Eowyn

The Latest Literary Series . . . A Heroine

     The last book I read in full this year was The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. I am taking it very slow with The Pickwick Papers--in fact, as my In Progress page tells you, I'm taking a week's break from reading, since I was getting so pressured on it and sick of it. Doesn't life have a way of pouring if it has to rain? That's kind of my story today. Okay, that is my story today.

     My heroine today is the coldly beautiful Eowyn. I'm not a fan of the portrayal of her in The Lord of the Rings movies (but I do confess to being overly picky most of the time), and the picture to the right was one of the only ones that really paints her the way I see her in the book. 

     Eowyn is basically an orphan, though practically adopted by her uncle, King Theoden of Rohan. Rohan's diminishing honor and her own pride and willfulness combine to make her rather resentful. She longs for glory and, when Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli come to Edoras, thinks the easiest way to get it is through marriage to Aragorn, heir to the throne of Gondor.

     Eowyn isn't necessarily one of my favorite characters in The Lord of the Rings, but she is very well-done. The reason I don't like her is because she's so brilliantly cold. All you see of her is ice until the end of The Return of the King. I very much doubt that she ever loved anything in Aragorn except his renown, and I love the change in her Faramir, Captain of Gondor, creates.

     Forgive me if this sketch of Eowyn is rather short, but while she is characterized well, she's is almost nothing more than what I said above: cold, longing for fame, wishing her demeaning position in the King's house would vanish. 

     Eowyn's advice to writers: Well, Faramir had relationship problems. To some point, Eowyn does too, but not in so easily seen a form as the Captain of Gondor does. She thought horrible things of her people to the darkness. Faults don't always have to be so obvious . . . it isn't until the first half of The Return of the King that you really get the full depth of Eowyn's resentment. Secondary characters get to be mysterious :)

     "But who knows what she spoke to the darkness, alone, in the bitter watches of the night, when all her life seemed shrinking, and the walls of her bower closing in about her, a hutch to trammel some wild thing in?" (Gandalf, The Return of the King: Book Five)

    

Amy March

   She displays blonde curls, elegantly white skin, and "that indescribable charm called grace". She is selfish, affected. She becomes gracious, tender.
   I agree wholeheartedly with Rick Perry--Amy March is the best character in Little Women, and that's why I decided to do my first character sketch on her. (To read in full what I think of the book Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, click here.)
   I just gave you a grasp of her appearance, but for those of you who don't know her better than that, she has a rather unsatisfactory nose (which has induced her to where a clothesline clip on it during the night) and not the shapeliest mouth in the world. Obviously, she is very concerned with her appearance--selfish and affected, as I stated above. She cannot say her Latin correctly, is beautifully artistic (though not brilliantly so), and has little discipline when it comes to school affairs. As the book progresses and time passes, you watch Amy grow from a priggish little woman to a kind, socially superior lady in every respect. She mourns over the fact that her artistic "talent isn't genius, and you can't make it so." But she intends, purposefully, to do what she can with that talent instead of discarding it in pettiness, as some of us are wont to do.
   Is she a masterfully welded character? She appears a trifle too perfect, as are most of the characters in Little Women, but Alcott trumps them up with trials specific to them, which is an excellent thing that writers can learn from. Indeed, I'm not trying to recommend her to you so that you read the book (although I think all girls should read it!); I want this to be an educational experience where young writers learn from those already published, to see what they did right--and wrong. After all, the character is one of the biggest parts of a story. Even if the plot is fantastic and the descriptions superb, an unidentifiable character will ruin it. Amy is identifiable to almost all diagonals: She is beautiful, yet she remains unsatisfied with certain features. (Which goes to show, ladies, that no matter how thin you are, no matter how perfect your skin, no matter how glossy your hair, your appearance can never completely satisfy you. Which I probably shouldn't say, because I haven't learned to live that out yet. At all.) She is gracious, yet slightly unfeeling; socially kind, but prone to want luxury instead of true love.
   I can't offer professional advice since I'm certainly not published. In fact, I've never actually finished a book, which makes me ashamed in front of my readers! But this is the advice that I glean from Amy: Don't let your characters be too perfect, but instead of taking away their virtues, counteract them with very human faults which are the downfall of all of us.