2021, Day 7: Fictional characters we like to hate

[Melindam]

Any "favourite" characters/antagonists you like to hate?

Or some honorable mention of those really annoying characters you'd like to slap (and then some)? :)

[Gogol]

“You like to hate” as in you like to hate but can’t/shouldn’t? Or as in really hate?

[Henk]

I really enjoyed Hilary Mantel her portrayal of Anne Boleyn in Bring Up the Bodies. It's clear she is the counter to Cromwell but she is just portrayed so snide, ambitious, clever and sexual that one starts to root for her in a way.

[Melindam]

Talking about Hilary Mantel, I loved how he portrayed Thomas Cromwell as a kind if Reneissance Don Corleone. :) And how she managed to turn the tables on Thomas More and shown his rigid, unforgiving, fanatic, in a way inquisitorial nature, which I found wile. I loved to dislike him, for sure. :)

[Melindam]

Gogol, whatever characters you think are vile, but also remarkable who may leave a lasting impression.

[Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship]

I feel like Dolores Umbridge always deserves a mention in these types of threads as she is amazingly awful! Lucius Malfoy had a bit of that going on for me too. Voldemort in the meanwhile is a bit whatever.

[Melindam]

LOL, Emma. Yes, Voldemort is not much of a 3D character compared to Prof Umbridge.

[Henk]

OMG Umbridge is so infuriating!

[ꕥ Ange_Lives_To_Read ꕥ]

Another vote for Umbridge! And, more unpopular "Harry Potter" opinions from me...Harry himself. I think many bad things in the book could have been avoided if Harry didn't take himself so seriously, heeded advice and accepted help from others.

Lady Catherine de Burgh and Mr. Collins from Pride and Prejudice. Two all-time great characters, I absolutely LOVE hating them. Lydia from the same novel is in the I'd like to slap column. (Melinda, I'm going out on a limb to say that I bet at least one of these is on your list 😉)

James Qwilleran from The Cat Who... series. He's really kind of an a$$hole in most of the novels, or at least up to #21 which is as far as I've gotten so far.

[Melindam]

Ange, I am so glad I am not the only one who feels about Harry the same way. As of book 5, I found him just really, really MEH!

[Melindam]

And I have to admit to mildly disliking Fanny Price and Edmund Bertram from Mansfield Park.

[Gogol]

Hahahahaha I’m laughing out loud at some of your comments, okay, I need to think on this, there are a lot of people who really infuriate me, so I will add more tomorrow if I may.
In the meantime, following the comments re Harry Potter, I too started disliking Harry Potter, but only in those books written after the movies had started, because I really disliked the actor. I know I’m in a minority but there you go. However, Melindam, I think you hit the nail with Fanny Price and Edmund Bertram, I sincerely dislike them both. I’m a bit taken aback by the glee with which I look forward to sorting out my own answer. I never realised I had so much pent up resentment towards so many fictional characters.

[Melindam]

A-HA! I knew it would come to you LOL!

[Gypsy]

Victor from Frankenstein. Why did he reject his creature????

[Gypsy]

i really didn't like elisabeth in pride and predjudice....she saw flaws in everyone but herself...and she had a lot....she was very basic and the way everyone seems to see her is that she was some witty, cute, nice girl

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all)]

Gypsy wrote: "i really didn't like elisabeth in pride and predjudice....she saw flaws in everyone but herself...and she had a lot....she was very basic and the way everyone seems to see her is that she was some ..."

YES. There's a great deal of Mr Collins in Lizzie, though the thought would horrify her. She's just as convinced she has all the answers in her own way. But then look at her father!

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all)]

Melindam wrote: "And I have to admit to mildly disliking Fanny Price and Edmund Bertram from Mansfield Park."

I like Fanny well enough, she has principles and sticks to them. It was only when I listened to MP (my favourite Austen) that I realised how unpleasant Edmund actually was. He couldn't bear the idea of either of his sisters hooking up with Henry Crawford because he was a user and a player, but it's OK to throw Fanny under Henry's bus because he wants to marry Mary C! He probably soothed his bland, uninteresting conscience by telling himself Fanny would "reform" him. (Funny how it's not till the end that he realises Henry and Mary are both cut from the same cloth.)

[Emma Deplores Goodreads Censorship]

Lizzie is judgmental yes, but that’s also her big character flaw that she has to overcome! I do think she gets better at not judging. I also felt that some of Austen’s own judgments were projected onto the character (the way Lizzie and Jane both have to distance themselves from their mother over her “bad manners” for instance. Jane is the moral center of the novel, if she thinks so we’re meant to go along with it).

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all)]

I nearly forgot Thackeray's Becky Sharp! Trollope's MC Lizzie Eustace from The Eustace Diamondsis the same grasping type. The reader sits there licking their lips waiting for them to get their comeuppance.

[Melindam]

Oh yes Lizzie Eustace is a character I wouldn't mind slapping a bit. :D

[Melindam]

And in a way, while I like Emma Woodhouse, I cannot help feeling that lovely Schadenfreude when all he schemes fall backnupon her head.

[Orinoco Womble (tidy bag and all)]

Yes, just when I start to feel sorry for her, she packs Harriet off to London to get rid of her and drops her like a hobby she's lost interest in. After all, she has a new hobby, marrying Mr Knightley.
I know so many women like that.