Here he is in the movie.
I don’t know if I’ve ever achieved this as a story-teller: moved readers to love a character whom I made up. But J.R.R. Tolkien achieved it.
Old King Theoden! Some of the things he says and does move me practically to tears. Maybe it’s because I’m so used to covering nooze dominated by characters who would definitely be on the Mordor team if they were in The Lord of the Rings. Where else would you put Chuck Schumer?
We need more models of goodness. Maybe if we had more, it’d start spilling over into our public business.
Worth a try, at least.
Well, I’ve been in love with Prince Hamlet since I was 9 years old. And over the years I’ve developed a deep fondness and admiration for Cousin Feenix in Dickens’ “Dombey and Son.”
I will be flabbergasted if somebody says “Titus Andronicus.”
It’s pretty hard to like anyone in that awful play. In one of the texts I used in my Shakespeare classes, the editor’s introduction to “Titus Andronicus” began, “This is a ridiculous play.” However, one of my students wrote an excellent paper defending the play as a particularly good representative of its contemporary genre. The title of her paper was “Great Schlock.” My own favorite stage direction in the play is “Enter a messenger with two heads and a hand.” He’s carrying them, you understand, not wearing them.
That stage direction would’ve certainly hooked me! “I’d rather two heads and a hand/ than all the tube socks in the land…” Feel free to finish the limerick.