The most Memorable Character in all of literature?

1. Cain, The Bible
2. Caleb Trask, East of Eden
3. John Valjean, Les Miserables
4. Randle McMurphy, One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
5. John Russell, Hombre
6. Jesus, the one in the chapter titled The Grand Inquisitor in The Brothers Karamazov
7. Huckleberry Finn
(Not necessarily in the order given)

For me, in no specific order:

Sherlock Holmes
Sydney Carton
Humbert Humbert
Hester Prynne
Gandalf
Holden Caulfield
Atticus Finch
Scout
Judge Holden
Harry Flashman
Jean-Baptiste Grenouille
Equality 7-2521
Lisbeth Salander
Robert Neville
Tom Ripley

I'm sure there are more, but those are off the top of my head.

Fred the left handed coal man who always got the change wrong

Conan.

Julien Sorel, Stavrogin, Colonel Aureliano Buendia, Shakespeare's Cleopatra, Lord Henry, Dean Moriarty, Judge Holden.

Roland Deschain

stephen dedalus

Sherlock Holmes.

Interesting how so many people have answered with more than one character, which suggests they don't think any of the characters stand out more than others.

Prince Genji, Leopold Bloom, Elizabeth Bennet, Jia Bao-yu (I'm not finished with the first volume of The Dream of the Red Chamber yet, but it's shaping up to be pretty epic already).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pen Name

Sherlock Holmes.

Interesting how so many people have answered with more than one character, which suggests they don't think any of the characters stand out more than others.

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There are so many great characters in literature, I knew I wasn't going to be able to answer with just one. I thought I would give 3 or 4. I ended up listing 15. :) And my inability to choose a single character does indeed mean that one does not stand above the others in my mind. That doesn't mean that they don't stand out as a group above other characters. I think the more interesting part of this thread is seeing the range of characters people have chosen. I'm sure people don't agree with some of my choices, just as I don't agree with some of theirs.

Two by me:


Gregor Samsa (Metamorphosis-Kafka)

Akaky Akakievic (The Overcoat-Gogol)

Surely there are many others, but those two seemed very unique to me. Both insect-like in singificance in the stories.

Oliver Haddo.

I'm amazed at the number of characters put forth that have me thinking "Who?" "What?"

It seems to me that the most memorable characters are those that we can describe in great detail... not merely characters in a good narrative/novel/play/poem. In other words... I would think of those characters who virtually "live" beyond the boundaries of the original text. Satan, Jesus, Odysseus, Hamlet, Don Quixote and Sancho, Huckleberry Finn, etc...

Stephen Dedalus
Pilate Dead from Morrison's Song of Solomon
Huck Finn
Holden Caulfield
Dilsey from The Sound and the Fury

Harry Haller from Steppenwolf.
Lisbeth Salander from The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
Charlie from The Perks of Being Wallflower.

Those characters will always have a place in my heart!!!