A writer's characters vs. a writer's character

[Ben Mines]

I am always amazed at how many people overlook the fairly obvious and unremarkable fact that a writer's characters do not necessarily reflect a writers character.

 

Shakespeare is most notoriously dispoiled and abused in this way. I do not know how many times I have heard some well-meaning soul draw a moral apothegm from the sage words of Gentle Will, when, as it turns out, it was something said by Iago. Iago!

 

Does anyone else struggle with this frustrating problem?

[Kylie]

I haven't noticed, but then I'm not that well-versed in Shakespeare. I hadn't actually thought about it before.

 

I guess I'll have to be more wary of my desk calendar that shows a quote every day. I've just always assumed that if a quote is attributed to Shakespeare (to continue with your example) then it was a direct quote of that person.

 

I would like to think that the people who write these things would distinguish between whether it was something said by Shakespeare or one of his characters, but now I'm not so sure. Now I'll always be confused and disbelieving of what I read!

[BookJumper]

Of Shakespeare, only his plays and poems have come down to us, hence - in the absence of any personal papers - any quote attributed to him must necessarily come from his works.

 

However.

 

Silly as some biographical theories (that seek to map every single play/poem onto an aspect of Willie's life and character) can become, I think it only natural that there should be in his plays and poems things he actually thought and wanted to communicate to an audience - otherwise, why write at all? There are other ways of earning's one's bread.

 

Iago was a villain, but he was a villain that spoke a lot of sense, which is why Othello believed him to be a friend, so it would not surprise me if even in his mouth Willie had put the occasional pearl of wisdom. Besides, some of the plays are undisputably autobiographical in origin: Hamlet was written as a direct result of the untimely death of Willie's young son Hamnet - therefore, it would be surprising if the musings on mortality and the nature of the afterlife didn't belong to Shakespeare the man and thinker.

 

Ultimately, I think ideas like that have a way of shining through the 'filler'; one can just instinctually sense the truth and importance behind some lines, and the way I see it those are the lines that Shakespeare wrote to send a message. True, he wrote for the popular theatre, to entertain the masses, however he was also a poet, so to deny his ambition to be taken seriously as a man of letters would be rather daft.

 

As a writer, I'd contribute this:

 

It is actually normal for a writer to put themselves in their work. What readers don't necessarily realise is that the writer isn't necessarily the main character, or a whole character, or a single character. Writing oneself into one's work directly and completely is juvenile, and all writers should outgrow that phase; however, smuggling bits of oneself into one's work so scattered and embedded that even the people that know us don't know where they've come from, now - that's craft.

Edited February 10, 2010 by BookJumper

[vinay87]

It is actually normal for a writer to put themselves in their work. What readers don't necessarily realise is that the writer isn't necessarily the main character, or a whole character, or a single character. Writing oneself into one's work directly and completely is juvenile, and all writers should outgrow that phase; however, smuggling bits of oneself into one's work so scattered and embedded that even the people that know us don't know where they've come from, now - that's craft.

 

 

My book is filled with my preferences. But no, some of my favourite characters are quite unlike me. I hate drinking but my favourite character is a binge drinker. I tried to make him quit, but what do I say, my Muse, she is the b*tch.

 

A book does reflect a lot of the writer's thoughts. Though quoting a character's words as a writer's words isn't always justified. Sometimes, though, it is. When my characters rant outside the storyline, they use my thoughts. I put them there to act, in gaming/software terms, as Easter eggs. They're for my friends to observe, smile or even chuckle. A private joke, if you will.

Edited February 10, 2010 by BookJumper