People and the Writers' Craft in Creating Them

 I love reading Jane Austen because I think her characters are so realistic. I was reminded of this recently when I was reading Mansfield Park. It is not my favourite novel, being a bit long-winded, I feel. However, I was struck by her portrayal of Lady Bertram, the indolent wife of Sir Thomas. She reminded me of people I have met during the course of my life. People who think "nothing can be dangerous, or difficult, or fatiguing to anybody but themselves." Yes, I've come across quite a few of people like that.  

There are also those delightful people who, when you have told them you've been diagnosed with something unpleasant will immediately tell you they had something similar and give you all the details of it. They will tell you all the medication they are currently taking and all the medication they took in the past. And then they will move the conversation on to something else, usually something concerning them.

And if you haven't met people like that, how about people who listen absent-mindedly to what you are saying and when you are finished say "oh, I thought you were going to say..." and come out with something completely irrelevant which you absolutely would never say?

And of course we must not forget Emma and her father Mr. Whitehouse, the permanent invalid. Ill health was a recommendation to him in the elegant prose of Jane Austen. He was concerned for everybody's health, fearful anything could make him or them ill. I think, though, that he was a more sympathetic character than Lady Bertram, although she was otherwise not unpleasant to poor little Fanny, other than being selfish and thoughtless, of course. 

All of which points to the writer's craft in creating real lifelike characters. All of us are a mixture of the good and the sometimes not so good. To put this realistically on paper is no common talent. Too often, the good are too good and the bad are really evil.

It is a real pleasure when we find an author with the talent for characterisation, an author who can create people we can identify with. It makes me realize that we can never stop learning the writers' craft.