"I Can't Figure Him Out" of the Week

Sometimes I come across literary characters that I just can't figure out. I have decided to name a "I Can't Figure Him Out" of the week.

This week's character is *drumroll please* Sir DeBracy of Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe. He's just so...hard to figure out. First he's all for killing anybody in his way to marry Rowena, and then just like that, all of the sudden, he feels for her. Because he sees her tears! Yeah, he's got bunches of rogue appeal, and his acts of sacrifice in the end are perfectly beautiful. But I can't figure him out! Any opinions? Don't know who DeBracy is? Go ready Ivanhoe. It'd be worth your time in so many ways. Yes, it is very thick reading. And it's not the curl-up-in-the-corner type of book at all. But it's very good really.

Comments

p said…
I think Ivanhoe is more about story than character. It's been 25 years since I read it and it's mostly a straightforward action story as I recall. So inconsistent flaws are to be expected.

It's sort of like Anakin and Padme in Star Wars II and III. There's no real emotion or love there. Best I can figure it is that it was a Jedi Mind Trick. Perhaps the same can be said for Debarcy.
January 2, 2008 at 8:15 AM
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