Which character relates to you the most?

[Nazish]

Which character have you read and couldn't help saying 'Whoa, he/she sounds like me here' or 'I would have done the same if I was him/her'...

-Name of the character
-Name of the book
-Where, when and how does it relate to you?

[Alexander III]

Ok il play, at least this is a thread question I have yet to see, so props for originality.

- Childe Harold
- Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
- The character just reminds me of myself or rather I remind myself of the character

[Patrick_Bateman]

Patrick Bateman

[Nazish]

Patrick Bateman

Is that a character? Which book?? and how does it relate to you?

[laymonite]

Is that a character? Which book?? and how does it relate to you?

American Psycho.

[Nazish]

I think I relate the most to
-Jo (Josephine March)
- Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
- She reminds me of the boyishness she had in her early teens and later too, for being too bold and for her love of literature. And may be perhaps saying a big *NO* to her best friend's proposal :D

[Alexander III]

Patrick Bateman

you really should learn to read the first post...

[Kyriakos]

Hm, nice question :)

I think that in some ways in the past i could relate to Raskolnicov, of Crime and Punishment, but not anymore.

I cannot think of any fictional character i relate to, although at times i idolised not characters, but authors.

[JBI]

I feel myself become more like Onegin every day. Then again, I also see several Moliere characters, from the misanthrope to the miser in me.

[laymonite]

I like this question, too, and I'll have to give it some thought before directly answering. I must say, though, the thread calls to mind Nabokov's (Cornell?) lecture, recorded as "Good Readers and Good Writers," wherein he states that the worst thing a reader can do is identify with a character or situation (paraphrase). I do not at all mean for this to deter the current thread; but I was wondering if this lecture of Nabokov's has been discussed on this forum. If not, I'll start a new thread.

Oh, I just thought of a tentative answer: the narrator from Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, or maybe one of the narrators from a Raymond Carver story who's always teetering on the brink of despair and grasping for hope in the face of unsettling reality--always to be found in the most banal of situations. But, yeah, I'll think more on this.

[Oread]

I can't think of any character that I entirely relate to, except for some aspects of both Astrid's and Ingrid's character in White Oleander.

[Emil Miller]

The first person over the age of eleven who say's Harry Potter, will be ritually slain in the name of literature.

[Patrick_Bateman]

Patrick Bateman, American Psycho
My penchant for Armani, dapper clothing, reputation as a philanderer (and the propensity to gouge out the eyes of the homeless)

[LitNetIsGreat]

Ron Weasley.:D

I don't know for sure, but I always feel that I am close to Jude in many ways in Thomas Hardy's great work, Jude the Obscure. When I am feeling sorry for myself it is the sense of him being on the outside which somehow resonates with me. He tries, he works hard but he is never really accepted - see what I mean with the feeling sorry for myself! My one image of Jude is of him starring through a window and not being able to get within and perhaps the way he idealizes events beyond there worth. Something like that.

I think that in literature though you see elements of yourself in characters, little things here and there and that is enough for most parts.

[Patrick_Bateman]

Ron Weasley.:D



Haha, the temptation was there for me too.

[Patrick_Bateman]

I feel myself become more like Onegin every day.
Ahhh one half of my avatar :)

[OrphanPip]

Well I've never had a very strong moment of identification with a fictional character. There are a few that I can identify similar ideas in, and definitely experiences.

I must have picked Pip from Great Expectations as a user name for some reason.

For very similar life experiences I usually have to turn to queer lit, maybe Jim from The City and The Pillar at times, or the narrator from Edmund White's A Boy's Own Story. Though neither character is very similar to me, there are some moments of similarity.

[Nazish]

I don't know for sure, but I always feel that I am close to Jude in many ways in Thomas Hardy's great work, Jude the Obscure.


Jude was an absolutely amazing character coined by Hardy. I was rather surprised by his relationship views !

[PeterL]

Harry Flashman
The Flashman Chronicles
He was human, and I like to think that I might also be.

[Emil Miller]

This is surely a question for the younger Litnetter, as with maturity one becomes less impressionable. I must admit that on first reading The Great Gatsby at the age of 17, I strongly identified with the protagonist because at the time I was besotted with a girl who was attached to someone else.
Even if that hadn't been the case, Gatsby must surely be one of the most charismatic figures in American literature who has similarly appealed to young men around the world since it was written in 1925.

[PeterL]

Even if that hadn't been the case, Gatsby must surely be one of the most charismatic figures in American literature who has similarly appealed to young men around the world since it was written in 1925.

Gatsby might have been "one of the most charismatic figures in American literature," if he had not been shown to be other than he initially appeared.

[Emil Miller]

Gatsby might have been "one of the most charismatic figures in American literature," if he had not been shown to be other than he initially appeared.

Nevertheless it is the soi-disant Gatsby who stays in the mind rather than the one from whom he emerged.

[Mr.lucifer]

The first person over the age of eleven who say's Harry Potter, will be ritually slain in the name of literature.
Harry potter.

[Gregory Samsa]

When I was younger it was Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye. I little bit dissociate from other people. Also Raskolnikov.

[Emil Miller]

Harry potter.

That's OK, it only applies to those over eleven.

[weltanschauung]

raskolnivok. yup.

"he is morose, gloomy, proud and haughty, and of late - and perhaps for a long time before - he has been suspicious and fanciful. He has a noble nature and a kind heart. He does not like showing his feelings and would rather do a cruel thing than open his heart freely. Sometimes, though, he is not at all morbid, but simply cold and inhumanly callous; it's as though he were alternating between two characters. Sometimes he is fearfully reserved! He says he is so busy that everything is a hindrance, and yet he lies in bed doing nothing. He doesn't jeer at things, not because he hasn't the wit, but as though he hadn't time to waste on such trifles. He never listens to what is said to him. He is never interested in what interests other people at any given moment. He thinks very highly of himself and perhaps he is right. Well, what more? I think your arrival will have a most beneficial influence upon him."

words.

[Mr.lucifer]

That's OK, it only applies to those over eleven.

I was only kidding.

[Emil Miller]

I was only kidding.

So was I

[Wilde woman]

Probably Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice because she's sensibly idealistic, if that makes any sense. But I hope to be as cheeky as Rosalind (from As You Like It) one day! :D

[arrytus]

Herzog by Saul Bellow. I thought he somehow took a time machine into the future and stole my notebooks and then used it for the first 60 pages.

And someone wrote about Nabokov's Cornell Lectures; so it only makes sense because he thought Bellow to be a terrible mediocrity and thus the parallel still holds...

[hanzklein]

I can relate to many Shakespeare characters, but the one i most can relate to is Hamlet, having suffered depression, inaction, and having had a strained relationship with my father.

[Babak Movahed]

Bérenger
From Ionesco's Rhinoceros
I relate to him because he notices all the hypocrites and absurdities in society, yet doesn't really care to change any of them.

[ZiggyStardust]

Guy Montag form Fahrenheit 451... I used to do what people told me to do and there wasn't much else to my life. I didn't think my own thoughts often enough and I just did what made people happy, but I've changed that.

[Buh4Bee]

When I was younger it was Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye. I little bit dissociate from other people. Also Raskolnikov.

I second that. As a young woman I felt like I had found a friend in Holden.

I also love Edward Rochester from Jane Eyre. I was always taken aback when he stated that Jane is his equal even though there is some insane 20 years between them. I respect his character for taking what he wants, since he had suffered greatly from his first marriage to his insane wife. He really loved Jane and he wanted her so badly that he was willing to become a polygamist and break all rules of propriety/law. In the end, the depth of his character brought Jane back to him. Very romantic and noble character. I relate to his desire and spirit to take what he wants as a person who has lived a difficult life. He never gives up hope and he maintains an active life.

I do not relate to any of the Harry Potter characters.