lie people like Robert Jordan and even Charles Dickens who can't portray a female character without submitting to the most blatant cliches.

Personally I always liked Harper Lee's portrayel of Atticus and his son.

**mono** · 10-31-2004, 01:21 PM

Odd how this thread came to my mind earlier today, and, from my previous entry, I realized I forgot to mention Harper Lee's portrayal of males in To Kill A Mockingbird, and especially the development with age of character.

**Isagel** · 11-02-2004, 01:52 PM

I thin that the porttraits of the women in The hours by Michael Cunningham are some of the most complex ones I have read. For me, the theme about the conflicts between the needs and demands from others and the characters own wishes and needs are written in a gender role perspective, without preaching, whitout simplifying.

Another writer who actually made me think "How can he know this? How can a man know this " is actually Stephen King. In a book called Geralds game he describes, among other things , a bad relationship between a man and a woman in a almost disturbingly accurate detail . I have never read a relationship described like this before. In the book you can follow her growing awarness of her own strength, and why she has not been aware before. ( It is a horror story as well, of course. Well, mostly a horror story)

I have had a soft spot for Stephen King has been after the first page in the book Rose Madder. He starts with qouting Sigmund Freud , when Freud says that he has never found out what women really want. King answers the question by quoting Aretha Franklin:

" R-E-S-P-E-C-T
find out what that means to me"

**Shore Dude** · 11-02-2004, 03:00 PM

Originally Posted by mono

Odd how this thread came to my mind earlier today, and, from my previous entry, I realized I forgot to mention Harper Lee's portrayal of males in To Kill A Mockingbird, and especially the development with age of character.

Haper Lee is just a master of characterization in general. Scout is one of my favorite and most lovable characters.

With regards to encompassing the oposite sex, I think Judith Guest does a masterful job of narrating/ characterizing the father, the son and the father-son relationship in Ordinary People.