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Scarlett ’Hara (Gone With The Wind, Margaret Mitchell)
Beautiful, vivacious and strong-headed, devious, vain and flirtatious, Scarlett ’Hara is not just colourful, she’s kaleidoscopic! No wonder she was the first choice for everyone that we asked to nominate literature’s most colourful characters.
We salute her spirit when she turns green velvet curtains into a gorgeous dress when there’s no money to buy one. We admire her grit when she pledges never to go hungry again. We hate her for many things, most of all for the cruelty she inflicts on Rhett Butler after the death of their child.
But when Scarlett finds herself all alone in the end, our heart bleeds for her.
Last word: It’s her deeply flawed personality that makes her so wonderfully vibrant. We admit, we do give a damn!
Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
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| Robert Downey Jr plays the super sleuth in the 2009 movie Sherlock Holmes |
A loner with a flair for showmanship and a penchant for the violin, Sherlock Holmes’s affinity for cocaine clearly does nothing to diminish the razor-sharp intelligence and devilish wit. This rather eccentric chap keeps “his cigars in the coal-scuttle, his tobacco in the toe end of a Persian slipper and his unanswered correspondence transfixed by a jack-knife into the very centre of his wooden mantelpiece.” And his powers of deduction never cease to amaze us. But alas, this stops short when it comes to the female species. He finds “the motives of women... so inscrutable... their most trivial actions may mean volumes... their most extraordinary conduct may depend upon a hairpin.”
Last word: And yes, he always has the last word. Watson would know.
Lisbeth Salander (Millennium Trilogy,Stieg Larsson)
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A more colourful modern-day character is yet to be penned, complete with quirky tattoos and pierced eyebrows. The relentless Lisbeth Salander has Sherlock Holmes’s brilliance and Scarlett ’Hara’s will to survive, coupled with a personal brand of fearlessness and justice.
Despite her traumatic childhood, Lisbeth’s absence of self-pity arouses the deepest admiration. A product of our times, she’s a brilliant hacker, she’s bisexual and she possibly has Asperger syndrome. Lisabeth’s journey to find herself as an adult woman makes her all the more compelling.
Last word: She’s every bit a prickly pear, but when the chips are down there’s no one else you’d rather have on your side.
Binodini (Chokher Bali, Rabindranath Tagore)
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Widowhood may have doomed her to the white sari, but Binodini remains one of the most colourful characters sculpted by the written word. And not just because she breaks the codes of the 19th century Bengali bhadralok society and seduces her best friend’s husband Mahendra or offers herself to Mahendra’s friend Behari in the dead of the night. Binodini is colourful in mind and in spirit. Rebellious and independent-minded, crafty and caring, she’s the thinking man’s muse.
Last word: For many, of course, Binodini took on a whole new shade when Aishwarya Rai Bachchan slipped into her white thaan for Rituparno Ghosh’s 2003 cinematic adaptation of the novel.
The Mad Hatter (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll)
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This Technicolor character is as colourful in dress as in demeanour. And he always has a stream of insults and indecipherable riddles up his sleeve. Sample this: “If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn’t be. And what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?”
Whether you see or you don’t, you can’t help love the Hatter for his loopy, frustrating yet wonderful sense of the word.
Last word: “Why is a raven like a writing desk?” the Hatter asks Alice. Can you tell us? Write in to t2@abp.in
Puck (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare)
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| Royal Ballet soloist Giacomo Ciriaci as Puck in The Dream |
If it’s colourful characters, can we ever forget the mischievous and whimsical Puck? Taking great pleasure in confusing us, mere mortals, this “shrewd and knavish sprite” and “merry wanderer of the night” is a mischief-maker extraordinaire.
A creature of chaos, spreading magic and madness wherever he goes, this jester of king Oberon takes immense delight in his exploits. Much more than just a naughty imp, Puck’s understanding of human nature rings uncomfortably true as he delivers one of the most astute observations on humankind: “Lord, what fools these mortals be!”
Last word: He also goes by the name Robin Goodfellow. Jolly good fellow, we say!
Captain Haddock (The Adventures of Tintin, Hergé)
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Anyone who says “billions of blue blistering barnacles” has to be on this list!
If you’re still in doubt, consider “Blue blistering bell-bottomed balderdash!”, “Bashi-bazouks!”and “Ten thousand thundering typhoons!”
This is what Captain Archibald Haddock says when he’s happy, angry, shocked or exasperated.
We love his cuss words as much as we love his misplaced bravado. Add to that his dry wit and his perpetual state of tipple. Rushing in where angels fear to tread, he adds the biggest splash of colour to Tintin’s adventures.
Last word: There’s even a Dictionary of Captain Haddock’s Insults (which number 192, according to some estimates)!
Fred & George Weasley (Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling)
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| James and Oliver Phelps play the prankster twins in the Potter films |
The spirited Weasley twins, with their wicked sense of humour, inventive minds and ready pranks, may be the stuff of nightmares for parents and teachers, but for us they are pure delight.
Born — quite fittingly — on April 1, the twins never fail to amuse or alarm us, be it with their joke shop Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes or their fantastic departure on brooms from under Dolores Umbridge’s nose declaring: “I think we’ve outgrown a full-time education”.
Last word: George loses his ear in the Second Wizarding War and when his worried mother asks him how he feels, he says: “Saintlike. You see... I’m holy. “Holey”, Fred, geddit?”
Becky Bloomwood (Shopaholic series, Sophie Kinsella)
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| Isla Fisher as Becky Bloomwood in the 2009 flick Confessions of a Shopaholic |
We all have a Becky Bloomwood in us, admit it! Who do you think shoved you towards those sexy purple boots, that criminally expensive Louis Vuitton tote or the totally unnecessary 72-hour water-proof mascara from New York? Some of us, in fact, have more than one Becky in us!
Rebecca Bloomwood begins the Shopaholic series as a finance journalist who can’t seem to resist shopping. And we love her logic: she blows up a bomb on a dress because “it’s an investment”, she brings home a top because “it was crying out to me”!
Neck-deep in debt and on the verge of insolvency, we are in stitches when Becky lands a TV show as a financial advice guru.
Last word: When Becky has a daughter, she thinks it’s a dream come true — a shopping friend for life!
The BFG (The BFG, Roald Dahl)
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The world’s only benevolent giant, the BFG (Big Friendly Giant) is one of the most enduring characters created by Roald Dahl. The BFG never fails to make you smile, whether you’re five, 15 or 55!
He collects dreams and blows them into children’s bedrooms, explodes and bottles up nightmares and teams up with little girl Sophie to persuade the Queen to save London from child-eating giants.
And the “langwitch” he uses to speak to “human beans” is as colourful as his monologues: “Your Majester, I is your humbug servant…. Oh Queen! Oh Monarcher! Oh, Golden Sovereign! Oh, Ruler! Oh, Ruler of Straight Lines!”
Last word: He’s full of practical advice too, like “Two rights don’t equal a left”. How right!
