A Character - Mr. Edward Carter

I've never been able to fully emerge myself in Elizabeth Gaskell's writing, but I love her stories and characters. I think they excel when adapted to the screen. The jerkiness and narrow description (or just weirdness) of characters smooths out on film.

I'm not saying I don't like Gaskell's work, I really do, but I just don't love her style.

She has given me some of my true all time favorite characters. Jessie Brown, Mrs. Thorton, Miss Matty, Molly Gibson, Nicholas Higgins, Lady Ludlow, Miss Galindo, and others are immortal in my imagination.

Two of my all time favorite heroes are her creations. The amazing Mr. John Thorton and Mr. Edward Carter. Everyone knows how awesome Mr. Thorton is, so this post is for Mr. Carter. :-)

What makes Gaskell's characters and stories stick out to me is their complexity. You can love a gazillion characters and be siding with them all, even though they are all siding against each other.

They might struggle with reassurance, but they are acting on what they believe to be right. They are taking a stand for something. They deal with real life problems and it's hard.

Mr. Carter is compassionate but tough.
He's loyal (even to crabby people:-).
He'll tell the truth even when it costs him.
He's willing to give great personal sacrifice to help others, even if he can't trust them or knows there will be no sort of return.

Basically, he's so awesome, yet believable.

With Lady Ludlow.
(One of the aforesaid difficult people to work with.)

With Harry.
This part is so sad.

With one of the pretties, sweetest bouquets of all time.

With Miss Galindo.

With Miss Galindo again...
Just because that is where he should be.

With Captain Brown.
No! Turn around!

With Miss Galindo.
Writing his will. One of the sweetest, saddest scenes of all time.

With Harry, Miss Matty, Deborah, and Miss Pole.

There is a relatively nice "tribute video" you can see here. I would have posted it, but I thought the end seemed sort of lame and trivial given the caliber of the character.

If you haven't explored Elizabeth Gaskell, you should! Wives and Daughters, Cranford, Return to Cranford, and North and South are all amazing period dramas.

I always enjoy trying to think through why I like a character so much or why someone is just plain awesome. I consider it a great study for my writing. ;-)

Thanks for reading,
Miss Pickwickian

Random Squib on "Daniel Deranda"

If you haven't, please read my post, The Author You know as George Elliot Thanks. :-)

So, this is just a mildly random post on what I liked and didn't like about the Masterpiece Theater portrayal of Daniel Deranda.

The strengths of the movie to me were the characters. (That's basically the strengths of any movie I like. ;-) They all seemed complex, and if sometimes extreme, believable...developed... interesting...

The most interesting character to me was Gwendolyn. She has obviously been pampered by her mother and hates being poor. She knows she beautiful and she uses it. She is pretty much utterly selfish. She marries a rich creep thinking she can control him. Before marrying him she even promises not to accept his proposal to his mistress who is raising his children with little money. Hello? Caution light, you'd think.

Basically she makes a series of miserable choices and she pays for it. She continues to see Daniel and makes us nervous being a little to friendly. Her husband becomes jealous etc...

Anyways...at the end she does not get what she wants, but she is a very, very different person. She lost, but she's changed and content with where she has come. She now knows how to act like a considerate human. I know it was unusual, but where the story ended for her was actually very cool and satisfying for me.

The other characters, Daniel, Mirah, and Sir Hugo (especially Sir Hugo) really made the movie for me.

I can see why a lot of people do not like Daniel Deranda and I'm really not defending very well here, but I think it makes it as an interesting delve into human character. Obviously not every character is probably realistic, but I just found it a very interesting study. It really made me think.

The costumes and acting were done very well. I was very impressed, especially compared to many period dramas and George Elliot ones in particular. I really enjoyed Hugh Dancy, Jodhi May, Romola Garai, and Jamie Bamber's performances.

My main bone to pick (which you would known if I you did what I told you at the beginning of the post) was the story being pro-Jews vs. pro-Christian.

So...that's all very unclear and not a very cool squib....but that's it.
I've been working all day on a book project and my brain has been dead for the last hour or two. ;-)

Love to hear more discussion on Daniel Deranda or George Elliot in general.

Thanks for reading. I know it wasn't too thrilling.
Miss Pickwickian

One of the best things about it being Daniel's white suit....