tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33010980.post1835832572187189697..comments2024-03-22T21:55:42.651+00:00Comments on Elizabeth Baines: Character in fiction and lifeElizabeth Baineshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17193751871434773972noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33010980.post-58311496113113232712010-02-12T11:55:14.913+00:002010-02-12T11:55:14.913+00:00Great point. There's often so much talk of ...Great point. There's often so much talk of 'consistency' in creating characters, but the truth about life of course is that we're never consistent, and indeed we change considerably, quite often making total reversals. Heathcliffe's a good case in point.Elizabeth Baineshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17193751871434773972noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33010980.post-41794157802197353622010-02-12T11:47:41.817+00:002010-02-12T11:47:41.817+00:00Really interesting. There's something in here ...Really interesting. There's something in here about "change" as well isn't there? Not all novels cover a whole life, so we tend to see a character at a point in time, but change in the character is important. I think Sebastian Flyte in Brideshead would be a good example, his demons were always there - he's only truly "himself" in the hermetic life he creates at university, or in the squalid dependency of his last days. At Brideshead he changes, or his family see him differently. Even Heathcliff, if you read the novel carefully, is a character that we see change - and I think that's why he remains alluring. We've seen him as the urchin, the beaten up boy, the playmate of Cathy. As real people we accept this as the case - I changed schools at 16, and it enabled me to leave certain preconceptions behind, but if I meet any of them now, they'll still probably have them - yet in fiction do we sometimes ask that our favourite characters can't or won't change?Adrianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05651417997212482246noreply@blogger.com