Character Study: Captain Jack Sparrow

Name: Captain Jack Sparrow

Book/Film/TV Show: Film Series

Personality: As Will Turner so eloquently put it – somewhere between madness and brilliance. He’s lewd, usually half cut, selfish, cowardly and, of course, a pirate. But, he’s also noble, in his own way, and though it can be difficult to work out whose side he’s on,  he usually comes up good in the end.

Why They’re A Great Character: From his iconic, ridiculous and brilliant entry on the sinking boat, Johnny Depp’s down on his luck pirate, Jack Sparrow, is a total show stealer. He has grimy teeth, questionable hygiene and a whole series of conquests in Tortuga whose names he can’t remember – but he is unquestionably very attractive, and that isn’t all Johnny Depp.

There’s something about his wilful madness that makes for fascinating watching. After years of LOST second guessing, I’m a bit burned out of the old ‘which side is he really on?’ game, but Jack walks the line with equal parts swagger and madness in a way that makes you question if he really knows what side he’s on. And though the fact that the film bears a Disney association does make you feel a happy ending is on the horizon, it’s still an adventure to get there.

The funny thing is, Orlando Bloom’s Will Turner was obviously meant to be the heart throb, the hero. But his rather limp character is no more than a comedy side kick, constantly in Jack’s enormous shadow. It’s a fact they clearly play up to in the second and third (less brilliant) instalments with the whole Jack-Elizabeth-Will love triangle thing, and while I’m glad Elizabeth did eventually get married to Will (I mean, Jack Sparrow is far more sexy, but he’s not really the sort of bloke you’d settle down with) I’m glad they played up the sexual tension because, honestly, there would be.

By the third film (I haven’t seen the fourth) Jack Sparrow had become the reason people still watched the increasingly over-ambitious, flabby films. I don’t even remember what happens in the third one (or what it’s called, apparently) except some vague recollection of a giant woman causing a sea storm. But I do remember a number of brilliant moments involving Jack. Particularly the bit where he runs from side to side on the boat to cause it to turn over, releasing them from the land of the dead. Or was that the second film? Regardless, the point stands – every memorable moment in the second and third films comes from Jack being an outrageous, brilliant, totally insane character.

Part of me is still tempted, despite negative reviews, to borrow a copy of the fourth one, just to see what he got up to next.

Character Study: Damon Salvatore

Name: Damon Salvatore

Book/Film/TV Show: I confess, I’ve never read the books, so my knowledge of Damon is limited strictly to the TV show, which I have been informed is nothing like the book.

Personality: Abrasive, rude, sarcastic, obnoxious, womanising but secretly hiding a tormented side. He is loyal – he’d fight tooth and nail for the people he cares about (though he sometimes takes some persuading) and does it with a charming smile.

Why They’re A Great Character: Damon may have all the Antihero staples in his make-up, but the reason things become cliche is because they work – and if you work it well enough it can be brilliant. Damon is a perfect example of this.

I find the bad boy something of a fascination. It’s that balance between being horrible, but still desirable that makes them so interesting. In real life, I’d run a mile from someone like Damon. The mood swings and the danger really don’t appeal when the threat is real, but in literature and television, I really can’t get enough of them.

I think it’s the thought that you could be the one to save them from themselves that appeals. In real life you wouldn’t chance it, but in fiction you imagine yourself to be the strong, desirable woman who is enough to win the devotion of the previously unattainable bad boy. The fact that he’s played by absolute hottie, Ian Somerhalder, also helps, of course.

The snarky, verging on rude humour is also appealing. And I mean rude in the impolite sense, not the ‘strictly 15+’ sense. Perhaps this is a symptom of my own personality, but I love a character who has the balls to say what everyone else is thinking, who stuffs social etiquette in favour of cutting truths.

Bad boys speak to that little part of us that wants to rebel, to ditch the various faces we present to the world and to just do and say what we want. But most people don’t also want to be a complete idiot, so the Bad boy has to have a softer, more gentle side. A redeeming feature. Because to liking someone who’s completely obnoxious would make me feel a little obnoxious myself…

Getting that balance of bad and vulnerable right is hard. Too much bad and the character becomes plain unlikeable. A completely soppy back story makes them unlikeable in other ways, or worse – unbelievable. What I liked in particular about Damon’s story is the way he pretends not to care, but then it turns out that he was initially the one who resented vampirism, and wanted to hold on to his humanity. It’s a completely believable story that over the decades he gradually got worn down until he decided not to care anymore – or at least to pretend not to, because we all know that underneath the surface, cuddly Damon is just waiting to be found.

Preferably by me, so we can live happily ever after.

(Just kidding, Boyfriend.)

…

(It’s okay, because he knows I totally think he looks like Ian Somerhalder.)

Character Study: Christopher John Francis Boone

Name: Christopher John Francis Boone

Book/Film/TV Show: He’s the main character and narrator of Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time.

Personality: Stubborn, logical, brilliant at maths, unable to understand jokes or metaphors, rigid in thought, fond of animals but confused by people, and a keen detective. He is high-functioning Autistic, which means his thought processes are very different, but he is intelligent, articulate and an absolutely fascinating character.

Why They’re a Great Character: I thought it was about time I actually wrote about a character in a book. Then I remembered why film and TV characters are easier – you can find pictures of them on Google… So, you’ll have to use your imagination, and settle for a picture of the book’s front cover.

Christopher John Francis Boone is one of the most original characters I’ve read in a long time. There was a bit of controversy over labelling him with Asperger’s Syndrome as some felt the portrayal of his behaviours didn’t accurately reflect the condition. Whether that is true or not – I don’t know enough about Aspergers specifically to comment – Christopher certainly seemed authentic from my experience of Autistic Spectrum Disorders. And to exist inside the mind of someone with such alien thought patterns makes for a fascinating, enlightening reading experience.

I think, in a lot of ways, that’s what reading is all about. It’s nice to spend some time with someone familiar, but most of the time reading takes us outside of our general day to day experience, be that because it’s full blown fantasy or simply because the protagonist does the things we think about, but never actually do.

Christopher’s story is one of hope and triumph over adversity. He’s difficult, stubborn and thinks so differently, but you find yourself growing to like him very quickly, and rooting for him. You’re yelling at the people who don’t understand his condition – the police officers and the strangers on the street and the shop workers – and that’s where the power of the story truly lies, because you understand Christopher as a character, and you empathise with him, and it makes you hate that other characters in the story are so ignorant.

Through his murder mystery adventure, Christopher teaches the reader a valuable lesson about tolerance and understanding. It’s never preachy or overbearing, because Christopher himself isn’t preachy or overbearing. A lot of schools I know of teach this book, and I can understand why.

Character Study: Ellen Ripley

Name: Ellen Ripley

Book/Film/TV Show: She’s the main character in the ‘Alien’ film franchise.

Personality: A tough, yet vulnerable woman who probably would have lived a normal, unremarkable life if she hadn’t encountered Alien.

Why They’re a Great Character: The interesting thing about Ripley, if you watch the first Alien movie, is she’s actually a bit unsympathetic to start with. A jobsworth who wants to follow procedure above saving a mans life (well, it turned out she was right when that man incubated an Alien that then went on to kill the entire crew, but hey, first impressions weren’t great) she seems like a background character among other more charismatic and likeable individuals that crew the Nostromo.

Throughout the film that first impression is overturned, as Ripley proves herself to be brave and resourceful against the Alien. But I’m not going to talk about Alien too much, because Ripley’s origins are actually much less interesting, in terms of character development, than her second outing in Aliens. Plus, I’ve only seen Alien a couple of times and Aliens I’ve seen loads of times because it’s a better film, despite Cameron’s love affair with big cheesy ideas. (No, it absolutely doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that Michael Biehn is in Aliens. No. Well, maybe a little.)

The start of Aliens sees Ripley woken from hypersleep some 60 odd years after the events of the previous film. She has to answer for the destruction of the Nostromo, and try to adjust to life in the future. Cameron invented a daughter who had died in the intervening time between Alien and Aliens in an attempt to create sympathy for Ripley, but really she didn’t need it. A character out of time, suffering from Post Traumatic Stress has plenty that the audience can sympathise with.

And then Ripley is asked to accompany a trip to the planet where Alien was discovered, because they’ve lost all contact, and fear there might be some truth in the crazy stories Ripley told about the Nostromo. The best thing? She says no.

I love this. She’s a strong, kick-ass character, no doubt. It was established in the first film loud and clear. But given the opportunity to go back and kick-ass all over again and save some lives, she actually says ‘no thank you, I’d rather carry on with my new menial labour job.’

Things like that you could be forgiven for thinking make characters weaker, but I would argue it’s quite the opposite. Who would willingly put themselves back in the way of Alien? Ripley wanted to put it all behind her and forget about it, so the fact that she then can’t – nightmares plaguing her every night – and decides to face up to her fear makes her even stronger. It’s like when the Boyfriend and I did our Aerial Adventure. He whizzed round the course without batting an eyelid, quite used to the height from his fire service training. I was terrified the whole way round but still made it to the end. Who was braver? Who achieved more? I’m not being big headed when I say it was me.

A character who is afraid but does the job anyway is much much more interesting than the character who shows no fear at all. I think it’s probably because we all like to think we would be that brave in a similar situation, that we would master our fears and be capable, resourceful individuals. We can only imagine we would be like that if we relate to the characters in the first place. Impossibly brave characters are just better than us, we can’t be like that. But we can imagine we’d be like the guy who’s scared, admits he’s scared, but keeps going regardless.

And who doesn’t want to believe they could be as badass as Ripley when she takes on the Alien Queen with her duct taped flamethrowers and that expression that says so clearly: ‘I will toast your offspring if you come near me. Bitch.’

Character Study: House

So, I’ve decided to start a new regular post – to go with my review on Mondays, I’m going to post a Character Study – looking at interesting, well written characters in books, films and television – every wednesday.

To kick start things in style, here is Greg House M.D.

Name: Doctor Gregory House

Book/Film/TV Show: He’s the titular character of the TV show House M.D.

Personality: A brash, rude and uncouth genius who prizes solving the ‘puzzle’ above human relationships and, well, everything else.

Why They’re a Great Character: This is likely to be a recurring trend, as I have a certain taste for the crazy ones, but I may as well start as I mean to go on…

House is not a character that is likeable in any way, really. He’s rude, spiteful and manipulative – winding up his employees just to see their reactions and to solve the puzzle of their behaviours and their secrets. He suffers pain from an old injury every day, for which he takes narcotics that he has become addicted to, causing him to act irrationally when he can’t get his next fix. But still, there’s something about him that ultimately makes you route for him – the show wouldn’t have survived seven seasons if there wasn’t – something that makes you fall a little bit in love with him, despite yourself. And it’s not all to do with Hugh Laurie’s blue, blue eyes.

Creating a character who is a genius is risky business. To use the Fanfiction vernacular, you run the risk of creating a Mary Sue – a character so perfect, so brilliant, they come across as false, or worse: as authorial wish fulfilment. I’ve seen character questionnaires on the internet before, such as this one that are intended to help you avoid the pitfalls of such perfect characters and create a well rounded, believable individuals. Such quizzes, obviously, should be taken with a pinch of salt (I just did it for one of my characters and got annoyed because a lot of the questions sort of apply, and you feel obliged in the spirit of honesty to tick them, but they aren’t really referring to the same context as the story. Incidentally, the character scored 24, which is apparently borderline-Sue. I think her downfall was the heels and leather question.) but if you feel any concern at all that your characters aren’t well rounded, believable individuals, you could do much worse than watching a few episodes of House.

I think what makes him so fascinating (and attractive. Yes, dammit, attractive.) is the fact that his obsession – root of many of his major flaws – is actually a major strength too. I always talk about the same episode when I talk about House and how I’m not so secretly totally in love with him, and that’s S2Ep22 Forever, in which House treats a woman and her young son, who both have life threatening symptoms. There’s a moment in it when the baby is in considerable danger, and House throws his walking stick to one side and runs to the baby to try and save it. It’s a small scale superhero moment, but a superhero moment all the same. His need to save the baby – not for any altruistic means, granted, it’s just so he has time to solve the puzzle – overwhelms his pain, his disability and drives him to do whatever is necessary.

The other big drive in his life, to balance out the ‘genius’ element of his personality, is his addiction to Vicodin. Across the fifth and sixth season, this addiction really comes to the fore as House starts to unravel and he and his colleagues have to deal with the fallout. And the writers aren’t afraid to drag him to some very dark places – he steals, blackmails, hurts people – but he still remains a sympathetic character, because you know there is good in there, beneath the addiction, and you keep watching because you want to see him saved.

That’s the fine line characters have to walk to be interesting – they have to be sympathetic, they have to be likeable, but they also have to be vulnerable to the things we ourselves are vulnerable to: greed, pride, pain, loneliness… whatever it is, they have to have a weakness somewhere in the armour. And it’s no good saying ‘my character’s weakness is their fear of being alone’ if you never put them in danger of being alone, if you never have them making bad decisions due to that fear.

These things are important for any character, but especially important when your character has a skill or intelligence that puts them anywhere near the ‘genius’ category. No one liked the know-it-all smart kid at school (I know because I was that kid) until they realised that while that kid might outshine them in Maths and Physics, they can’t throw a ball to save their life, or they have a terrible fear of spiders, or whatever it is that stops them being a walking encyclopaedia and makes them human.

And House, with his sarcastic comebacks, his limp and his genius, is very definitely human.