Yossarian – Catch-22 – The only sane person in a sea of insanity, so of course everyone else thinks that he’s crazy.
** Milo Minderbinder** – Catch-22 – An abusrd character. Shows what might happens to one who puts the profit motive above all else.
Major Major – Catch-22 – Another absurd character. He gets cut off from society completely because of bad luck and just muddles through life without anybody noticing.
Hamlet – Hamlet – Fascinating because he’s unable to act, a problem that plagues many people these days (including myself, to some extent.)
Lady Macbth – Macbeth - The best manipulator in literary history.
Henry V – Henry IV & Henry V – The ultimate rebellious teenager.
Pangloss – Candide – A perfect explanation of what’s wrong with incurable optimism. Everybody knows somebody who’s exactly like him.
Uncle Doc Hines – A Light in August – Dear God, please save me from your followers.
Moses – The Bible – Humanity at its best, or not?
The Shrike – Hyperion – Simply the coolest character ever.
You may be interested in Parker’s 1991 novel, Pastime, where some intriguing details about Spenser’s origins are revealed. If you just want me to spill, I’ll do so as best I can recall.
Venus in Nappily Ever After. I’m kinda hoping this book gets some fame and attention, although I doubt it. Most people think women are either being their silly, shallow selves or feminazis whenever they talk about the weight image is given in society. Whatever. It’s still a great book, and Venus is a great character.
1- Peer Gynt from Peer Gynt, Ibsen
2- **Hamlet ** from Hamlet, Shakespeare
3- Don Quixote from Adventures of Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
4- Walt Whitman from Song of Myself, Walt Whitman
5- Sancho Panza from Adventures of Don Quixote, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
6- Satan from Paradise Lost, Milton
7- Roger Mexico from Gravity’s Rainbow, Thomas Pynchon
8- Dream from Sandman, Neil Gaiman
9- Wife of Bath from The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer
10 Hamm from Endgame, Samuel Beckett
There’s been some characters named already that I find quite fascinating (e.g. Woland and MacBeth), but three that immediately came to mind that I haven’t seen mentioned are:
[ul]
[li]Kurtz (Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness): Sort of a picture of 19th century Europe, complete with vast education, learning, and a desire to do good, but also with a deep core of violence and savagery[/li]
[li]James Gatsby (F. Scott Fiztgeralds’ The Great Gatsby): A man who so wants to remake his past that he ruins his future. A tragic and mysterious modern figure.[/li]
[li]Molly Bloom (James Joyce’s Ulysses): The modern Penelope.[/li][/ul]
