January’s Buzz:

FLAWED PROTAGONISTS
(Copyright 2003)

By
Kathryn McCullough

Writers are often reluctant to give their protagonists any flaws, especially if these characters are intended to be heroes. However, a reader or viewer will have difficulty warming up to a character who lacks vulnerability; who never makes a mistake, never doubts him or herself, and never demonstrates any negative traits.

A character can be good without being perfect. True heroes, after all, are mortals who transcend their own human frailties and fears. In fact, the more human your characters, the more an audience will identify with and root for them. Weaknesses make a character sympathetic, interesting, complex and real. Flaws also give characters dimension, and therefore make them more intriguing.

A flawed protagonist sets the stage for one of the key elements of a good screenplay: the character arc. It is impossible for a character who is already perfect to change or grow during the course of the story, and so there will be no reason to root for him or her. A triumph over adversity is much more dramatically satisfying if the hero has to overcome personal demons as well as external obstacles in order to achieve it. In CASABLANCA, Humphrey Bogart’s character conquers his own cynicism and bitterness, making him able to risk his life to save his former lover and her husband. In THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI, William Holden is a conniving, self-serving sailor, who is forced to participate in a deadly mission, but who ultimately gives his life for a greater cause. In SCHINDLER’S LIST, Liam Neeson’s apolitical German businessman forfeits his selfish desire for financial gain in order to save the lives of his Jewish workers. It is no coincidence that all three of these movies won the Academy Award for Best Picture – and for Best Screenplay.

Moral flaws that are at odds with the characters’ heroic roles in the story can be the most challenging to write, but they often make for the most interesting and memorable characters. In L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, Russell Crowe is a staunch defender of battered women with a barely contained violent streak – one that inevitably leads him to beat up Kim Basinger’s character. Because he is as horrified by his actions as the audience is, we retain sympathy for him, and his conflicted, complex personality pulls us more deeply into the drama. One of the most intriguing elements of the original CAPE FEAR was the fact that Gregory Peck’s law-abiding attorney begins to behave unethically when he tries to have Robert Mitchum’s character run out of town, before Mitchum has done anything other than act menacing. While Peck’s suspicions ultimately prove grounded, it is this early moral ambiguity in the movie that makes the film more than just a standard revenge story. Movies like these are also compelling because the characters’ flaws make their actions less predictable; we are not always sure they will do the right thing.

A protagonist’s weakness can add further tension to the plot by acting as an obstacle to his or her own goal. In CLUELESS, Alicia Silverstone’s character wants to solve everyone’s problems (usually romantic), but her myopia concerning what is really best for those around her often causes her to lead her victims farther away from their hearts’ desires. This need for total control backfires on her personally when she pairs herself with the wrong guy. (In the novel EMMA by Jane Austen, which inspired CLUELESS, the main character has the same flaw.) Similarly, Meg Ryan’s character in ADDICTED TO LOVE is so angry and bitter that she gets in the way of her own desire for romantic fulfillment. A darker version of this can be seen in A SIMPLE PLAN, in which Bill Paxton’s greed causes him to make one bad decision after another, leading him deeper and deeper into tragedy.

Even bigger-than-life characters need flaws in order to prevent them from ending up as one-dimensional cartoons. Superman would not be as interesting if not for: a) Kryptonite, and b) his alter ego’s crippling shyness and insecurity. Movies that seem to be pure action can be made a little bit more real and immediate by giving the main character a weakness of some kind. A famous example of this is Harrison Ford’s fear of snakes in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.

Flaws, whether they be moral weaknesses, superstitions, fears, neuroses, insecurities or prejudices, are traits that are as important to characterization as age, gender, background, profession or physical appearance – perhaps even more so. Vulnerabilities are what make us human and what make us unique. Allowing your characters to have human shortcomings will help you bring an artificial creation to living, breathing life.