Character Flaws Essay Example

Juice WRLD once said, “Nobody on this earth is perfect. Everybody has their flaws; everybody has their dark secrets and vices.”  Sometimes mistakes may not be a bad thing, sometimes they can. Sometimes they can be macabre. In the current unit, there have been many novellas read. Some by Roald Dahl, Edgar Allan Poe, and some by random people who had an interest in writing a horror story. But in these stories, there has to be a distinct thing that makes the character itself, that’s a character flaw. In the many stories that were read in this unit many included characters that were very odd and unique in their ways. In the strange and mysterious unit, the characters that are the most flawed are the narrator from the story “The Lover” written by James Wood who was very ignorant, Alan from “The Chaser” written by John Collier who was just lazy, and the narrator from “The Black Cat” written by Edgar Allan Poe who was very spiteful. 

In this unit, one of the flawed characters is the narrator from “The Lover” who was completely ignorant. In this story, we are introduced to a woman who is chilling by the lake, which she says keeps her calm. Then she sees a large storm coming, she decides to go back to her cottage and sees a man there as well, instead of making him leave or her leaving she stays in the cottage with him. And the man then starts to act creepy and weird, he stops talking and starts to enchant her with his eyes. The narrator says, “Sodden and breathless, she ran for the cottage door, and, as she opened it, the storm burst.  And there on the hearth, gaunt and welcome, stood a man. ‘Hello!’ It was an odd way to greet a stranger who had invaded her home, but it was all she could think of to say. ” (Wood, 1) From the story, we can see that the woman had entered her home to shelter from the storm, and sees a man who is just standing there and not doing anything. This stands out to show how ignorant she is, a man entered her home and all she can think of to say is hello?! How this evidence corroborates with the fact she is ignorant is that she is a woman, a man is randomly in her home and she acts friendly, if any sensible person sees a random person in their house they would get out, and call the cops. This again shows how ignorant this character is. After seeing how ignorant this woman is, along with this other flawed character who is very impulsive.

In “The Chaser” we see a young man named Alan who is flawed in the way that he is lazy for love. In this story, we meet a man named Alan, who walks into this potion store and meets the Apothecary, he tells him about all his potions and how they are so powerful and everything. Then Alan asks shyly if the Apothecary has a love potion? The Apothecary laughs and says yes, and then begins to explain how amazing the potion is, how the woman will do everything for you and even forgive you for being unfaithful. Alan says nervously, “‘So,’ said Alan, ‘you do sell love potions?... Diane was never very kind” (Collier, 2) From this, it is understandable that this man is very lazy, we see that he doesn’t even want to work for this woman he is after. Just wants a  love potion straight up. He doesn’t want to put in any work. How this also shows how lazy he is because the man has no respect, he just decides oh this woman doesn’t like me, love potion it is! That is just again proving the fact how he is just pure lazy. We see now how lazy Alan was, now this character is so evil and so cold-hearted it is just nerve-wrenching.

This old man is evil and spiteful, he does horrible things to people and animals, that are so cold-hearted. We are known about this man who had all kinds of pets but just hates cats, he hates them but one day he decided to get one. After being with the cat for some time he decides this cat is just crazy, so one night, returning home much intoxicated, “ from one of my haunts about town, I fancied that the cat avoided my presence. I seized him; when, in his fright at my violence, he inflicted a slight wound upon my hand with his teeth. The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer. My original soul seemed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and a more than fiendish malevolence, in nurtured, thrilled every fiber of my frame. I took from my waistcoat pocket a penknife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket!” (Poe, 4) This just comes to show how spiteful this man is, a poor helpless animal, and he plucked its eye out! Madness is what this is, it shows how spiteful this is. Just pure evil. How this shows how spiteful the man is when he is drunk, and almost kills the cat. That’s spiteful, having no remorse that’s spiteful. This just comes to show how spiteful and evil this man is. 

In this unit of the strange and mysterious, there are many flawed characters such as the narrator from the story “The Lover” who was just straight up ignorant, Alan from “The Chaser” who was pure lazy, and the narrator from “The Back Cat” who was just evil. This unit of the strange and mysterious just comes to show how that even  Roald Dahl, Edgar Allan Poe give their character flaws, sometimes it’s needed, sometimes sits just for the joy of the story. Sometimes flaws may not be a bad thing.