The Five Most Pathetic Female Characters [Guardian Blog]

[Queen of Swords]

Chloe Steele from the Left Behind series, in every scene that involves a cookie.

[Buffysquirrel]

Madame Bovary and the Handmaid from the Handmaid's Tale.

[artemis31386]

Butterfly from Madame Butterfly. Though she's sympathetic, she's still weak.

[Ralyks]

1. Edna Pontellier in The Awakening
2. Madame Bovary
3. Ana Karennia...


....hmmm....I'm starting to sense a theme in my choices. Try liberating yourself some other way than adultery and suicide, ladies.

[Jamiekswriter]

Originally Posted by thothguard51

Sansa from A Game of Thrones, by GRR Martin.

Totally agree.. . . . .but .. . . she gets better in later books. Still hate her mother Catelyn with a passion. I wish Ned Stark beat her. LOL. But that's about as likely as him fathering a b. . . nvm

[thothguard51]

Originally Posted by Jamiekswriter

Totally agree.. . . . .but .. . . she gets better in later books. Still hate her mother Catelyn with a passion. I wish Ned Stark beat her. LOL. But that's about as likely as him fathering a b. . . nvm

Yes, Cat was another...

But Ygrette is a strong female. To bad Martin killed her off...

[Tex_Maam]

Originally Posted by skylarburris

....hmmm....I'm starting to sense a theme in my choices. Try liberating yourself some other way than adultery and suicide, ladies.

See, this has taken my interest lately as well: writing a woman who rips off her petticoats and grabs an uzi is a comparatively easy thing to do, and lately I've been much impressed by lady-characters who find ways to be brave and independent without breaking their society's gender-expectations (because let's face it, it's difficult-to-impossible to just say "to hell with you all!" and rip yourself free of the entire social fabric, especially if you have dependent children or no ready way of earning an income.) Bonus points if they find a way to use said gender-expectations to gain a special-particular tactical advantage.

The first example that springs into my mind is Margaret Schroeder from Boardwalk Empire, but there are loads of others.

Back on topic, though: can't boil it down to a single one of them, but there are SEVERAL ladies of The Dresden Files on whose behalf I just want to... clock Jim Butcher on the nose for writing them as wannabe-fiesty-but-secretly-useless dames who can always be counted upon to do the wrong dang thing at the WORST possible moment.

In fact, let me take that one step further: I am considerably less irritated by the *transparently* passive women in fiction than I am by the ones who are written to be "tough" (which usually translates to them being just unbearable shrews) but who still, in the crucial moment, are as useless and helpless and in-over-their-heads as every simpering delicate objectified wallflower who preceded them. Show me a genuinely competent and capable woman who doesn't have to strangle innocent bystanders with her ovaries to prove it, and I will show you the money.

[celoise]

Bella in Twilight. I can't stop thinking "Quit looking for guys to save you. Save yourself!"

[Domoviye]

Originally Posted by angeliz2k

So, a question: is a female character pathetic because she makes bad choices, or because she doesn't make many choices at all and is acted upon by others?

I can understand and support bad choices, its not making any choices up to and including who they fall in love with just letting others and the whims of fate make the decisions for them that irritate me.
Women who spend the entire novel or several novels torn between two male hero's and unable to decide who to love, while making that one decision the most important thing in their entire live really, really irritates me. They don't have to be gung ho action women, but they have to be able to make a decision about something.
This is why I don't find Buttercup from the Princess Bride so bad. Yeah she was physically useless, but staying in the societal norms, she did make decisions and tried to force things to go her way. Attempting to save her true love from death by sacrificing her happiness, trying to force the Prince to find Wesley before the marriage, and finally when realizing that her plans had failed planning on committing suicide, make her not a successful character, but at least someone who has a bit of a backbone.

[Mharvey]

Originally Posted by Plot Device

My vote is on Chewbacca.

This. Worst female character ever.

That being said, my only question before clicking on that article is where Bella would be placed on that list. That columnists insights are eye-opening and totally unexpected.

If I were to pick a worst female character, it would have to be Sansa from Song of Fire and Ice. Love the series, but her blandness tempts me to skip chapters in her PoV. Fortunately, she shares lots of chapters with Sander Cleagan and later Tyrion and Littlefinger... all characters I like alot. Then she gets a little better as well.

[J. Marks]

Originally Posted by thothguard51

Yes, Cat was another...

But Ygrette is a strong female. To bad Martin killed her off...

From someone who just started reading the series, please, PLEASE remember to issue a spoiler alert. I don't want to know ahead of time who falls under Martin's axe.

[Lyra Jean]

Bella in the movies is much better portrayed than Bella in books. At least in the first movie, I can't remember if I've seen the second movie or not. But in the first movie there was a montage of Bella and Edward talking for hours at a time and getting to know one another. Something never even mentioned in the books at all.

Antonia from "My Antonia I can't recall if she was weak exactly but the narrator stated that she never tried to improve herself or her station that in fact when other girls/women in her situation worked hard at becoming fluent in English and either marrying well or doing something with their lives. Antonia hardly knew any English by the end of the book much less improved her life any. Maybe it was the sadness of the narrator for his friend that made think she was weak.

[kaitie]

Originally Posted by thothguard51

Yes, Cat was another...

But Ygrette is a strong female. To bad Martin killed her off...

Egads guys, not all of us have finished these!

[lolchemist]

Oh gosh... As a YA writer and reader, I've come across so many ridiculously pathetic female MCs that to even include them on a list would be to give them much more attention than they are worth. I'd rather just sit back and watch them sink into oblivion where they belong.

[Flicka]

Originally Posted by skylarburris

1. Edna Pontellier in The Awakening
2. Madame Bovary
3. Ana Karennia...


....hmmm....I'm starting to sense a theme in my choices. Try liberating yourself some other way than adultery and suicide, ladies.

Madame Bovary. Yes. I had forgotten about her. And Anna Karenina! We could also add the sisters in Chekov's play, but then that's at least intentional.

For more male characters... I'm going to stick my chin out and say Harry Potter. There's a great supporting cast, but Harry himself does very little except feeling sorry for himself, and the choices he makes are quite often idiotic and put everybody at risk and usually stem from his massive self-centredness.

[Snitchcat]

Haven't really thought about Harry Potter in that light. But, yes, I do have to agree with you.

[Lhipenwhe]

I found several of the female characters in A Song of Fire and Ice to be either annoying and/or pathetic. Sansa has essentially been a passive, abused observer, Cate screws everything, and I mean everything, up, and Ceresi... the less said about her the better. Not that I found the non-royal female characters endearing... or some of the male ones, for that matter...

Ahem. For pathetic male characters I'll go with Edward from Twilight and Caine from the Acts of Caine series. Both suffer from the fact that the author wants you to like them, or root for them, and failed (for me). Edward is a creepy 100 year-old virgin who repeats high school for decades at a time and still lives with his parents. I'm not in the targeted demographic for Twilight, but combined with the fact that he's also a creepy stalking mind-reading voyeur, he brings up comparisons to Herbert from Family Guy.

Stover makes Caine out to be a badass anti-hero, and while 'traditional' anti-heroes aren't a favorite archetype, they're not my least favorite. Stover ruins it by making Caine a whiner. The man is a mass-murdering selfish prick who started a civil war in another world for reality-TV ratings, and I'm supposed to care about anything the man bitches about?

/end rant