Russian literature has given us a cavalcade of both positive and negative characters. We decided to remember the second group. Beware, spoilers.
20. Alexey Molchalin (Alexander Griboedov, “Woe from Wit”)
Molchalin is the hero “about nothing”, Famusov’s secretary. He is faithful to his father’s behest: “to please all people without exception - the owner, the boss, his servant, the janitor’s dog.”
In a conversation with Chatsky, he sets out his life principles, consisting in the fact that “at my age I should not dare to have my own judgment.”
Molchalin is sure that you need to think and act as is customary in “Famus” society, otherwise they will gossip about you, and, as you know, “ gossips scarier than pistols."
He despises Sophia, but in order to please Famusov, he is ready to sit with her all night long, playing the role of a lover.
19. Grushnitsky (Mikhail Lermontov, “Hero of Our Time”)
Grushnitsky has no name in Lermontov's story. He is the “double” of the main character - Pechorin. According to Lermontov’s description, Grushnitsky is “... one of those people who have ready-made pompous phrases for all occasions, who are not touched by simply beautiful things and who are importantly draped in extraordinary feelings, sublime passions and exceptional suffering. Producing an effect is their pleasure...”
Grushnitsky loves pathos very much. There is not an ounce of sincerity in him. Grushnitsky is in love with Princess Mary, and at first she answers him special attention, but then falls in love with Pechorin.
The matter ends in a duel. Grushnitsky is so low that he conspires with his friends and they do not load Pechorin’s pistol. The hero cannot forgive such outright meanness. He reloads the pistol and kills Grushnitsky.
18. Afanasy Totsky (Fyodor Dostoevsky, “The Idiot”)
Afanasy Totsky, having taken Nastya Barashkova, the daughter of a deceased neighbor, as his upbringing and dependent, eventually “became close to her,” developing a suicidal complex in the girl and indirectly becoming one of the culprits of her death.
Extremely averse to the female sex, at the age of 55 Totsky decided to connect his life with the daughter of General Epanchin Alexandra, deciding to marry Nastasya to Ganya Ivolgin. However, neither one nor the other case burned out. As a result, Totsky “was captivated by a visiting Frenchwoman, a marquise and a legitimist.”
17. Alena Ivanovna (Fyodor Dostoevsky, “Crime and Punishment”)
The old pawnbroker is a character who has become a household name. Even those who have not read Dostoevsky’s novel have heard about it. Alena Ivanovna, by today’s standards, is not that old, she is “about 60 years old,” but the author describes her like this: “... a dry old woman with sharp and angry eyes with a small pointed nose... Her blond, slightly gray hair was greasy with oil. Some kind of flannel rag was wrapped around her thin and long neck, similar to a chicken leg...”
The old woman pawnbroker is engaged in usury and makes money from people's misfortune. She takes valuable things at huge interest rates, bullies her younger sister Lizaveta, and beats her.
16. Arkady Svidrigailov (Fyodor Dostoevsky, “Crime and Punishment”)
Svidrigailov is one of Raskolnikov’s doubles in Dostoevsky’s novel, a widower, at one time he was bought out of prison by his wife, he lived in the village for 7 years. A cynical and depraved person. On his conscience is the suicide of a servant, a 14-year-old girl, and possibly the poisoning of his wife.
Due to Svidrigailov's harassment, Raskolnikov's sister lost her job. Having learned that Raskolnikov is a murderer, Luzhin blackmails Dunya. The girl shoots at Svidrigailov and misses.
Svidrigailov is an ideological scoundrel, he does not experience moral torment and experiences “world boredom,” eternity seems to him like a “bathhouse with spiders.” As a result, he commits suicide with a revolver shot.
15. Kabanikha (Alexander Ostrovsky, “The Thunderstorm”)
In the image of Kabanikha, one of central characters Ostrovsky's play "The Thunderstorm" reflected the outgoing patriarchal, strict archaism. Kabanova Marfa Ignatievna, “a rich merchant’s wife, widow,” mother-in-law of Katerina, mother of Tikhon and Varvara.
Kabanikha is very domineering and strong, she is religious, but more outwardly, since she does not believe in forgiveness or mercy. She is as practical as possible and lives by earthly interests.
Kabanikha is sure that family life can survive only on fear and orders: “After all, out of love your parents are strict with you, out of love they scold you, everyone thinks to teach you good.” She perceives the departure of the old order as a personal tragedy: “This is how the old times come to be... What will happen, how the elders will die... I don’t know.”
14. Lady (Ivan Turgenev, “Mumu”)
We all know the sad story about how Gerasim drowned Mumu, but not everyone remembers why he did it, but he did it because a despotic lady ordered him to do so.
The same landowner had previously given the washerwoman Tatyana, with whom Gerasim was in love, to the drunken shoemaker Capiton, which ruined both of them.
The lady, at her own discretion, decides the fate of her serfs, without regard at all to their wishes, and sometimes even to common sense.
13. Footman Yasha (Anton Chekhov, “The Cherry Orchard”)
Footman Yasha in Anton Chekhov's play " The Cherry Orchard" - an unpleasant character. He openly worships everything foreign, while he is extremely ignorant, rude and even boorish. When his mother comes to him from the village and waits for him in the people’s room all day, Yasha dismissively declares: “It’s really necessary, she could come tomorrow.”
Yasha tries to behave decently in public, tries to seem educated and well-mannered, but at the same time alone with Firs he says to the old man: “I'm tired of you, grandfather. I wish you would die soon.”
Yasha is very proud that he lived abroad. With his foreign polish, he wins the heart of the maid Dunyasha, but uses her location for his own benefit. After the sale of the estate, the footman persuades Ranevskaya to take him with her to Paris again. It is impossible for him to stay in Russia: “the country is uneducated, the people are immoral, and, moreover, boredom...”.
12. Pavel Smerdyakov (Fyodor Dostoevsky, “The Brothers Karamazov”)
Smerdyakov is a character with a telling surname, according to rumors, the illegitimate son of Fyodor Karrmazov from the city holy fool Lizaveta Stinking. The surname Smerdyakov was given to him by Fyodor Pavlovich in honor of his mother.
Smerdyakov serves as a cook in Karamazov’s house, and he cooks, apparently, quite well. However, this is a “rotten man.” This is evidenced at least by Smerdyakov’s reasoning about history: “In the twelfth year there was a great invasion of Russia by Emperor Napoleon of France the First, and it would be good if these same French had conquered us then, a smart nation would have conquered a very stupid one and annexed it to itself. There would even be completely different orders.”
Smerdyakov is the killer of Karamazov's father.
11. Pyotr Luzhin (Fyodor Dostoevsky, “Crime and Punishment”)
Luzhin is another of Rodion Raskolnikov’s doubles, business man 45 years old, “with a cautious and grumpy face.”
Having made it “from rags to riches,” Luzhin is proud of his pseudo-education and behaves arrogantly and primly. Having proposed to Dunya, he anticipates that she will be grateful to him all her life for the fact that he “brought her into the public eye.”
He also wooes Duna out of convenience, believing that she will be useful to him for his career. Luzhin hates Raskolnikov because he opposes his alliance with Dunya. Luzhin puts one hundred rubles in Sonya Marmeladova's pocket at her father's funeral, accusing her of theft.
10. Kirila Troekurov (Alexander Pushkin, “Dubrovsky”)
Troekurov is an example of a Russian master spoiled by his power and environment. He spends his time in idleness, drunkenness, and voluptuousness. Troekurov sincerely believes in his impunity and limitless possibilities (“This is the power to take away property without any right”).
The master loves his daughter Masha, but marries her to an old man she doesn’t love. Troekurov's serfs are similar to their master - Troekurov's hound is insolent to Dubrovsky Sr. - and thereby quarrels old friends.
9. Sergei Talberg (Mikhail Bulgakov, “The White Guard”)
Sergei Talberg is the husband of Elena Turbina, a traitor and an opportunist. He easily changes his principles, beliefs, without special effort and remorse. Talberg is always where it is easier to live, so he runs abroad. He leaves his family and friends. Even Talberg’s eyes (which, as we know, are the “mirror of the soul”) are “two-story”; he is the complete opposite of Turbin.
Thalberg was the first to wear the red bandage at the military school in March 1917 and, as a member of the military committee, arrested the famous General Petrov.
8. Alexey Shvabrin (Alexander Pushkin, “The Captain's Daughter”)
Shvabrin is the antipode of the main character of Pushkin’s story “ Captain's daughter» Petra Grinev. IN Belogorsk fortress he was exiled for murder in a duel. Shvabrin is undoubtedly smart, but at the same time he is cunning, impudent, cynical, and mocking. Having received Masha Mironova’s refusal, he spreads dirty rumors about her, wounds him in the back in a duel with Grinev, goes over to Pugachev’s side, and, having been captured by government troops, spreads rumors that Grinev is a traitor. In general, he is a rubbish person.
7. Vasilisa Kostyleva (Maxim Gorky, “At the Depths”)
In Gorky's play "At the Bottom" everything is sad and sad. This atmosphere is diligently maintained by the owners of the shelter where the action takes place - the Kostylevs. The husband is a nasty, cowardly and greedy old man, Vasilisa’s wife is a calculating, resourceful opportunist who forces her lover Vaska Pepel to steal for her sake. When she finds out that he himself is in love with her sister, he promises to give her up in exchange for killing her husband.
6. Mazepa (Alexander Pushkin, “Poltava”)
Mazepa is a historical character, but if in history Mazepa’s role is ambiguous, then in Pushkin’s poem Mazepa is unambiguous negative character. Mazepa appears in the poem as an absolutely immoral, dishonest, vindictive, evil person, as a treacherous hypocrite for whom nothing is sacred (he “does not know the sacred,” “does not remember charity”), a person accustomed to achieving his goal at any cost.
The seducer of his young goddaughter Maria, he puts her father Kochubey to public execution and - already sentenced to death - subjects her to cruel torture in order to find out where he hid his treasures. Without equivocation, Pushkin denounces and political activity Mazepa, which is determined only by the lust for power and thirst for revenge on Peter.
5. Foma Opiskin (Fyodor Dostoevsky, “The Village of Stepanchikovo and Its Inhabitants”)
Foma Opiskin is an extremely negative character. A hanger-on, a hypocrite, a liar. He diligently pretends to be pious and educated, tells everyone about his supposedly ascetic experience and sparkles with quotes from books...
When he gets power into his hands, he shows his true essence. “A low soul, having come out from under oppression, oppresses itself. Thomas was oppressed - and he immediately felt the need to oppress himself; They broke down over him - and he himself began to break down over others. He was a jester and immediately felt the need to have his own jesters. He boasted to the point of absurdity, broke down to the point of impossibility, demanded bird's milk, tyrannized beyond measure, and it got to the point where good people, not having yet witnessed all these tricks, but listening only to tales, they considered it all a miracle, an obsession, crossed themselves and spat on it...”
4. Viktor Komarovsky (Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago)
Lawyer Komarovsky is a negative character in Boris Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago. In the destinies of the main characters - Zhivago and Lara, Komarovsky is an “evil genius” and a “gray eminence”. He is guilty of the ruin of the Zhivago family and the death of the protagonist's father; he cohabits with Lara's mother and Lara herself. Finally, Komarovsky tricks Zhivago into separating him from his wife. Komarovsky is smart, calculating, greedy, cynical. Overall, bad person. He understands this himself, but this suits him quite well.
3. Judushka Golovlev (Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, “The Golovlev Lords”)
Porfiry Vladimirovich Golovlev, nicknamed Judas and Blood Drinker, is “the last representative of an escapist family.” He is hypocritical, greedy, cowardly, calculating. He spends his life in endless slander and litigation, drives his son to suicide, and at the same time imitates extreme religiosity, reading prayers “without the participation of the heart.”
At the end of my life dark life Golovlev gets drunk and runs wild, goes into the March snowstorm. In the morning, his frozen corpse is found.
2. Andriy (Nikolai Gogol, “Taras Bulba”)
Andriy - younger son Taras Bulba, the hero of the story of the same name by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. Andriy, as Gogol writes, from early youth began to feel the “need for love.” This need fails him. He falls in love with the lady, betrays his homeland, his friends, and his father. Andriy admits: “Who said that my homeland is Ukraine? Who gave it to me in my homeland? The Fatherland is what our soul is looking for, what is dearer to it than anything else. My fatherland is you!... and I will sell, give away, and destroy everything that I have for such a fatherland!”
Andriy is a traitor. He is killed by his own father.
1. Fyodor Karamazov (Fyodor Dostoevsky, “The Brothers Karamazov”)
He is voluptuous, greedy, envious, stupid. By maturity, he became flabby, began to drink a lot, opened several taverns, made many fellow countrymen his debtors... He began to compete with his eldest son Dmitry for the heart of Grushenka Svetlova, which paved the way for the crime - Karamazov was killed by his illegitimate son Pyotr Smerdyakov.
Literary heroes are usually fiction author. But some of them still have real prototypes that lived at the time of the author, or known historical figures. We will tell you who these strangers were to a wide circle readers figures.
1. Sherlock Holmes
Even the author himself admitted that Sherlock Holmes has a lot common features with his mentor Joe Bell. On the pages of his autobiography one could read that the writer often recalled his teacher, spoke about his eagle profile, inquisitive mind and amazing intuition. According to him, the doctor could turn any matter into a precise, systematized scientific discipline.
Often Dr. Bell used deductive methods of inquiry. Just by looking at a person alone, he could tell about his habits, his biography, and sometimes even make a diagnosis. After the novel's release Conan Doyle corresponded with the “prototype” of Holmes, and he told him that perhaps this is exactly how his career would have turned out if he had chosen a different path.
2. James Bond
Literary history James Bond began with a series of books that were written by intelligence officer Ian Fleming. The first book in the series, Casino Royale, was published in 1953, a few years after Fleming was assigned to monitor Prince Bernard, who had defected from German service to English intelligence. After much mutual suspicion, the scouts began good friends. Bond took over from Prince Bernard to order a Vodka Martini, adding the legendary “Shaken, not stirred.”
3. Ostap Bender
The man who became the prototype of the great schemer from the “12 chairs” of Ilf and Petrov, at the age of 80, still worked as a conductor on railway on the train from Moscow to Tashkent. Born in Odessa, Ostap Shor was from a young age prone to adventure. He presented himself either as an artist or as a chess grandmaster, and even acted as a member of one of the anti-Soviet parties.
Only thanks to his remarkable imagination, Ostap Shor managed to return from Moscow to Odessa, where he served in the criminal investigation department and fought against local banditry. This is probably where Ostap Bender’s respectful attitude towards the Criminal Code comes from.
4. Professor Preobrazhensky
Professor Preobrazhensky from the famous Bulgakov novel “ Heart of a Dog"was also real prototype- French surgeon of Russian origin Samuil Abramovich Voronov. This man made a real splash in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century by transplanting monkey glands into humans to rejuvenate the body. The first operations demonstrated a simply amazing effect: elderly patients experienced a resumption of sexual activity, improved memory and vision, ease of movement, and children who were lagging behind mental development, gained mental alertness.
Thousands of people were treated in Voronova, and the doctor himself opened his own monkey nursery on the French Riviera. But very little time passed and the miracle doctor’s patients began to feel worse. Rumors arose that the result of the treatment was just self-hypnosis, and Voronov was called a charlatan.
5. Peter Pan
The boy with the beautiful fairy Tinkerbell was given to the world and to James Barry himself, the author of the written work, by the Davis couple (Arthur and Sylvia). The prototype for Peter Pan was Michael, one of their sons. Fairytale hero received from a real boy not only his age and character, but also nightmares. And the novel itself is a dedication to the author’s brother, David, who died a day before his 14th birthday while ice skating.
6. Dorian Gray
It's a shame, but main character The novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray” significantly spoiled the reputation of its real-life original. John Gray, who in his youth was a protégé and close friend of Oscar Wilde, was handsome, rugged, and had the appearance of a 15-year-old boy. But their happy union came to an end when journalists became aware of their relationship. An angry Gray went to court and obtained an apology from the newspaper's editors, but after that his friendship with Wilde ended. Soon John Gray met Andre Raffalovich, a poet and native of Russia. They converted to Catholicism, and after some time Gray became a priest at St. Patrick's Church in Edinburgh.
7. Alice
The story of Alice in Wonderland began on the day Lewis Carroll walked with the daughters of the rector of Oxford University, Henry Lidell, among whom was Alice Lidell. Carroll came up with the story on the fly at the request of the children, but the next time he did not forget about it, he began to compose a sequel. Two years later, the author presented Alice with a manuscript consisting of four chapters, to which was attached a photograph of Alice herself at the age of seven. It was entitled “A Christmas gift to a dear girl in memory of a summer day.”
8. Karabas-Barabas
As you know, Alexei Tolstoy only planned to present Carlo Collodio’s “Pinocchio” in Russian, but it turned out that he wrote an independent story, in which analogies were clearly drawn with cultural figures of that time. Since Tolstoy had no weakness for Meyerhold’s theater and its biomechanics, it was the director of this theater who got the role of Karabas-Barabas. You can guess the parody even in the name: Karabas is the Marquis of Karabas from Perrault’s fairy tale, and Barabas is from the Italian word for swindler - baraba. But the no less telling role of the leech seller Duremar went to Meyerhold’s assistant, who worked under the pseudonym Voldemar Luscinius.
9. Lolita
According to the memoirs of Brian Boyd, a biographer of Vladimir Nabokov, when the writer was working on his scandalous novel Lolita, he regularly looked through newspaper sections that published reports of murder and violence. His attention was drawn to the sensational story of Sally Horner and Frank LaSalle, which occurred in 1948: a middle-aged man kidnapped 12-year-old Sally Horner and kept her with him for almost 2 years until the police found her in a California hotel. Lasalle, like Nabokov’s hero, passed off the girl as his daughter. Nabokov even briefly mentions this incident in the book in the words of Humbert: “Did I do to Dolly the same thing that Frank LaSalle, a 50-year-old mechanic, did to eleven-year-old Sally Horner in ’48?”
10. Carlson
The story of Carlson’s creation is mythologized and incredible. Literary scholars claim that Hermann Goering became a possible prototype for this funny character. And although Astrid Lindgren’s relatives deny this version, such rumors still exist today.
Astrid Lindgren met Goering in the 1920s when he organized air shows in Sweden. At that time, Goering was just “in the prime of his life,” a famous ace pilot, a man with charisma and a wonderful appetite. The motor behind Carlson’s back is an interpretation of Goering’s flying experience.
Supporters of this version note that for some time Astrid Lindgren was an ardent fan of the National Socialist Party of Sweden. The book about Carlson was published in 1955, so there could be no talk of a direct analogy. However, it is possible that the charismatic image of the young Goering influenced the appearance of the charming Carlson.
11. One-Legged John Silver
Robert Louis Stevenson in the novel “Treasure Island” portrayed his friend Williams Hansley not at all as a critic and poet, which he essentially was, but as a real villain. During his childhood, William suffered from tuberculosis and his leg was amputated at the knee. Before the book appeared on store shelves, Stevenson told a friend: “I have to confess to you, Evil on the surface, but kind at heart, John Silver was copied from you. You're not offended, are you?
12. Winnie the Pooh Bear
According to one version, the world-famous teddy bear got its name in honor of the favorite toy of the writer Milne’s son Christopher Robin. However, like all the other characters in the book. But in fact, this name comes from the nickname Winnipeg - that was the name of the bear who lived in the London Zoo from 1915 to 1934. This bear had many child fans, including Christopher Robin.
13. Dean Moriarty and Sal Paradise
Despite the fact that the main characters in the book are named Sal and Dean, Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road is purely autobiographical. One can only guess why Kerouac abandoned his name in the very famous book for the beatniks.
14. Daisy Buchanan
In the novel “The Great Gatsby,” its author Francis Scott Fitzgerald deeply and soulfully described Ginevra King, his first love. Their romance lasted from 1915 to 1917. But due to different social statuses they separated, after which Fitzgerald wrote that "poor boys should not even think of marrying rich girls." This phrase was included not only in the book, but also in the film of the same name. Ginevra King became the prototype for Isabel Borge in Beyond Paradise and Judy Jones in Winter Dreams.
Especially for those who like to sit up and read. If you choose these books, you will definitely not be disappointed.
Every book that has become a masterpiece has its own heroes (good and bad). Today we want to talk about characters who, even after 100 years, remain relevant and famous. Many of these books were filmed, which is why we sometimes recognize many of the characters from films. Let's start with Sherlock Holmes.
Sherlock Holmes
Literary character created by Arthur Conan Doyle. His works, dedicated to the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, the famous London private detective, are considered classics of the detective genre. The prototype of Holmes is considered to be Dr. Joseph Bell, a colleague of Conan Doyle, who worked at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital and was famous for his ability to guess the character and past of a person from the smallest details.
The first work about the famous detective, the story “A Study in Scarlet,” was written by Arthur Conan Doyle in 1887. The last collection, The Archive of Sherlock Holmes, was published in 1927. Sherlock Holmes is apparently a biochemist by training. At the time of his acquaintance with Watson, he worked as a laboratory assistant in one of the London hospitals.
Hercule Poirot
A literary character of the famous English writer Agatha Christie, a Belgian detective, the protagonist of 33 novels, 54 short stories and 1 play, written between 1920 and 1975, and films, television series, theater and radio plays based on them.
Poirot is a Belgian emigrant and former policeman. Poirot himself in his book “Tragedy in Three Acts” says that “... in my youth I was poor and had many brothers and sisters... for some time I worked as a police officer in Belgium... then the War began, I was wounded... I was sent to England for treatment, where did I stay..."
Robin Hood
A popular hero of medieval English folk ballads, a noble leader of forest bandits. According to legend, he acted with his gang in Sherwood Forest near Nottingham - he robbed the rich, giving the loot to the poor.
The identity of the prototype of these ballads and legends has not been established. Presumably, he lived at the beginning of the 14th century, during the reign of King Edward II. However, currently the most popular is the artistic version of Walter Scott, according to which Robin lived in the second half of the 12th century (that is, he was a contemporary of Richard the Lionheart and John Lackland). A number of historical details speak in favor of the first version and against Scott’s version: for example, archery competitions began to be held in England no earlier than the 13th century.
E rast Fandorin
Hero of a series of historical detective stories Russian writer Boris Akunin "The Adventures of Erast Fandorin". In this series, the writer set himself the task of writing one detective story each different styles: conspiracy detective, spy detective, hermetic detective, ethnographic detective, etc.
Reviewers expressed the opinion that Fandorin's surname is an allusion to the journalist Jerome Fandor, the hero of a series of detective novels French writers Marcel Allen and Pierre Souvestre about Fantômas (1911-1913) and the French film trilogy of the 1960s based on these novels.
Erast Petrovich Fandorin was born on January 8 (20), 1856 into an old noble family. The boy's mother died during childbirth. Therefore, either out of annoyance, or in mockery of his bitter fate, the father, Pyotr Isaakievich, mourning his wife Elizabeth, named the boy Erast.
To Commissioner Maigret
Commissaire Jules Maigret
Commissioner Jules Maigret is the hero of the popular series of detective novels and stories by Georges Simenon, a wise policeman.
Jules Joseph Anselme Maigret was born in 1884 in the village of Saint-Fiacre near Mantignon in the family of the estate manager, Count Saint-Fiacre. He spent his childhood and youth there. Simenon repeatedly mentions Maigret's peasant roots. The commissioner's mother died in childbirth. When he was 8 years old, he spent several months at the Lyceum, where he had a very hard time, and, in the end, his father sent him to his sister, who was married to a baker in Nantes. Arriving in Paris, Maigret began studying to become a doctor, but for a number of reasons and circumstances he left his studies and decided to join the police.
Maigret, with his talent and perseverance, rose from an ordinary inspector to the position of divisional commissioner, head of a team for the investigation of especially serious crimes.
It is impossible to imagine Maigret without a smoking pipe; he has a whole collection of them.
Z orro
A fictional character, a variation on the theme of Robin Hood, a "masked hero" who comes to the aid of the disadvantaged inhabitants of New Spain. Zorro was originally a character in Johnston McCulley's adventure books.
Zorro was originally a character in Johnston McCulley's adventure books. He first appeared in the story "The Curse of Capistrano", published in 1919. According to one version, when creating the image, McCulley was based on stories about a certain William Lamport. The following year, the first Fox film appeared, The Mark of Zorro, starring Douglas Fairbanks. leading role. Subsequently, many films were made about Zorro both in America and abroad.
T arzan
A fictional character created by writer Edgar Rice Burroughs and first appearing in Tarzan of the Apes. The novel was published in magazines in 1912 and published in 1914. a separate book, which was followed by twenty-three sequels. Tarzan is called the most recognizable literary character in the world. Except huge amount books written by Burroughs himself and other authors, the character has also appeared in many films, television programs, radio, comic books and parodies.
D rakula
Vampire, title character and main antagonist Bram Stoker's novel Dracula. As the archetypal vampire, Dracula has appeared in many works popular culture, even not directly related to Bram Stoker's novel.
Good Soldier Schweik
Satirical character created by Czech writer Jaroslav Hasek; the main character of the unfinished novel “The Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweik during the World War,” written in 1921-1923, a cycle of 5 stories “The Good Soldier Schweik. The exciting adventures of an honest soldier" and the story "The Good Soldier Schweik in Captivity."
According to the literary critic S. V. Nikolsky, the prototypes of the good soldier Schweik were two people with whom Hasek was familiar: Corporal Josef Schweik and Frantisek Straszlipka, the orderly of the real lieutenant Lukasz, Hasek’s company commander during the First World War.
B etman
A fictional superhero character from DC Comics who first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939. Along with Superman, Batman is one of the most popular and famous heroes comics. It was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. Until recently, Bob Kane was considered the main creator of the character, but after much research, the credit was transferred to Bill Finger in 2015, as Kane's actual contribution to the creation of the character was very minor.
Tom Sawyer
One of the main characters in Mark Twain's novels: "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", "Tom Sawyer Abroad" and "Tom Sawyer - Detective"; also a character in the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Tom Sawyer appears in at least three other unfinished works by Mark Twain - On School Hill, The Tom Sawyer Conspiracy and Huck and Tom Among the Indians.
The fictitious character's name may have been taken from real person named Tom Sawyer, whom Twain met in San Francisco, California, where Mark Twain worked as a reporter for the San Francisco Call. Mark Twain states in the preface that the character was based on three boys he knew as a child.
The most famous characters books updated: November 26, 2017 by: website
Russian literature has given us a cavalcade of both positive and negative characters. Let's remember the second group.
Be careful, spoilers!)
1. Alexey Molchalin (Alexander Griboyedov, “Woe from Wit”)
Molchalin is the hero “about nothing”, Famusov’s secretary. He is faithful to his father’s behest: “to please all people without exception - the owner, the boss, his servant, the janitor’s dog.” In a conversation with Chatsky, he sets out his life principles, which consist in the fact that “at my age I should not dare to have my own judgment.” Molchalin is sure that you need to think and act as is customary in “Famus” society, otherwise people will gossip about you, and, as you know, “evil tongues are worse than pistols.” He despises Sophia, but in order to please Famusov, he is ready to sit with her all night long, playing the role of a lover.
2. Grushnitsky (Mikhail Lermontov, “Hero of Our Time”)
Grushnitsky has no name in Lermontov's story. He is the “double” of the main character - Pechorin. According to Lermontov’s description, Grushnitsky is “... one of those people who have ready-made pompous phrases for all occasions, who are not touched by simply beautiful things and who are importantly draped in extraordinary feelings, sublime passions and exceptional suffering. Producing an effect is their pleasure...” Grushnitsky loves pathos very much. There is not an ounce of sincerity in him. Grushnitsky is in love with Princess Mary, and at first she responds to him with special attention, but then falls in love with Pechorin. The matter ends in a duel. Grushnitsky is so low that he conspires with his friends and they do not load Pechorin’s pistol. The hero cannot forgive such outright meanness. He reloads the pistol and kills Grushnitsky.
3. Afanasy Totsky (Fyodor Dostoevsky, “The Idiot”)
Afanasy Totsky, having taken Nastya Barashkova, the daughter of a deceased neighbor, as his upbringing and dependent, eventually “became close to her,” developing a suicidal complex in the girl and indirectly becoming one of the culprits of her death. Extremely averse to the female sex, at the age of 55 Totsky decided to connect his life with the daughter of General Epanchin Alexandra, deciding to marry Nastasya to Ganya Ivolgin. However, neither one nor the other case burned out. As a result, Totsky “was captivated by a visiting Frenchwoman, a marquise and a legitimist.”
4. Alena Ivanovna (Fyodor Dostoevsky, “Crime and Punishment”)
The old pawnbroker is a character who has become a household name. Even those who have not read Dostoevsky’s novel have heard about it. Alena Ivanovna, by today’s standards, is not that old, she is “about 60 years old,” but the author describes her like this: “... a dry old woman with sharp and angry eyes with a small pointed nose... Her blond, slightly gray hair was greasy with oil. Some kind of flannel rag was wrapped around her thin and long neck, similar to a chicken leg...” The old woman pawnbroker is engaged in usury and makes money from people's misfortune. She takes valuable things at huge interest rates, bullies her younger sister Lizaveta, and beats her.
5. Arkady Svidrigailov (Fyodor Dostoevsky, “Crime and Punishment”)
Svidrigailov is one of Raskolnikov’s doubles in Dostoevsky’s novel, a widower, at one time he was bought out of prison by his wife, he lived in the village for 7 years. A cynical and depraved person. On his conscience is the suicide of a servant, a 14-year-old girl, and possibly the poisoning of his wife. Due to Svidrigailov's harassment, Raskolnikov's sister lost her job. Having learned that Raskolnikov is a murderer, Luzhin blackmails Dunya. The girl shoots at Svidrigailov and misses. Svidrigailov is an ideological scoundrel, he does not experience moral torment and experiences “world boredom,” eternity seems to him like a “bathhouse with spiders.” As a result, he commits suicide with a revolver shot.
6. Kabanikha (Alexander Ostrovsky, “The Thunderstorm”)
In the image of Kabanikha, one of the central characters of the play “The Thunderstorm,” Ostrovsky reflected the outgoing patriarchal, strict archaism. Kabanova Marfa Ignatievna, “a rich merchant’s wife, widow,” mother-in-law of Katerina, mother of Tikhon and Varvara. Kabanikha is very domineering and strong, she is religious, but more outwardly, since she does not believe in forgiveness or mercy. She is as practical as possible and lives by earthly interests. Kabanikha is sure that the family way of life can only be maintained through fear and orders: “After all, out of love your parents are strict with you, out of love they scold you, everyone thinks to teach you good.” She perceives the departure of the old order as a personal tragedy: “This is how the old times come to be... What will happen, how the elders will die... I don’t know.”
7. Lady (Ivan Turgenev, “Mumu”)
We all know the sad story about how Gerasim drowned Mumu, but not everyone remembers why he did it, but he did it because a despotic lady ordered him to do so. The same landowner had previously given the washerwoman Tatyana, with whom Gerasim was in love, to the drunken shoemaker Capiton, which ruined both of them. The lady, at her own discretion, decides the fate of her serfs, without regard at all to their wishes, and sometimes even to common sense.
8. Footman Yasha (Anton Chekhov, “The Cherry Orchard”)
The footman Yasha in Anton Chekhov's play “The Cherry Orchard” is an unpleasant character. He openly worships everything foreign, while he is extremely ignorant, rude and even boorish. When his mother comes to him from the village and waits for him in the people’s room all day, Yasha dismissively declares: “It’s really necessary, she could come tomorrow.” Yasha tries to behave decently in public, tries to seem educated and well-mannered, but at the same time alone with Firs he says to the old man: “I'm tired of you, grandfather. I wish you would die soon.” Yasha is very proud that he lived abroad. With his foreign polish, he wins the heart of the maid Dunyasha, but uses her location for his own benefit. After the sale of the estate, the footman persuades Ranevskaya to take him with her to Paris again. It is impossible for him to stay in Russia: “the country is uneducated, the people are immoral, and, moreover, boredom...”.
9. Pavel Smerdyakov (Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov)
Smerdyakov is a character with a telling surname, rumored to be the illegitimate son of Fyodor Karrmazov from the city holy fool Lizaveta Smerdyashchaya. The surname Smerdyakov was given to him by Fyodor Pavlovich in honor of his mother. Smerdyakov serves as a cook in Karamazov’s house, and he cooks, apparently, quite well. However, this is a “rotten man.” This is evidenced at least by Smerdyakov’s reasoning about history: “In the twelfth year there was a great invasion of Russia by Emperor Napoleon of France the First, and it would be good if these same French had conquered us then, a smart nation would have conquered a very stupid one and annexed it to itself. There would even be completely different orders.” Smerdyakov is the killer of Karamazov's father.
10. Pyotr Luzhin (Fyodor Dostoevsky, “Crime and Punishment”)
Luzhin is another of Rodion Raskolnikov’s doubles, a business man of 45 years old, “with a cautious and grumpy physiognomy.” Having made it “from rags to riches,” Luzhin is proud of his pseudo-education and behaves arrogantly and primly. Having proposed to Dunya, he anticipates that she will be grateful to him all her life for the fact that he “brought her into the public eye.” He also wooes Duna out of convenience, believing that she will be useful to him for his career. Luzhin hates Raskolnikov because he opposes his alliance with Dunya. Luzhin puts one hundred rubles in Sonya Marmeladova's pocket at her father's funeral, accusing her of theft.
11. Kirila Troekurov (Alexander Pushkin, “Dubrovsky”)
Troekurov is an example of a Russian master spoiled by his power and environment. He spends his time in idleness, drunkenness, and voluptuousness. Troekurov sincerely believes in his impunity and limitless possibilities (“This is the power to take away property without any right”). The master loves his daughter Masha, but marries her to an old man she doesn’t love. Troekurov's serfs are similar to their master - Troekurov's hound is insolent to Dubrovsky Sr. - and thereby quarrels old friends.
12. Sergei Talberg (Mikhail Bulgakov, “The White Guard”)
Sergei Talberg is the husband of Elena Turbina, a traitor and an opportunist. He easily changes his principles and beliefs, without much effort or remorse. Talberg is always where it is easier to live, so he runs abroad. He leaves his family and friends. Even Talberg’s eyes (which, as we know, are the “mirror of the soul”) are “two-story”; he is the complete opposite of Turbin. Thalberg was the first to wear the red bandage at the military school in March 1917 and, as a member of the military committee, arrested the famous General Petrov.
13. Alexey Shvabrin (Alexander Pushkin, “The Captain's Daughter”)
Shvabrin is the antipode of the main character of Pushkin’s story “The Captain’s Daughter” by Pyotr Grinev. He was exiled to the Belogorsk fortress for murder in a duel. Shvabrin is undoubtedly smart, but at the same time he is cunning, impudent, cynical, and mocking. Having received Masha Mironova’s refusal, he spreads dirty rumors about her, wounds him in the back in a duel with Grinev, goes over to Pugachev’s side, and, having been captured by government troops, spreads rumors that Grinev is a traitor. In general, he is a rubbish person.
14. Vasilisa Kostyleva (Maxim Gorky, “At the Depths”)
In Gorky's play "At the Bottom" everything is sad and sad. This atmosphere is diligently maintained by the owners of the shelter where the action takes place - the Kostylevs. The husband is a nasty, cowardly and greedy old man, Vasilisa’s wife is a calculating, resourceful opportunist who forces her lover Vaska Pepel to steal for her sake. When she finds out that he himself is in love with her sister, he promises to give her up in exchange for killing her husband.
15. Mazepa (Alexander Pushkin, “Poltava”)
Mazepa is a historical character, but if in history Mazepa’s role is ambiguous, then in Pushkin’s poem Mazepa is definitely a negative character. Mazepa appears in the poem as an absolutely immoral, dishonest, vindictive, evil person, as a treacherous hypocrite for whom nothing is sacred (he “does not know the sacred,” “does not remember charity”), a person accustomed to achieving his goal at any cost. The seducer of his young goddaughter Maria, he puts her father Kochubey to public execution and - already sentenced to death - subjects her to cruel torture in order to find out where he hid his treasures. Without equivocation, Pushkin also denounces Mazepa’s political activity, which is determined only by the lust for power and the thirst for revenge on Peter.
16. Foma Opiskin (Fyodor Dostoevsky, “The Village of Stepanchikovo and its Inhabitants”)
Foma Opiskin is an extremely negative character. A hanger-on, a hypocrite, a liar. He diligently pretends to be pious and educated, tells everyone about his supposedly ascetic experience and sparkles with quotes from books... When he gets power into his hands, he shows his true essence. “A low soul, having come out from under oppression, oppresses itself. Thomas was oppressed - and he immediately felt the need to oppress himself; They broke down over him - and he himself began to break down over others. He was a jester and immediately felt the need to have his own jesters. He boasted to the point of absurdity, broke down to the point of impossibility, demanded bird's milk, tyrannized beyond measure, and it came to the point that good people, not yet having witnessed all these tricks, but listening only to stories, considered all this to be a miracle, an obsession, were baptized and spat..."
17. Viktor Komarovsky (Boris Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago)
Lawyer Komarovsky is a negative character in Boris Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago. In the destinies of the main characters - Zhivago and Lara, Komarovsky is an “evil genius” and a “gray eminence”. He is guilty of the ruin of the Zhivago family and the death of the protagonist's father; he cohabits with Lara's mother and Lara herself. Finally, Komarovsky tricks Zhivago into separating him from his wife. Komarovsky is smart, calculating, greedy, cynical. Overall, a bad person. He understands this himself, but this suits him quite well.
18. Judushka Golovlev (Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, “The Golovlev Lords”)
Porfiry Vladimirovich Golovlev, nicknamed Judas and Blood Drinker, is “the last representative of an escapist family.” He is hypocritical, greedy, cowardly, calculating. He spends his life in endless slander and litigation, drives his son to suicide, and at the same time imitates extreme religiosity, reading prayers “without the participation of the heart.” Towards the end of his dark life, Golovlev gets drunk and runs wild, and goes into the March snowstorm. In the morning, his frozen corpse is found.
19. Andriy (Nikolai Gogol, “Taras Bulba”)
Andriy is the youngest son of Taras Bulba, the hero of the story of the same name by Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. Andriy, as Gogol writes, from early youth began to feel the “need for love.” This need fails him. He falls in love with the lady, betrays his homeland, his friends, and his father. Andriy admits: “Who said that my homeland is Ukraine? Who gave it to me in my homeland? The Fatherland is what our soul is looking for, what is dearer to it than anything else. My fatherland is you!... and I will sell, give away, and destroy everything that I have for such a fatherland!” Andriy is a traitor. He is killed by his own father.
20. Fyodor Karamazov (Fyodor Dostoevsky, “The Brothers Karamazov”)
In first place in our ranking is Karamazov the Father. Fyodor Pavlovich does not live long in Dostoevsky’s novel, but the description of his “exploits” elevates this character to the anti-pedestal of heroism. He is voluptuous, greedy, envious, stupid. By maturity, he became flabby, began to drink a lot, opened several taverns, made many fellow countrymen his debtors... He began to compete with his eldest son Dmitry for the heart of Grushenka Svetlova, which paved the way for the crime - Karamazov was killed by his illegitimate son Pyotr Smerdyakov.
In my humble opinion, of course =)
10. Tess Durbeyfield
The main character of the novel English writer Thomas Hardy "Tess of the Urbervilles" A peasant girl who stood out from her friends with her beauty, intelligence, sensitivity and kind heart.
"It was beautiful girl, perhaps no more beautiful than some others, but her moving scarlet mouth and large, innocent eyes emphasized her comeliness. She decorated her hair with a red ribbon and was the only one among the women dressed in white who could boast of such a bright decoration.
There was still something childish in her face. And today, despite her bright femininity, her cheeks sometimes suggested a twelve-year-old girl, her shining eyes a nine-year-old, and the curve of her mouth a five-year-old baby.”
This is the image of Tess from the films.
9. Rosa del Valle
Character from Isabel Allende's novel The House of the Spirits, sister main character Clara. The first beauty of magical realism.
"Her striking beauty dismayed even her mother; she seemed to be made of some other material, different from human nature. Nivea knew that the girl did not belong to this world even before Rose was born, because she saw her in her dreams. Therefore, she was not surprised by the cry of the midwife when she looked at the girl. Rose turned out to be white, smooth, without wrinkles, like a porcelain doll, with green hair and yellow eyes. The most beautiful creature ever born on earth since the time of original sin, as the midwife exclaimed when she was baptized. At the very first bath, Nanny rinsed the girl’s hair with an infusion of manzanilla, which had the property of softening the color of the hair, giving it a shade of old bronze, and then began to take it out into the sun to harden the transparent skin. These tricks were in vain: very soon a rumor spread that an angel had been born in the del Valle family. Nivea expected that as the girl grew, some imperfections would reveal themselves, but nothing of the kind happened. By the age of eighteen, Rose had not gained weight, acne had not appeared on her face, and her grace, bestowed by the sea, had become even more beautiful. The color of her skin with a slight bluish tint, the color of her hair, the slowness of her movements, and her silence betrayed her as a resident of the waters. In some ways she resembled a fish, and if she had a scaly tail instead of legs, she would clearly have become a siren."
8. Juliet Capulet
No need to say where? ;))) We look at this heroine through the eyes of Romeo, who is in love with her, and this is a wonderful feeling...
"She eclipsed the rays of the torches,
Her beauty shines in the night,
Like the Moor's already incomparable pearls
The rarest gift for the world is too valuable.
And I loved?.. No, deny your gaze
I haven't seen beauty until now."
7. Margarita
Bulgakov's Margarita.
"A naturally curly, black-haired woman of about twenty looked from the mirror at thirty-year-old Magarita, laughing uncontrollably and baring her teeth.”
“His beloved was called Margarita Nikolaevna. Everything that the master said about her was the absolute truth. He described his beloved correctly. She was beautiful and smart. To this we must add one more thing - we can say with confidence that many women do anything , they would give to exchange their life for the life of Margarita Nikolaevna. Childless, thirty-year-old Margarita was the wife of a very prominent specialist, who also made a most important discovery of national importance.”
6. Tatyana Larina
What would it be like without her? Smart, beautiful, modest, feminine...=)) She has it all.
“So, her name was Tatyana.
Not your sister's beauty,
Nor the freshness of her ruddy
She wouldn't attract anyone's attention.
Dick, sad, silent,
Like a forest deer is timid,
She is in her own family
The girl seemed like a stranger."
5. Esmeralda
The gypsy from Hugo's novel, who still captivates our hearts with her beauty and dancing.
“She was short in stature, but she seemed tall - her slim frame was so slender. She was dark-skinned, but it was not difficult to guess that during the day her skin acquired a wonderful golden hue, characteristic of Andalusians and Romans. The little foot was also the foot of an Andalusian woman - she walked so lightly in her narrow, graceful shoe. The girl danced, fluttered, twirled on an old Persian carpet carelessly thrown at her feet, and every time her radiant face appeared in front of you, the gaze of her large black eyes blinded you like lightning. The crowd's eyes were glued to her, all mouths agape. She danced to the rumble of a tambourine, which her round, virgin hands raised high above her head. Thin, fragile, with bare shoulders and slender legs occasionally glimpsed from under her skirt, black-haired, quick as a wasp, in a golden bodice that tightly fitted her waist, in a colorful billowing dress, shining with her eyes, she seemed like a truly unearthly creature...”
4. Assol
I don’t even know, maybe she wasn’t a beauty, but for me Assol is the living embodiment of a Dream. Isn't the Dream beautiful?
"Behind the walnut frame, in the bright emptiness of the reflected room, stood a thin, short girl, dressed in cheap white muslin with pink flowers. A gray silk scarf lay on her shoulders. Half-childish, in a light tan, her face was mobile and expressive; beautiful, somewhat serious for her age her eyes looked with the timid concentration of deep souls. Her irregular face could touch you with the subtle purity of its outlines; every curve, every bulge of this face, of course, would have found a place in many female faces, but their totality, style, was completely original, originally sweet. ; we’ll stop there. The rest is beyond words, except the word “charm.”
3. Scarlett O'Hara
Every woman has something of Scarlett in her. But like a hero literary work she is unique. So strong female image No one has been able to repeat it yet.
"Scarlett O'Hara was not a beauty, but men were unlikely to realize this if, like the Tarleton twins, they became victims of her charms. The refined features of her mother, a local aristocrat of French origin, and the large, expressive features of her father, a healthy Irishman, were very intricately combined in her face. Scarlett's wide-cheeked, chiseled face involuntarily attracted the eye. Especially the eyes - slightly slanted, light green, transparent, framed by dark eyelashes. On a forehead as white as a magnolia petal - ah, this white skin that the women of the American South are so proud of, carefully protecting it with hats, veils and mittens from the hot Georgia sun! - two immaculately clear lines of eyebrows quickly flew up obliquely - from the bridge of the nose to the temples."
2. Arwen
For me, Arwen is the embodiment of magical beauty. She combines all the best from people and magical creatures. She is Harmony and Light itself.
“Opposite Elrond, in a chair under a canopy, sat a beautiful guest, like a fairy, but in the features of her face, feminine and gentle, the courageous appearance of the owner of the house was repeated, or rather guessed, and, looking more closely, Frodo realized that she was not a guest , and a relative of Elrond. Was she young? Yes and no. The frost of gray did not silver her hair, and her face was youthfully fresh, as if she had just washed herself with dew, and her light gray eyes shone with the pure sparkle of the pre-dawn stars. , but in them lay mature wisdom, which only gives life experience, only the experience of the years lived on Earth. In her low silver tiara, round pearls shone softly, and along the collar of her gray, unadorned dress stretched a barely noticeable garland of leaves embroidered with a thin silver thread. This was the daughter of Elrond, Arwen, whom few mortals saw - in her, as popular rumor said, the beauty of Lucien returned to Earth, and the elves gave her the name Andomiel; for them she was the Evening Star."\ Sienna Guillory as Elena.
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