Likeability is our fourth of five considerations in Choosing a Perspective. While it’s not necessary for a Viewpoint Character to be likeable, it is helpful to understand whether they’re off-putting.
So, the question for this consideration:
- How likeable is your desired Viewpoint Character from a purely outside perspective?
Remember: they have a built-in Charisma buff. However, if they’re insufferable, they’ll burn through it fast. Be honest when assessing their likeability.
A Multi-faceted Trait
Likeability isn’t only friendliness or other pleasant characteristics. It also includes cleverness and cunning, as well as redemptive traits such as determination, self-discipline, or even basic human frailty. An unlikeable character can become lovable over the course of the story, but the Point of View should assist this, not inhibit it.
If your Viewpoint Character is generally likeable, pretty much any combination of Point of View styles and techniques can work.
If they’re unlikeable from the outside but inwardly striving to be good, a closer Point of View gives more opportunities for the Reader to understand and empathize with them. Consider First Person or Third Limited Omniscient to naturally unlock these sympathies.
If the Viewpoint Character is unlikeable and that’s kind of the point, however, a more removed Point of View allows your Reader to watch from a safe distance. Objective and Omniscient Narrators can provide that needed broader perspective.
Or, you might consider using a different Viewpoint Character altogether. Remember, the Viewpoint Character does not have to be the Main Character. If your Main Character is abrasive, telling their story through the lens of a sympathetic Viewpoint Character can soften their image and make them more relatable.
And this brings us to another tangent.
The Antihero
An antihero is a Main Character who lacks conventional heroic qualities. Their motivation centers on personal values and goals rather than broader social obligations or expectations. Thus, they often display unlikeable characteristics and negative traits such as sarcasm, boredom, bluntness, selfishness, or misogyny.
These are the Rebels, the Rogues, and the Outliers. They ignore rules and break laws, serving their self-interest first and foremost. Such characters can occupy the central Viewpoint Position if they have enough personal charm, but they often benefit from a distanced narrative.
When antiheroes are in play, Point of View provides a literary pressure release.
Filtering
In Emily Brontë’s WUTHERING HEIGHTS, for example, Mr Lockwood and Nelly Dean act as filters for the unlikeable Heathcliff and Catherine. Their chronicle of the star-crossed lovers highlights the bizarreness of the bond between the pair.
But imagine the story told from Heathcliff or Catherine’s perspective instead. They would distort their obsession into romance, painting themselves as victims and justifying their awful treatment of one another and those around them. Lockwood and Nelly provide context and necessary insight while not glossing over how rotten the couple is.
In fact, that rottenness becomes a central, driving feature of the tale.
Likewise, in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s THE GREAT GATSBY, antihero Jay Gatsby benefits from Viewpoint Character Nick Carraway’s filtering of events. Gatsby, despite Nick’s admiration, is questionable at best, with hints of criminal ties, evident moral flaws, and a frankly awful taste in women. But Nick views him through rose-colored glasses, so the Reader does too.
Distancing
In THINGS FALL APART by Chinua Achebe, the Third Person Omniscient narration creates space around Main Character Okonkwo. This allows the Reader to feel compassion for him despite his tragic failings and terrible choices. It also stresses the novel’s broader themes, including the effects of colonialism on native cultures and traditions.
Okonkwo is objectively unlikeable: he beats his family members, and he brutally executes his foster son as proof of tribal manliness. He’s violent and stubborn and proud. Yet, as his whole way of life crumbles, there’s no satisfaction, no sense of comeuppance or just desserts. The distanced narrative neither exonerates nor vilifies. Instead, it invites consideration.
In a similar vein, Gustav Flaubert’s MADAME BOVARY uses Point of View to build narrative distance. It begins with an undisclosed First Person Narrator who introduces Charles Bovary, then moves to an Omniscient Narrator to chronicle Emma Bovary’s downfall. After her suicide, the narration becomes even more Objective. Thus what starts as a close observation retreats over the course of the book. That initial First Person introduction seems to signal where our pity should lie, though: with Charles, who wanted nothing more than to please his wife but could never succeed because she herself refused.
Using a removed Point of View or a different Viewpoint Character allows space for the Reader to develop sympathy or empathy even when a Main Character has a multitude of fatal flaws.
Conclusion
Your Viewpoint Character doesn’t have to be likeable. If they fall on the negative side of the Likeability scale, though, your Point of View decisions become crucial in allowing their story to shine.
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