So read PART ONE first for the rules. Besides that, this isn't a top ten or anything like that - there's no particular order and I don't know how many there are going to be. OK. Moving on.
Ebeneezer Scrooge (creator: Charles Dickens. first appearance: "A Christmas Carol")
Even without his redemption, Scrooge would still make this list. He's so great as a heavily flawed "villain"-type but I guess his eventual 180 does add to his overall appeal. But for now, let's talk about "classic" Scrooge. Dickens gives amazing descriptions of this guy - I wish I had the book here so I could directly quote some of them. Paraphrasing will have to do with this wrenching, grasping, covetous old sinner.
It's said no one can stand looking him in the eye and that even dogs leading blind men know to lead their masters away when Scrooge is in their path. The guy is so cold on his own that no summer sun can warm him nor any winter wind chill him. He keeps his clerk Bob Cratchitt living in abject terror and working with only one piece of coal to fuel his pitiful fire. And don't get me started on the crappy salary this guy earns.
And let's not forget the man's own quotes: "Keep Christmas in your own way and let me keep it in mine." , "Bah! Humbug!", and the amazing "If they'd rather die then they'd better do it and decrease the surplus population." (!!!)
He likes darkness since "darkness is cheap", he tries to crack jokes when dealing with ghosts, he scares the hell out of carolers and freezes his jolly nephew out of his life. But you've gotta love him! There's always appeal to be found in a great villain and there's tons in old Scrooge as we find ourselves liking him for all his negative qualities. What makes Scrooge unique is that by the end of the book, he's reformed and become a new man. But that's great too and we're glad to see it happen. Because the story of Scrooge re-enforces the idea that there is good deep down in everyone and that it is possible to bring it out even if it's been deeply buried for a long, long time.
He also gets to do some pretty cool things like re-visit his past (although he can only watch), spy on his nephew and employee and hang out with spirits the whole while. OK, the final spirit was scary as hell but it all worked out in the end.
While Scrooge has been portrayed by tons of different actors and some of them very well, I can honestly say his inclusion on this list has not been influenced by any of that. I read the book every year (guess when!) and I never find myself picturing any specific actor. It's just "Scrooge" as Dickens writes him and that's just perfect.
Eponine (creator: Victor Hugo. first appearance: "Les Miserables")
If her last name is given somewhere in the 1500 page monstrosity that is Les Mis, forgive me if I forget it.
OK, so I am kind of cheating on this one. Sort of breaking one of my own rules. Let me explain: in my love for this character, I could very well be being influenced by her portrayal in another medium. But it's not a TV show or movie (hell, they left the poor girl out of the movie), it's...um, well, it's the musical. Eponine is far and away my favourite character in the stage musical and more than a little of it has to do with Frances Ruffelle playing her in the original version. But I'm still including her here. So, yeah, I love Ruffelle's voice and her parts in songs that obviously have NOTHING to do with Eponine in the novel but oh well.
Cause I still do love the Eponine of the novel and that's why she's here. She's not a main character. She has the unfortunate fate of being in love with Marius while he barely even notices her. He's too busy being in love with Cossette.
Not only does she have the unrequited love angle to work as a tragic character, she is also unfortunately the offspring of the wretched Thenardiers, who sure as hell don't give a damn about her. No big loss there though - they're pretty terrible people.
Although to date I have read too many books to even fathom, I do know that Les Mis is easily the longest of them. And I REALLY need to re-read it. So sorry if my Eponine details are lacking here. But I just know that I love her and empathize with her as she's in love with a man who only has eyes for another and yet she (Eponine) continues to do whatever she can to help the guy, eventually sacrificing her life to save his.
The line itself might not be in the book, but as she sings in the musical, "[the] world is full of happiness that I have never known" that's what you certainly glean from her if you read it.
1 comment:
Sorry to be rather late to the party here, but I thought I'd point out that as offspring of the Thenardiers, her last name is Thenardier.
She's also very very different in the book. Much of the book is very different from the musical, actually. I ended up really disliking Hugo's Marius, for example, despite being rather fond of Boublil & Schonberg's version of him. And Eponine, well, for one thing, she was, like 10 in the book, so the being in love with Marius thing was really a B&S invention. I suspect you'd find, if you re-read Les Mis (if you haven't already, by now) that your fondness for the character has very little, if anything, to do with the character in the book. That said, in the musical, I agree. She rocks pretty hard.
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