BVS Reader's Blog

Archive for the ‘Romance Novel Characters’ Category

The conversation about characters, particularly heroes has been developing in the comments about what makes a to die for hero and how important it is that a hero be sensitive, understanding, compassionate, at least with the heroine — at least by the end.

I thought today I would turn the conversation in a new direction and ask — is there anything a character (hero or heroine) could do either in the course of the story or in their backstory that you would find utterly unforgivable…no matter how remorseful they were, what they did to make amends, or anything else?

There are not many things that a character could do that I don’t have the potential to forgive…IF the character changes…IF the character feels true remorse for whatever he or she did. In some cases forgiveness depends on the character’s motivation for doing what he or she did. Did he or she know it was wrong when he or she did it? Was it an angry act, something that happened in the heat of the moment or was it a planned act, something the character considered before he or she did it?

Also important for some major bad acts are how long ago they occurred. I might be able to forgive a character who did time for robbery if the robberies happened when he/she was a teenager and he’s cleaned up his act since then.

I would have a very hard time forgiving purposeful pre-meditated cruelty of any sort…but especially cruelty to kids and animals. I think I would find this very hard even if the character had changed a great deal and felt tremendous remorse.

Can you think of any books where the hero or heroine did something that challenged your ability to forgive? In the end, were you able to forgive the character, like them, root for them? What did the author do/show/write that allowed you to forgive the character? If you didn’t forgive the character is there anything they could have done that would have made it so you could forgive the character?