What kind of book characters are you normally attracted to? I have decided (just having finished The Widow of the South), that I have always been attracted to the strong women characters who have tragic lives. Hmmm. The Awakening for instance, or The House of Mirth, The Return of the Native, The Long and Fatal Love Chase, yes, The Scarlet Letter, or The Portrait of a Lady, or this most recent book I have read, The Widow of the South. There is something that awakes a sympathy in me for these women who have tragic lives, or who have tragic love lives really, sometimes undoubtably due to their own bad decisions. I just ache for these women who, some of them, marry tragically, tragically meaning, not out of love, and then find love outside of marriage and then cannot, or in some cases will not, do anything about it. (p.s. I don't condone adultry), I just feel for them! I don't know whether it is becuase I relate to the feeling, (melodramatic yes) of true love being out of their reach or our of the scope of their circumstances, do I relate to that? Never having been in love, I think the melodramatic in me feels that. Other people will read these same books, i.e. my mother, and think these women are shameful or whatnot, and I just feel for them! I guess because I long for that feeling of love myself and have never felt it. Anyway, I have one up on my mom becuase she liked tragic, revengeful characters when she was my age, Anna Karenia, Wuthering Heights, The Count of Monte Cristo, forbidden love and revenge and hate and selfish self-destruction. She laughs at it now, and can't seem to explain it. But what draws us to certain types of characters? I wish there was some sort of quiz that would tell us what book character we would be if we were in a novel. I think I would be Isabella in The Portrait of Lady. I just hope I don't come to a bad end like that....
4 comments:
How interesting. Most of those books I couldn't care less about. I spent most of my mental energy while reading The Scarlet Letter raging against the injustice of it all and how everyone was a hypocrite. Also, I could hardly finish House of Mirth because I just wanted to slap her after some of her decisions. I am drawn to strong women who rise about it, and are rewarded afterwards. Who manage to rectify whatever bad decisions they may have made. Like in Persuasion or Jane Eyre or North & South. Those are the kind of fictional women I am drawn to.
Half of those books I haven't read - and the others Long and Fatal/Wuthering/Scarlet - I remember liking but most of the details are gone. I haven't liked romances lately. Now what does that say? :)
Scully, seriously? Those are like some of my favorites! :) And I have no idea why I am attracted to these tragic women! I do LOVE Jane Eyre too though--. And Panini, these aren't really romances, they are like inner workings of tragic women's souls books....and you didn't answer the question panini, I want to know!
I haven't been feeling drawn to characters lately - I'm going through this intrigued over writing styles phase. I just started the inheritance of loss - and it's so good! But not because of the characters - it's how freaking funny and what great details the narrator has.
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