We've had Storm Ciaràn - He's Certainly a Character with Flaws

 I trust that Storm Ciaràn has left you dry and in one piece. We were lucky in our little part of East Devon and didn't seem too bothered by it, although not too far from us in Sidmouth,  a car washed away by the sea. The drive to work on Thursday was entertaining.

So, let's get down to this week's subject: Character Flaws.

Writers, Screenwriters and anyone who writes stories will have a mile-long list of characters. My work in progress, Beasting Dartmoor, has many characters, major, minor and passing. 

Characters endure the reader to a story. Part of the writing app has a section that I use has a section where I can describe and bring to life characters. At this point, I must list that I don't have all my characters fleshed out this way. That is something that I will need to look at at the end of the first draft and before I return to the first edit.

Suppose we look at a character in a series of books by John le Carré, George Smiley. Portrayed by such nobles of British actors as Sir Alec Guinness (1979) and Gary Oldman (2011). Le Carré describes Smiley as short, fat, balding and overweight and, more often than not, is compared to a toad or mole. When Guinness was asked to take the role of Smiley for the TV serialisation of Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy, he was initially reluctant to appear on television. Le Carré eventually persuaded him to take the role. In the 2011 film, Gary Oldman undertook the role. Both actors are around the same height and don't conform to Le Carré's original description. However, Rupert Davies, who portrayed Smiley in the 1963 film adaptation of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, has the more traditional description of le Carré's character, appears at the end of the film in an attempt to extricate spy Alec Leamas (Richard Burton) and Liz Gold return across the Berlin Wall from East to West.

But there is more to Smiley than just his appearance. Throughout the trilogy (Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley's People), his nemesis, Karla, head of Moscow Centre, is present in Smiley's decision-making. In particular, it becomes apparent in Tinker, Taylor, Smiley's wife Ann, described as extremely attractive, is having an affair with Bill Haydon, the Mole, making Smiley and his operation vulnerable. 

Without going into the Smiley character further, you can see how the description and added vulnerability flaws have made a rounded character. 

Smiley is a complex character, but even a character like Long John Silver has a flaw.

Other notable characters with with flaws.

        The Joker (Heath Ledger in Dark Knight), has facial scars alongside his mouth. There are several conflicting stories about how the character got those scars, but these stories make the character even more crazy than he was.

Staff Sargent Barnes (Platoon) has a number of scars all over his body, but it is his facial scars from previous Tours to Vietnam leads us to think about the brutality of war, which the Barnes character bears out in the film.

And then there is Harry Potter. The scar on his forehead is arguably one of the most famous scars written about about and seen on screen. Apparently received during a failed murder attempt by  Voldemort, its presence and Potter surviving the evil curse feeds the story throughout the books and the films. A bold bit of writing.

There we are for this week then. I think I shall be working Character and their Flaws for the next few months yet.

 

Stay safe in all this awful autumnal weather. We've had Ciaràn this week, who will it be next?