Here’s something I’ve been noticing lately in the work that has been crossing my desktop: there’s a right way and a wrong way to create a memorable and fascinating character. Actually, there are several ways to do it wrong, but one stands out in conjunction with the right way.
To illustrate, I collated a list of great characters, culled from many other lists (type “best fictional characters of all time” into the search box and you’ll get my sources), very scientifically weighted, and also skewed heavily toward characters I care about, with one or two exceptions (I honestly can’t get excited about Batman, but he serves my purposes right now). Here it is, with the characters arranged in order of the number of other lists that featured them:
- Sherlock Holmes
- Darth Vader
- Humbert Humbert
- Buffy Summers
- Harry Potter
- Hannibal Lecter
- Han Solo
- Emma Bovary
- Hamlet
- Elizabeth Bennet
- Mrs. Norris
- The Doctor
- Tyler Durden
- Bartleby
- Ahab
- James Bond
- The Dude
- Jay Gatsby
- Leopold Bloom
- Batman
What do you notice about the list? Some are heroes, some are villains, some have a foot in both categories, but what makes them all interesting is that they are multifaceted. Even the most depraved (Lecter, Humbert, Ahab) have a complex back story and a brilliantly wicked intelligence. Mrs. Norris, in her banality and manipulation, is more terrifying than many villains who are far more bloodthirsty.
The heroes on the list, the ones who solve the crimes and save the world over and over, have dark sides. They do bad things on a regular basis, and they are surprisingly not all that tortured about it. We also have the tragic heroes, the ones who can’t even save themselves (Hamlet, Bovary, Gatsby, Bartleby); they interest us because of their flaws, the things that seal their fate, the traits that unsettle us because we might have them too.
Finally, there are the in-between characters, the narrators, the sidekicks, the unintentional heroes: Bloom, Solo, Lebowski, Bennet, Durden (he’s a fun one because he gets into some good old-fashioned Victorian doubling, just like Dr. Frankenstein and his monster). I’d add Potter to the list because, although he’s nominally a save-the-world hero, in fact he’s a dumbass, making colossal mistakes on a regular basis from which he is saved by his confederates and assorted dei ex machina.
What description fits none of these characters? What quality does not appear on the list? Perfection. Not one is entirely good or entirely bad. Not one is preserved from making mistakes or dumb decisions, from being occasionally afraid, or vain, or stubborn. No villain is 100 percent unadulterated evil, all the time, because that’s boring.
The best characters are those we learn about over time, like the best friends and lovers. They surprise us. They are unpredictable, layered, and remarkable. They leave us wondering.