A while ago I saw a tag going around which asked the tag-doer to list literary characters they liked. I decided to give it a kutti twist and list literary characters I hated instead. To people whose tags I have postponed doing to do my *own* tag: please to forgive me *bambi eyes*.
Literary characters I hated (in no particular order):
#1 Dominique Francon: Let me start with a disclaimer. I have read only one book of Ayn Rand's: 'The Fountainhead'. Honestly, at the end of it, I could not quite figure out why so many people ooh and aah over it so much. I found it condescending and pretentious. But while I disliked the book overall, Dominique was the character who drove me over the edge. Such an opportunistic, leeching parasite. Wonder how someone can conceive such a character and consider her as the "heroine" (I know, I know the book is about Howard Roark - but if there is a heroine character in the book it is the bi***y Dominique, right?)
#2 Gogol Ganguli: Oh, why did such a colorless, self-absorbed and whiny character get to be the protagonist of 'The Namesake'? Gogol's unfathomable angst and self-generated misery got quite annoying after a while and I was cheering with all my heart when his wife decides to leave him.
#3 Amy March: That miserable imp! Why did she have to marry Laurie! Jo and Laurie were meant to be, not Laurie and Amy, come on! For the longest time since I first read 'Little Women', I was unable to recoincile myself to the Amy-Laurie pairing. How could you do this to me, Louisa May Alcott? It is only during the past year or so that I have finally decided that the Laurie-Amy pairing was not that unforgivable after all (yeah, yeah, I am sure Louisa is jumping in her grave with joy about this approval). But - I still dislike Amy. Oh, btw, I have never quite forgiven her for burning Jo's manuscript either.
#4 Fanny Price: She is probably the most sainted, martyred and unidimensional 'good' character I have read about. I never thought that a character from a Jane Austen book would figure in this list, but seriously, Fanny takes the cake for being the most annoyingly righteous character ever (you can almost see a smug halo tucked around her beastly head). If I had known her in real life, I would have tried my bestest to rile her up just so I can poke fun at her remonstrances. Quite an irritating character and her being the heroine of 'Mansfield Park' took out most of the fun of reading the book for me.
Okay I wanted this list to feature five characters but racking my brains periodically for the past few days has not brought forth anyone else to mind. So four it is :-).
If you always wanted to rant about fictional persons and were waiting for the chance, please to take up this tag!
8 comments:
You don't hate Mr. Collins from P&P? :D
ha ha
I so agree with you about Amy March! It was devastating back then:D
But yeah...if you look around you, I'm sure you'l find people like Gogol and Ms. Francon, specially Gogol- colorless and drab. I guess thats why they exist even in literary work.
On another note...try Rand's Atlas Shrugged..you'l like the heroine better :D
of all of 'em i have read fountainhead...hmm...well the thing is i liked her character actually :P but yes sometimes she did seem bitchy...but that is the idea...that's Rand way of portraying Roark i guess :)
Divsu - well for all his flaws, Mr. Collins is a very entertaining character!
Meira - welcome aboard :-D! Well my point is, when you would go out of your way to avoid such people in real life, why would someone write a book centered around such a person and think it would be any more interesting!?!
Vishesh - oh well, if you say so :-)!
I didn't know I find someone as obsessed with classics as I'm.
Have you read Nabakov's "Lolita"? If you did Humbert should be on your list :)
Same feeling with Dominuque! I never understood that character...and that was a huge discussion in my first job interview...analysis of dominque...
Infact, having read most of Atlas Shrugged, I have come to dislike most of its characters as well...they are just too black and white...
I positively did not like the pilot chap in Arthur Haileys Airport, and Baby Kochamma in God of Small Things
I haven't read the other books..
LOL..Totally agree about Fanny Price. Though Jane Austen could do nothing wrong in my eyes, this book ranks lowest among the masterpieces.
I remember thinking at that time that maybe I wasn't mature enought to appreciate it - should give it another reading!
And +1 for Gogol too..seriously, what's wrong with Gogol? He should be happy he wasn't born in a Tamil family with a penchant for long names.
-Sam
Nivedita - nopes, is the book good? And oh, welcome aboard!
Kaushik - wow, what job was this :-)? Welcome aboard!
Anon - ah, its not you, it definitely is the book!! I know - it was a rather dumb reason to be quite so angsty!
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