THINKLINGS BOOKS
  • Home
  • Writers' Cafe
    • Submissions Guidelines
  • Readers' Nook
    • Blog
    • Join Our Email List
    • Become a Reviewer
  • About
    • Our Staff
    • FAQ
  • Books

What We're Tolkien About

Treating Characters with Dignity (Or Not)

7/14/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture
This post was first published in our CEO, Deborah's, blog.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was watching the anime Bleach. This post is not about the show; it's just that it made me think about the idea of treating characters with dignity—or not treating them with dignity. Anime makes this concept easy to see (if your character makes a crazy silly cartoon face because they’re upset, you’re not treating them with dignity), but the concept holds true throughout all stories.
I’ll try to break it down a bit.
​
Treating a character with dignity means never making fun of him or inviting your reader to laugh at him.

Now, the interesting thing about this is that you aren’t changing what the characters are doing or feeling, only how you are presenting their actions and thoughts. It’s irrelevant whether your character is dignified or not. It’s entirely possible to treat an undignified character with dignity or vice versa. Indeed, in real life, treating yourself with dignity generally doesn’t mean being rigid and proper all the time—it means being okay with looking stupid. 

Think about acting. If an actor is embarrassed and acting like he thinks he looks ridiculous, then he will look ridiculous. If he instead totally gets into his role, he’ll look awesome—even if his acting isn’t all that great. In real life, if you get up to give a speech and rub your hands awkwardly and say, “Ah, this is awkward; I haven’t prepared,” you’ll look pathetic. If you get up and give the crowd a big cheesy grin and announce that you haven’t prepared, you’ll look great.

In stories, a villain who tries to make the beautiful princess marry him can certainly look ridiculous, pathetic, and laughable—or he can look tragic, pitiable, and romantic (a la Phantom of the Opera). Likewise, if the villain loses his temper and starts screaming threats, the author can make him look silly or she can make him look terrifying, but—and note this—she cannot do both simultaneously.

Denying a villain dignity will rob him of his power to scare the reader.

Which may be what you want. Indeed, this is a very powerful tool in real life: if you can make your opponent look ridiculous, then 99% of the time, you have won the psychological battle—and the rest follows quickly.

For some stories, a villain treated without dignity for laughs is great fun, but I’ve also seen it done in a way that totally undermined the story simply because the author didn't understand. I once edited a book in which the protagonist was strong and perfect and the villain was weak and cowardly. I tried to explain to the author that this made me want to root for the villain, because the villain was the underdog and I couldn't identify with the protagonist . . . and the author responded by making the villain even more weak and cowardly and thus even more of an underdog. By treating his villain without dignity and asking the reader to laugh at how weak he was (and doing the opposite with his hero), what the author accomplished was that he evoked sympathy for the villain and got the reader to side with the villain.

Sigh. But on the plus side, this leads us to my next point:

Treating a character with dignity creates a barrier between character and reader; treating a character without dignity brings character and reader closer together.

Have you ever tried to be close buddies with someone who’s distant and aloof? Do you even want to be friends with such people? Aloofness creates a do-not-mess-with-me barrier. (This may or may not be intentional; the trick, in books and real life, is to recognize what you’re doing and use it appropriately.) I’ve used proper politeness in real life as a means of defense—and of forcing a dangerous party to act properly toward me. It doesn’t always work, but I believe it has several times kept me safe. Now, in a story, it's whether you treat the character with dignity (not whether the character is dignified) that creates the barrier. So ask yourself: Do I want to create a barrier?

It depends on your aim. I’d say that 99.99% of the time, you do not want to create a barrier around your protagonist, because you want your reader to identify with them. But beyond that, it depends on what you’re aiming for with each character.

Which characters should you treat with dignity? It’s up to you. Just make sure you’re making the choice purposefully and that you know the consequences of it.
Picture

Deborah J. Natelson

Deborah lives with a fluffy member of fauna named Flora. She is the author of Bargaining Power, The Land of the Purple Ring​, and various other books. Her author website is www.deborahjnatelson.com.

As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019

    Categories

    All
    About Us
    Authors
    Book Promotion
    Book Recommendations
    Book Reviews
    Books On Sale
    Diverse Books
    Fun
    Genres
    Gift Recommendations
    Help Your Author
    Interviews
    Marketing
    Nerdy Stuff
    Our Books
    Our Business Model
    Playlist
    Publishing Industry
    Shop
    Staff Spotlight
    Street Team
    Why Read
    Writers' Collective
    Writing Advice
    Writing Styles

    RSS Feed

Thinklings Books Logo
Books
Submissions
Join Our Email List
​
Our Linktree
Blog
About Us
FAQ
​
Privacy Policy
 As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
  • Home
  • Writers' Cafe
    • Submissions Guidelines
  • Readers' Nook
    • Blog
    • Join Our Email List
    • Become a Reviewer
  • About
    • Our Staff
    • FAQ
  • Books