{"id":2522,"date":"2005-03-03T11:11:37","date_gmt":"2005-03-03T16:11:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=2522"},"modified":"2010-07-12T15:44:50","modified_gmt":"2010-07-12T19:44:50","slug":"favorite-fictional-characters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=2522","title":{"rendered":"Favorite Fictional Characters"},"content":{"rendered":"

What fun!! “The 100 favourite fictional characters… as chosen by 100 literary luminaries<\/a>”<\/p>\n

It was beautiful to see many of my old favorites on the list … although I have to admit some I have never heard of.<\/p>\n

So then I went to town, choosing my favorite fictional characters. I have no idea how many there are here on this list below … I just kept going until the well ran dry.<\/p>\n

My criteria? Characters who made an indelible impression on me, first of all. For whatever reason.<\/p>\n

Like Madame Defarge in Tale of Two Cities<\/i>. I read that book in high school and I remember some of the descriptions of her almost word for word. She is, to me, unforgettable.<\/p>\n

The same with Queequeg in Moby Dick<\/i>. The opening chapters of the book when Ishmael meets Queequeg – and then there’s the strangely homoerotic moment when they lie in bed together and Ishmael wakes up, and Queequeg is hugging him in his sleep … fascinating. I love Queequeg. He, to me, is a character who lives, between the lines of that book. He is alive.<\/p>\n

I chose other characters because, in a direct way, they had an impact on how I lived my life, and who I have become. This is not an exaggeration. That’s how Harriet the Spy is for me. That’s how Jo March from Little Women<\/i> is for me, and that is definitely how Scout Finch and Charlotte the spider are for me. You can NEVER convince me that these characters only live between the covers of their respective books.<\/p>\n

I guess that, above all, was my criteria: a character who transcends his or her own genre, who steps up off the flat page, and lives<\/i>. Lives on, long after you finish the book. Like Cathy in East of Eden<\/i>. Or The Grand Inquisitor in Brothers Karamazov<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Anyway. PLEASE add your own in the comments.<\/p>\n

And just a small note: There should be NO SHAME attached to your favorite fictional characters, and you should assume NO JUDGMENT from me or from anyone else when you put them down. If your favorite fictional character is a feisty brunette damsel in distress in your favorite bodice-ripping romance novel, put it the hell down in the comments here, and BE PROUD.<\/p>\n

Okay. So here’s my list.<\/p>\n


\nSheila’s Favorite Fictional Characters.<\/b><\/p>\n

Harriet, from Harriet the Spy, <\/i> by Louise Fitzhugh. Hands down, my favorite fictional character EVER written.<\/p>\n

Jane Eyre. from Jane Eyre, <\/i>by Charlotte Bronte<\/p>\n

Charlotte the spider. from Charlotte’s Web, <\/i>by EB White<\/p>\n

Captain Ahab from Moby Dick, <\/i>by Herman Melville<\/p>\n

Queequeg from Moby Dick, <\/i>by Herman Melville<\/p>\n

Anne Shirley, from Anne of Green Gables,<\/i> by LM Montgomery<\/p>\n

Miss Havisham. from Great Expectations<\/i>, by Charles Dickens<\/p>\n

Ramona. from the Ramona series<\/i>, by Beverly Cleary<\/p>\n

Yossarian. From Catch-22, <\/i> by Joseph Heller.<\/p>\n

Milo. From Catch-22, <\/i> by Joseph Heller.<\/p>\n

The Grand Inquisitor. From Brothers Karamazov, <\/i>by Dostoevsky.<\/p>\n

Bud White. from LA Confidential, <\/i>by James Ellroy<\/p>\n

Blanche DuBois and Stanley Kowalski. From Streetcar Named Desire, <\/i>by Tennessee Williams.<\/p>\n

Elizabeth Bennett. From Pride and Prejudice, <\/i>by Jane Austen.<\/p>\n

Mr. Darcy. From Pride and Prejudice, <\/i>by Jane Austen.<\/p>\n

Phoebe Caulfield, Holden’s sister. From Catcher in the Rye, <\/i>by Salinger<\/p>\n

Porfiry Petrovitch, the detective in Crime and Punishment, <\/i>by Dostoevsky.<\/p>\n

Olympia, from Geek Love, <\/i>by Katherine Dunn<\/p>\n

Huck Finn. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, <\/i>by Mark Twain<\/p>\n

Leopold Bloom. Ulysses, <\/i>by James Joyce.<\/p>\n

Alice. from Alice in Wonderland, <\/i>by Lewis Carroll.<\/p>\n

Frankenstein. from Frankenstein, <\/i>by Mary Shelley<\/p>\n

Stephen Dedalus. from Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, <\/i>by James Joyce<\/p>\n

Hamlet. from Hamlet, <\/i>by Shakespeare<\/p>\n

Gandalf. from Lord of the Rings, <\/i>by JRRRRRRR Tolkien<\/p>\n

Fagin. from Oliver Twist, <\/i>by Charles Dickens<\/p>\n

Jo March. from Little Women, <\/i>by Louisa May Alcott<\/p>\n

Madame Defarge. from Tale of Two Cities,<\/i> by Charles Dickens<\/p>\n

Atticus Finch. from To Kill a Mockingbird, <\/i>by Harper Lee<\/p>\n

Scout Finch. from To Kill a Mockingbird, <\/i>by Harper Lee<\/p>\n

Boo Radley. from To Kill a Mockingbird, <\/i>by Harper Lee<\/p>\n

Rosalind. from As You Like It, <\/i>by Shakespeare<\/p>\n

Cathy. from East of Eden, <\/i>by John Steinbeck (just the thought of her makes me shiver)<\/p>\n

Villanelle. from The Passion, <\/i>by Jeanette Winterson (she’s a web-footed cross-dressing redheaded daughter of a Venetian boatmen, during the time of the Napoleonic wars. Unbelievably great character)<\/p>\n

Chris, Cathy, and the twins, from Flowers in the Attic<\/i> by VC Andrews …. JUST KIDDING<\/p>\n

Update<\/i>: The comments are AWESOME. Keep ’em coming!<\/p>\n

Here are Dan’s choices<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here are Beth’s<\/a>. Beth gets extra points for choosing Oscar the Grouch and saying, in regards to that trashcan dweller:<\/p>\n

Oscar taught me, as Ralph Waldo Emerson once put it, “to see the miraculous in the ordinary.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What fun!! “The 100 favourite fictional characters… as chosen by 100 literary luminaries” It was beautiful to see many of my old favorites on the list … although I have to admit some I have never heard of. So then … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2522"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18516,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522\/revisions\/18516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}