Hal, Henry IV Part 1

Not going to lie, but the Hollow Crown adaptation for the BBC starring Tom Hiddlestone did not diminish my love for this character!

But even on the page, Hal is wonderful: a little bit lost, a little bit wild, a little bit “other” – is the Prince a performance, or is Falstaff’s drinking buddy the performance? Who is he? Does he know? Watching him mature from wastrel to prince to King in Henry V is a joy to behold!

Mercutio, Romeo and Juliet

Extravagant, mercurial, loyal, bawdy, violent, Mercutio is the stand out character in the play and so overshadows the title characters!

Bridging the two houses of the Capulets and Montagues, he holds court in one of the most exquisite speeches in Shakespeare: Queen Mab speech.

Peace, peace, Mercutio, peace! Thou talk’st of nothing.

Lucy Westenra, Dracula by Bram Stoker

It was a toss up whether to include the Count himself or Lucy… but Lucy won!

Westenra is the foil to Mina Murray before she marries Jonathan Harker – more flighty, more full of life and energy, more exciteable. She plays the field of her suitors and voices thoughts that might be troubling to her peers:

Why can’t they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her, and save all this trouble?

Dracula’s conversion of her into a vampire, unleashes a terrible sexual hunger alongside the horrifying predatory feasting on children subverting every stereotype of femininity of her era.

Heathcliff, Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

Yes – to say he is deeply flawed as a character is an understatement!

But the dark brooding looks, the intensity of his emotions for Cathy, the heart wrenching pain at her death and desperation for her to return home after her death. That moment when he wrenches open the window to howl for her into the storm!

Mr Darcy is charming but too constrained by society rules, Mr Rochester is more challenging than Heathcliff as a character.

As Cathy says

My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff!

Arthur Parnassus, The House in the Cerulean Sea by T. J. Klune

Parnassus may not be the most physically impressive of men – at least not in his human form

He was spindly. His light hair was a mess, sticking up at odd angles. It was starting to gray around his temple. His dark eyes were bright and glittering in the near-dark. His aquiline nose had a bump in the center, as if it’d been broken once long ago and never set right. He was smiling, hands clasped in front of him. His fingers were long and elegant as he twiddled his thumbs.

But his unwavering kindness, his care for those under his wing, his capacity for love was extraordinary.

Agnes, Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

There is something so appealing about the wilder characters in literature and Agnes, the poet’s wife, in Hamnet is in this mold. First seen emerging from the forest with a hawk on her arm, steeped in forest lore, retreating to the forest to give birth Agnes is more than a part elven in her characterisation.

And who wouldn’t love an elven maiden.