Books help shape personalities and offer new perspectives on the world. There are those wonderful books that captivate you and take you into their world completely. You live with your favorite characters and go through the same feelings as them. Sometimes when you reread a book at different ages, we discover new facets of a story, filtered through our own experience.
Here are ten male characters from books that you will love hopelessly.
1. Fitzwilliam Darcy – Pride and Prejudice
Who does not love the proud and stubborn Darcy? The main male character in the masterpiece of Jane Austen made many women sigh over time. At first glance, he seems a man aloof, arrogant, who despises all those that cannot measure to his wealth.
Gradually, he falls in love with Elizabeth Bennet and asks her hand in marriage. The method chosen to make a declaration of love is far from ideal and offends Lizzie, who reject the proposal.
The adventures of the two protagonists made Pride and Prejudice one of the most popular love stories of all time.
2. Heathcliff – Wuthering Heights
Heathcliff is not the classic romantic hero. In fact, he is portrayed as an antagonist. The main male character in Wuthering Heights symbolizes love-tortured, consumed by passion. In the rush to win the heart of beautiful Catherine Earnshaw, he manages to destroy himself and everyone around him. His unbounded passion doesn’t let him find peace and casts a dark shadow over three generations, symbolized by the graves in the family cemetery.
3. Rhett Butler – Gone with the Wind
Rhett is the archetypal American hero. Before falling in love with Scarlett, he admits he is attracted by her beauty. As the action unfolds, Rhett finds in her a strong woman who lives far ahead of her time.
He is fascinated by her force and vitality and the ability to adapt and overcome the horrors of war, poverty and famine.
4. Vicomte de Valmont – Les Liaisons Dangereuses
Les Liaisons Dangereuses is not a typical love story. Is the description of intrigue, of complicity and passion used for malevolent purposes. The novel was published in 1782 and is believed to be a criticism of the decadent life lived by the late eighteenth century French aristocracy.
The story is centered around the Marquis de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont, two rivals who previously had an affair. The two use their sensuality as a weapon against others, as a sure way of humiliating.
Although completely unscrupulous, Valmont is a passionate man who became an expert in the art of seduction. Nothing which makes him happy is prohibited and therefore he never denies himself anything.
5. Jay Gatsby – The Great Gatsby
Beyond being a romantic figure, James Gatz, because this is the real name of the character, is the symbol of American success and quickly climb in social hierarchy. Though born into a poor family of German farmers, Gatsby becomes rich and lives life of luxury and decadence.
But he discovers with amazement that money cannot buy love. Although his connection with Daisy turns into a passionate love affair, she chooses to remain with her husband.
6. Edward Rochester – Jane Eyre
A central theme in the novel Jane Eyre is the inner struggle of the characters to reconcile passion with rational impulses. Edward Rochester is part of the old guard of Britain, heir to an impressive fortune.
From a love affair with a prostitute in France, he got little Adele, of whose paternity is not totally convinced. However, he to provide a healthy education as a way to wash way the sins of youth.
The maid of the house receives the assignment to seek a suitable tutor and she hires Jane Eyre, an orphan girl of aristocratic origin.
7. Dorian Gray – The Picture of Dorian Gray
The novel is built around a young man of striking physical beauty. His good friend, Basil Hallward is so impressed that he decides to paint his portrait.
Meanwhile, Dorian meets Lord Henry Wotton and he is conquered by his libertine vision of life. The Lord says that the only things worth living for are beauty and carnal pleasures.
Seduced by this theory, Dorian is willing to sell his soul in exchange for eternal youth.
8. Louis de Pointe du Lac – Interview with the Vampire
Louis is one of the main characters of The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice.
During his life, Louis was a plantation owner who lost his entire family. After the trauma he went through, he slowly turns into a cynical man with self destructive habits. However, he lacks the courage to commit suicide, a reminiscence of the Catholic education that he received.
The Vampire Lestat Lioncourt falls for his beauty and to the suffering he exudes. Transformed into immortal being, Louis has an inner struggle to keep his humanity and face what he has become.
9. John Blackthorne – Shogun
The adventures of the sailor who becomes a samurai are inspired from the life of William Adams who sailed from the UK to Japan, the first English sailor who set foot on Japanese shores.
Blackthorne is imprisoned soon after arriving in Japan but his intelligence and skills help him win the respect of Toranaga, a daimyo who dominated the territory where he landed
Communication between him and Toranga is aided by Mariko, a female samurai who spoke fluent Latin and Portuguese. The two fall in love, despite the huge cultural differences and get to live a great love story, despite the fact that Mariko was married to a samurai.
10. Atticus Finch – To Kill a Mockingbird
Atticus Finch is a symbol of honor, dignity and the fight against discrimination. He is a widower who is raising two children alone, Jem and Scout. Where others are fighting with fists, Atticus appeals to the sense of duty. Where other scream, Atticus has a solemn silence, always using. politeness.
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