What makes a good character?

There are many answers to the question ‘what makes a good character?’ and so, with a little bit of research, I have devised a summary.

A good character carries the narrative. Absent of this and the story is dead. The protagonist has to be believable, multi-dimensional, complex, someone to which a reader can and want to relate. Viewers want to inhabit the character, feel their pain, their happiness, their fears. Viewers want to see what the character sees, smell what they smell. Viewers want to learn from the character and view the world from their prism. In other words, the character has to form an emotional bond with the viewer and stand out. A good character makes you forget they only live within the confines of their world. Their world and their experiences, no matter how unlikely, are as tangible as our own because their character has been so thoroughly developed.

I am going to analyse three different characters that have clearly left a lasting impression upon the film world.

1) The Joker – played by Heath Ledger

"Some men," remarks Michael Caine's wise old butler, Alfred, "just want to watch the world burn." Which is about as succinct a summary of Heath Ledger's Joker as you can get. There is no rhyme to him, no reason - just an appetite for anarchy, for chaos and for destruction that marks him out as the most terrifying screen psycho in years. Jack Nicholson's Joker was, arguably, even more psychotic than Ledger's, but where he played the white-faced, red-lipped, green-haired clown for laughs, Ledger's aim was to slip, insidiously, under your skin, with his flickering serpent's tongue, penchant for close-up kills and dead, cold eyes.  

In the opening scene of ‘The Dark Knight’ we, as an audience are not aware of the Joker’s presence at the scene, only that he is involved with the crime being committed. Towards the end of the scene, The Joker reveals himself to a victim of the bank robbery and through the first shot of The Joker, an image of an iconic villain has been imprinted into the minds of the film viewers. The basis of a clown, a usually happy and fun being, for his villainous façade provides a somewhat scarier picture due to the fact that it takes a happy character with whom people associate happy memories from circuses or parties into something terrifying and malicious. The opening provides the audience with a limited amount of knowledge about The Joker and this makes the audience a little insecure due to the lack of knowledge being conveyed about the character.

2) Captain Jack Sparrow – played by Johnny Depp

Jack Sparrow is a character that has obliterated the stereotypical pirate image with his unique look and personality. Inspired by rock legend Keith Richards, Johnny Depp persuaded the production team at Pirates of the Caribbean to alter the original designs for the character so that he ended up looking the way he does in the movies. What makes Captain Jack Sparrow such a good character is how he can be dastardly and devilish and not attach the hurt or the weak. The character of Jack Sparrow deliberately slurs his words and walks with a drunken stagger to trick people into underestimating him. He has a lightning quick wit and he strings words together extremely well, so good in fact he can talk his way out of anything! In all four movies he diabolically tricked every character to do what he wanted. Most didn't realize it until later or never found out they were nothing more but mere "chess pieces" to him. Jack Sparrow is the one of the only characters who can be "weird" and get away making the viewer think it’s cool and funny at the same time – like when he is obsessing over his name, his hat, and a jar of dirt.

In the opening few minutes of Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl, the viewer is introduced to him when his ship is sinking into Port Royal. His encounter with the dock master shows the viewer that he clearly isn’t a member of normal society in Port Royal. His extravagant costume and shaggy hair contrast heavily with the dock master’s neat and trim appearance and Sparrow’s bartering shows how he wants to remain anonymous. This creates curiosity in the viewer and the urge to find out more about this character.

3) Darth Vader – played by David Prowse. Voice by James Earl Jones

Darth Vader is one of the most iconic villains in film history, but why? He is everything that scares you as a child, cutting a huge, imposing figure, wearing doom-laden black, and breathing through some kind of ominous respirator. The masterstroke behind Vader's design is the mask. The cold, expressionless cover is difficult to read, and makes for a much scarier experience than a human face can give. Having the bass tones of James Earl Jones as the voice adds to the daunting demeanour of the character and makes almost every sentence sound threatening.

In the opening of ‘Star Wars: Return of the Jedi’, the viewer sees three space shuttles  entering an enormous but half built space station (the later named ‘Deathstar’). The viewer is made aware that the person entering the space station is important due to the fact that troops gather outside the shuttle in the landing bay arranged like soldiers ready for a procession. The dark figure of Darth Vader emerges from the shuttle and walks through the arranged soldiers accompanied by the commander of the space station. The audience are made aware the Darth Vader is not the highest in command as he talks of the ‘emperor’ but the audience can tell by the attitude of the commander that Vader is of higher rank than him.