The most Memorable Character in all of literature?

**waryan** · 01-07-2011, 05:07 PM

hello everyone, I have a slight inquiry for you all. I am currently curious to learn about what makes a great fictional character and rather than just try and study a fiction writing book, I was wondering if you all wouldn't mind suggesting some fiction works that you thought had everlasting or especially rich characters in them- I know several novels have great characters which I of course it is argued is essential to a great work but out of all the books you've read, which ones had characters that were not just interesting in their history, but written so vividly that you felt you could hear or see or know especially well? thank you for any help!

**Kyriakos** · 01-07-2011, 05:11 PM

For individual characters i would think that Dostoevsky has created a number of very memorable ones, since his literature is basically that: interesting characters explaining their inner life.

For writer-narrators i would go for De Maupassant, since his entire body of work presents a study of a person descending into madness, all too human with his strenghts and weaknesses

**country doctor** · 01-07-2011, 05:24 PM

well one of the most memorable characters and maybe the most memorable female character has to be scarlett o'hara...upper echelon, for sure...

**country doctor** · 01-07-2011, 05:26 PM

and rhett is quite memorable as well...but they don't come any bigger than scarlett...

**ScribbleScribe** · 01-07-2011, 05:28 PM

The Monster in Frankenstein by Mary Shelly was memorable for me.

**Emil Miller** · 01-07-2011, 05:45 PM

Originally Posted by waryan

hello everyone, I have a slight inquiry for you all. I am currently curious to learn about what makes a great fictional character and rather than just try and study a fiction writing book, I was wondering if you all wouldn't mind suggesting some fiction works that you thought had everlasting or especially rich characters in them- I know several novels have great characters which I of course it is argued is essential to a great work but out of all the books you've read, which ones had characters that were not just interesting in their history, but written so vividly that you felt you could hear or see or know especially well? thank you for any help!

You might not believe it but there are some here who will tell you that young master Harry Potter fits the description.

**JCamilo** · 01-07-2011, 05:45 PM

Nobody

**papayahed** · 01-07-2011, 06:43 PM

Notes from the Underground

**Patrick_Bateman** · 01-07-2011, 06:48 PM

Well Patrick Bateman of course

The stream of consciousness style and the graphic description of his deeds certainly didn't hurt him to be a resonant character of modern literature.

**ScribbleScribe** · 01-07-2011, 07:30 PM

Originally Posted by Patrick_Bateman

Well Patrick Bateman of course

The stream of consciousness style and the graphic description of his deeds certainly didn't hurt him to be a resonant character of modern literature.

I'm going to offend you by asking this but, who is Patrick Bateman?

**arrytus** · 01-07-2011, 07:41 PM

Hamlet or Odysseus or Faust.

As for a novel with rich characters I don't think anyone outdoes Tolstoy in Anna Karenina, or War and Peace.

**Lord Macbeth** · 01-07-2011, 07:53 PM

Originally Posted by arrytus

Hamlet or Odysseus or Faust.

As for a novel with rich characters I don't think anyone outdoes Tolstoy in Anna Karenina, or War and Peace.

I agree almost in whole--add Hugo and Les Miserables and I'd say that's pretty much the closest we'd come to a universally-acceptable list...

Hamlet, Odysseus, and Faust are all immensely well-known and known for their literary work, and then Tolstoy's two works have a plethora of great names, and to cap it off, Hugo's work--it MUST be in there...really, Vajean, Javert, Fantine, Cosette, Marius, Enjolras, Gavroche, the Thernadiers, Eponine...huge cast, all very memorable.

**Gilliatt Gurgle** · 01-07-2011, 08:32 PM

A few more you should consider:

“Don Quixote” created by Miguel de Cervantes
“Quasimodo” created by Victor Hugo
“Aeneas” created by Publius Vergilius Maro
“Beowulf” created by ??????
“Prince Lev Nikolaevich Myshkin” created by Fyodor Dostoevsky
“Pinocchio” created by Carlo Collodi

Gilliatt

**JuniperWoolf** · 01-07-2011, 10:44 PM

Sherlock Holmes was the first thing that popped into my head. We don't think about him very often because the image of Holmes has been so engrained in our society that it's actually a cliché, but really - the cocaine addled manic depressive genius with an aptitude for chemistry, boxing and the violin who's arrogant little jibes at his friend of average intelligence are always somehow unexpected and hilarious, that is a memorable character.

**stlukesguild** · 01-07-2011, 11:08 PM

I would have to say that it would be one of the Biblical characters... perhaps Moses... Satan... but quite likely Jesus. I say this because these characters... especially Jesus... live on far beyond the constraints of the Biblical texts. Jesus is further explored in the writings of endless other writers and poets, in the music of composers, and in endless works of art... to such an extent that we know how he was born, we know how he looks, and we have witnessed endless sides of his personality from the Sermon on the Mount, to The Gospel of Thomas, to Michelangelo's Apollonian heroic Christ, to the Bridegroom in the Song of Solomon and in Bach's duet from the cantata 140, to Kazantzakis' (and martin Scorcese's) Last temptation of Christ, to Dostoevsky's Christ and the Inquisitor... and endless other examples. Very few literary characters have achieved anything near as much. Don Quixote lives well beyond the confines of Cervantes's novel... to an even greater extent than almost any character by Shakespeare... but pales in comparison. I'd be hard-pressed to think of another outside of Western culture.