Who is the loneliest fictional character?
- nina_429
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Re: Who is the loneliest fictional character?
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tangowithParis wrote:Sorry, Fran, but compared to Quasimodo, Heathcliff is about as lonely as:
1. White on rice.
2. A bur on a saddle.
3. A pint on Pat's Day.
4. Fish and chips on Friday.
5. A colleen.......anywhere.
I agree. Quasimodo was quite a lonely character.
- jennader
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Edna, from Kate Chopin's _The Awakening_
Carrie, from Theodore Dreiser's _Sister Carrie_
Oscar, from Diaz's _The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao_
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Edna, excellent choice - how could I forget her? (What a marvelous book)jennader wrote:What a great question. I would like to offer a few answers (these just come to mind at once; there are far more to discuss, of course):
Edna, from Kate Chopin's _The Awakening_
Carrie, from Theodore Dreiser's _Sister Carrie_
Oscar, from Diaz's _The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao_
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I second this! Those poor, poor children.samuyama wrote:I'd have to say those kids from "Series of Unfortunate Events"
-- 23 Jul 2014, 20:21 --
I don't think Alaska was particularly lonely, I just feel like she purposefully distanced herself from others. But does that mean she was lonely? Because she seemed to LIKE being distanced from others.nina_429 wrote:I'm going to say Alaska from Looking For Alaska.
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if you read all the books its heart breaking how long it is before he finds a true connection with a human besides his sister.samuyama wrote:I hadn't thought of him, but I think you're right... Dunno if you read through the whole series but he truly was a lonely person.Intellijock wrote:I would have to say Ender, from Ender's Game. He is literally the only human to have experienced a connection with an alien civilization, one that he is solely responsible for annihilating.
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Intellijock wrote:I would have to say Ender, from Ender's Game. He is literally the only human to have experienced a connection with an alien civilization, one that he is solely responsible for annihilating.
I am determined to read the rest of the Ender series. I finished Speaker for the Dead a few months ago. I liked that one way more than Enders Game.
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I had forgotten the Island of the Blue Dolphins. Karana was a lovely character... sweet memories of childhood.Winter wrote:Karana from Island of the Blue Dolphins was pretty lonely. Not sure she is the loneliest character ever, but still pretty lonely.
I submit Mercutio from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Misunderstood soul, who couldn't really lay claim Montague's quarrel with Capulets. Probably not the loneliest in the literary world, but his name came to my mind.
And I'm in the middle of Harry Potter (July does that to me for some reason), and it occurred to me that Snape has got to be one of the most loneliest. Almost everyone is suspicious of his motives, no one really trusts him except Dumbledore, the girl he loves marries his nemesis from school (not to mention the evil bad wizard he was following, kills her). Tragic....
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-- 29 Jul 2014, 12:02 --
Points up and laughs*
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I found the "Top 10 Loners in Fiction" Guardian article. Here's the list:mandap24 wrote:Do you have a list or something from the guardian article?
I actually think of Gatsby he seems like a pretty lonely character to me.
1. Julius Winsome by Gerard Donovan
2. Miss Havisham in Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
3. Tom Oakley in Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian
4. Stevens in The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
5. Frederick Clegg in The Collector by John Fowles
6. Boo Radley in To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
7. The Grinch in How the Grinch Stole Christmas! by Dr Seuss
8. Meursault in The Outsider by Albert Camus
9. Barbara in Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller
10. The McPheron brothers in Plainsong by Kent Haruf
I was going to suggest Stevens, the head butler narrator of The Remains of the Day but the article beat me to it.
Stevens is a profoundly lonely, emotionally repressed man who can only look back on his life with regret over poor life choices and passed up opportunities.
Probably not the loneliest character but I would also like to add Barnet from Thomas Hardy's Fellow Townsmen. Loves another woman but trapped in a loveless marriage. Makes me feel depressed thinking about that character.