Tragic Characters: a post I'd like you to read.

A friend of mine, Sarah (@NotReallyDaria) just tweeted and asked why we're drawn to tragic characters.

I just might have an answer for her.

The reason why I, personally like tragic characters is because I feel sorry for them. That's not the only reason, but I think it helps a lot. It puts your sympathies with that character, and from that point on, you're on "their side", as it were.

We feel bad for the character, and the more crap that gets dumped on them, the more we feel bad for them, and the more we like them. That's why we always root for the underdog. It's not interesting to have a character for whom everything goes right.

Let's take Snape, for instance. He's a tragic character if there EVER was one. Our hearts go out to this poor man for what he's suffered through, and we start to forgive him for the bad decisions he's made. We allow him leniency, because of what happened to him.

I, personally actively dislike characters who are perfect. People aren't perfect, and shouldn't expect them to be. Show the flaws, the not-quite-so-pretty parts. Show that there's more to your character than ingrained goodness, and allow us to feel like she's real. Don't make him a person I can't relate to, give him something that makes me say, "yes. I believe that you exist, if only for a moment, and only on this page".

Characters with tragedy give us even more to sympathize with, and we find them fascinating because of that. We wonder what we'd be like in that situation, if only subconsciously, and we spend our time hoping that they'll be able to get themselves out of whatever pit they're in.

Either that, or we watch as they fall further and further, unable to help and pull the character that we've become attached to out from the horrible mess that they've gotten themselves into. Either way, we can't look away, because we've gotten emotionally invested from the all this crap that was dumped on the poor character in the beginning.

So I think that's why. It's partly that we get drawn to the in the first place, out of pity, or something like it, and then it becomes that we're drawn in. We remain attached.

I hope that answered your question, Sarah.

~Whimsy

P.S. If there's anything that you'd like to hear my thoughts on/topics to blog about, by all means, please leave them in the comments!