TEN Influential Fictional Characters
Who shaped me
Many factors influence and shape us, genetics of course, but also media. I was raised on television. I had a penchant for sitcoms with servants: Brady Bunch, Courtship of Eddie’s Father, Family Affair, and repeats of Hazel. For women role models, my generation had: The Flying Nun and That Girl—and later, Mary Tyler Moore.
Fictional characters help us look at ourselves and to grow into the person we want to be. Thank You
—for this blog idea.
Here are 10 fictional characters who shaped who I am today.
1. Charlotte in Charlotte’s web (E B White). This story of friendship, self-sacrifice and courage taught me about the enduring power of friendship and the effort it requires. Wilber, despite his enormous size, was worthy of Charlotte’s (and everyone’s) love.
2. Claudia in The Mixed Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler (E L Konigsburg). It’s a family story of two runaways who hide out in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Claudia is determined, although unsure of her reason for going. She senses she has suffered an injustice. In Art and museums she discovers her limits and her power.
3. Anne Shirley in the Anne of Green Gables series (L M Montgomery.) Anne is an orphan taken in by brother and sister Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert on their Prince Edward Island farm. They are getting on in years and need a farmhand. They expect a boy; but instead Anne is waiting for Matthew at the station. Everyone who reads Anne of Green Gables identifies with her. I certainly did. She is positive, tenacious, and copes with loads of difficulties.
4. Margot in the short story, “All Summer in a Day” (Ray Bradbury.) I still shudder at its cruelty. Margot is an immigrant on Venus from Earth. She can remember what the sunshine felt like back in Ohio. But the Venus kids can’t remember because the last time it shone on Venus was too long ago (only 2 hours once every seven years.) When Margot tells them what it’s like they accuse her of lying. They resent her superiority and lock her in a closet.
5. Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter (Nathaniel Hawthorne). This morality tale about sexual sin was required reading in high school. Hester is waiting for a husband who is presumed dead. She seeks comfort from the local pastor, and bears his daughter, Pearl. She is ostracized and punished for adultery. She is flawed but human; she loves and suffers. Unfair societal demands are searingly obvious. Love, sexuality, and children are linked to pain, heartache, and isolation.
6. Jane Eyre, title character of Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte.) This remains my favorite book. Jane is an orphan raised by an aunt who doesn’t want her. She is sent to the harsh Lowood School. She becomes governess at Thornfield Hall, home of Mr Rochester and Adele, her student. Jane, is a strong feminist character with a rigid moral compass. She holds to her ideals no matter the personal price.
7. Emma Bovary, title character of Madame Bovary (Gustave Flaubert). Such a contrast to Jane Eyre. Emma Bovary is a passionate woman who marries a boring country doctor. She has an affair, accumulates debt, entangles herself in lies. For the mid-19th century, Emma is lusty and romantic. She drives the action. You feel her human, if unbridled, impulses.
8. The female narrator (possibly named Jane) in the novella, The Yellow Wallpaper (Charlotte Perkins Gilman) continues to haunt me, probably because of the unreliability of the narrator, the journal entry format, and the feminine voice.
9. Eleanor Lavish in A Room with a View (EM Forster) is a lady novelist. Accosted by an alley’s stench she says, “Smell! A true Florentine smell. Inhale my dear. Deeper! Every city, let me tell you, has its own smell,” She is the foil to the repressed protagonist, Lucy Honeychurch. Unlike Honeychurch, Lavish seeks sensual experiences everywhere.
10. Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair (William Makepeace Thackeray) is the wily and penniless graduate of Miss Pinkerton’s academy who returns with her wealthy friend Amelia Sedley to Vanity Fair. There she unleashes her cunning, using all her assets to advance her interests. Because of her maniuplations, she causes disaster and complication. Little has changed in 200 years. When writers successfully capture human nature and it will resonate and endure.
I’ve read dozens of biographies and memoirs about real women who have also influenced me. Of course, I continue to discover new characters in novels, both classics and contemporary, that move me and potentially could influence me. But these 10 fictional characters make me think about what it means to be a woman, a friend, a lover, a writer—a human!
What 10 fictional characters top your list?
Enjoyed reading about your influential fictional characters. Certainly food for thought.