10 All Time Favorite Literary Figures

My list of my 10 All Time Favorite Literary Figures ..here I go.......IN RANDOM ORDER....

#1 DORIAN GRAY (“The Picture of Dorian Gray” By Oscar Wilde)

This is not a new topic, selling your soul to the devil for success, eternal beauty and youth. But I think "the picture of Dorian gray" is even more topical nowadays than it was perhaps at the end of the 19 th century when Wilde wrote the novel. In the person of Dorian gray he describes a phenomenon that is typical for our society everything gets reduced to the outer appearance (beauty, youth, success etc.). Relations to other people remain on a very superficial level. It’s all about having fun, the result is a total emptiness inside. The soul, the heart of a person doesn’t matter anymore. That’s the way Dorian leads his life. He hasn’t got a conscience. He harms and hurts people continually and he just doesn’t care. he still gets admired because of his beauty (a person that is as beautiful as him cannot do anything bad. only his painting shows his true self, the ugliness of his soul, but no one can see it).so for many years everything seems to be perfect. But than at a certain point his own emptiness inside, his "soullessness" starts to break him. he recognizes that he had only done harm to the people that once loved him and that now no one is left that would care about the person Dorian gray and his beauty, his eternal youth ,the admiration of his outer appearance cannot compensate the loss of his soul. That’s exactly what happens in our society. We also live in "soulless" times and the superficiality of our beauty, youth and success admiring fun society starts to break people inside. That’s why nowadays more and more people get into depression. Dorian would have probably been a happier and more fulfilled person at the end of his life if he had become fat, old and ugly but if he had kept his soul instead. Dorian gray and all he embodies fascinating from learning point of view......I think I’ve written too much for one character itself. Ok, I’m going to put the rest in a nutshell.

#2 CLAUDIUS ( “I, Claudius and Claudius the God” By Robert Graves)

Underdog to the extreme! Born a cripple, treated like an idiot by nearly all his relatives, shunned by his mother, loses everyone who cares for him...and he becomes Emperor of Rome. Ha ha ha…. the real Emperor Claudius was nothing like this Claudius, so do not get confused in case you have not read the book.

#3 SAM GAMGEE ( “The Lord of the Rings” By J. R. R. Tolkien)

He is simple but smart, loyal and funny – he has got plenty of "good hobbit common sense" but enough imagination to make him different. By the end, the "working boy makes good".

#4 SEVERUS SNAPE (J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" series)

You all will agree with me that Snape is fascinating because he's so ambiguous. He is actually good guy despite his reputedly foul humor. As it looks he is a complete ass to Harry and others, and he has a dark past, but he still does things to help Harry. So, it's always a puzzle trying to figure out "where his loyalties lie," I also have a feeling that Snape was a bit of an unpopular dork when he was a student at Hogwarts, which is another reason why he seems to hate Harry.

#5 ATTICUS FINCH (“To Kill a Mockingbird” By Harper Lee)

The man. Smart, caring, bold, stands up for what he thinks is right, and a great father. I read that book as a young school boy and it fascinated me since then. I was horrified by the injustice in the book, not just the trial and death of an innocent man but also the injustice of Boo's life. Atticus was great, calm but passionate and a brilliant as a father. I was also amazed and excited when I realised the narrator was a young girl and not a boy as in most books. Had I not read the book then I would have missed this jewel of a novel as a child. I think, he is the best character of all times.

#6 SCHMEDRICK THE MAGICIAN ("The Last Unicorn" By Peter Borough) 
Schmendrick is so very cool because although he isn't a great wizard, he knows this quite well and he still tries to use his magic to help people. Moreover, he is clever and has a sense of humor.

#7 SHERLOCK HOLMES (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) 

The most real of modern characters, the Baker Street detective receives thousands of letters a year from fans worldwide seeking his services. Conan Doyle couldn’t kill him, when he sent Holmes tumbling to the bottom of the Reichenbach Falls, readers demanded that Sherlock be resurrected to pursue further adventures. Mind and ego to match makes him unmistakable. 

#8 CHIA PAO-YU (“Dream of the Red Chamber” By Cao Xueqin)

This book is also known as "The Story of the Stone". Chia pao Yu is Hero of China’s greatest novel, An effeminate youth, he is pampered by his wealthy Chia family, whose machinations place him at the apex of a tragic love triangle. His character focuses the complex symbolism, encapsulated in its alternative titles, making him both the earthly Dreamer, who suffers from the poignant illusions of life, and a misplaced Stone of Heaven, or Precious Jade (Pao-yu), who must finally reclaim his spiritual destiny. Great character …you have to read the book to actually understand this young man.

#9 RHETT BUTLER (“Gone with the Wind” By Margaret Mitchell) – 

Ha ha ha, he is surely a wicked person, he is dashing, he is smart and most of all he totally enjoys his life ‘without any qualms’. 


#10 ANGUA (“Discworld” By Terry Pratchett) 

Werewolf-woman and constable in the Discworld novels set in Ankh Morpork. Smart, sassy, dogged, beautiful. Kickass lady that summarises Angua. 

It would be easy to write TEN more characters THAN tagging someone…lol The blog will be so long if I keep writing so I will list without giving the mandatory WHY…..all of you who have read will truely understand “why”?

so here are 10 more

#11 Hana, The English Patient By Michael Ondaatje.

#12 Mr. Biswas, A House for Mr. Biswas By V.S. Naipaul.

#13 Yuri Zhivago, Dr. Zhivago By Boris Pasternak.

#14 Celie, The Color Purple By Alice Walker.

#15 Lennie Small, Of Mice and Men By John Steinbeck.

#16 Santiago, The Old Man and the Sea By Ernest Hemingway.

#17 Eugene Henderson, Henderson the Rain King By Saul Bellow

#18 Marcel, Remembrance of Things Past By Marcel Proust.

#19 Sam Spade, The Maltese Falcon By Dashiell Hammett.

#20 Humbert Humbert, Lolita By Vladimir Nabokov.

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