Of "A"s I've read and watched

[wanderering]

From sendsherregards , who gave me the letter "A". I am to think about fictional characters whose names start with the letter "A", and post my thoughts about them. Comment here, and I'll give you a letter, too. (I think that is how it works. It's an interesting way to know you better.)


Anna Scott

"Don't forget, I'm also just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her."



Notting Hill is one of my favorite romantic comedies (it's way up there among the top 10). Here, Anna Scott plays an American movie star who meets a regular bookshop-owning "bloke", William, while filming in England. They fall in love, but fame and the papparazzi get in the way and all manner of shenanigans ensue prior to their happy ending. The draw of the movie is the idea that love is to be found even between two people who live in vastly different worlds. For William, the idea of loving and being loved by a star is unthinkable, frightening even, something that most regular folks only fantasize about. But for Anna, it is as much a happy ending--to be loved for who she truly is--beyond the famous face and the unreal veneer of fame. She is also, "just a girl". Their mutual trepidation, vulnerability, and hope are seen in this pivotal scene from the movie:

Click to view

Anne Elliot

"Anne, at seven-and-twenty, thought very differently from what she had been made to think at nineteen...She was persuaded that under every disadvantage of disapprobation at home, and every anxiety attending his profession, all their probable fears, delays, and disappointments, she should yet have been a happier woman in maintaining the engagement, than she had been in the sacrifice of it...She had been forced into prudence in her youth, she learned romance as she grew older--the natural sequel of an unnatural beginning."



Anne is my most beloved heroine of Jane Austen. Filled with quiet wit and humor, and a forgiving, compassionate heart, she remained steadfast in her love for Frederick Wentworth, although she herself had rejected him seven years before. Having realized her grave mistake, and in the face of his coldness to her and a (seemingly) new love, Anne remained true to herself and accepted all. Happily, Wentworth eventually realizes that Anne is a peerless woman and returns to her. Below, the pivotal moment when Wentworth confesses to Anne that he loves her.



Addison Montgomery-Shepherd

"There is a land called Passive Aggressiva, and I am their queen."



When I was younger, I wanted to be a neonatal surgeon or specialist. And that's why I like Addie. I also pretty much despise Meredith Grey. And that's another reason I like Addie. But moreso because: she smart, compassionate, vulnerable; she did what she could for her marriage, and in the end, accepted with grace that her husband had fallen for another woman. My heart broke when, with much poignancy, she threw her wedding ring over the ferry and into the water. My heart broke when she left the show.

Anne Shirley

"Isn't it splendid to think of all the things there are to find out about? It just makes me feel glad to be alive--it's such an interesting world. It wouldn't be half so interesting if we know all about everything, would it? There'd be no scope for imagination then, would there?"



Anne Shirley was my first fictional heroine, as a girl of about 9 or 10. I really looked up to her, and marveled at her imagination, her big words, and her "wicked ways". She's headstrong, a loving daughter and friend, and always aware of her own faults and failings (but there was always her nose to comfort her). Anne of the Island is my favorite in the series; here she blooms into womanhood, and (yes!) realizes her love for her best friend, Gilbert Blythe (they are my first "ship", I believe).

Albus Dumbledore

“Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”



All-knowing, seemingly all-seeing, it was Dumbledore's voice and perspective who gave flesh and bone to many characters in HP... Snape, Voldemort, Harry's parents. Apologies to Dumbledore lovers everywhere, for me, he remained pretty much a background character throughout. He was there to provide the convenient explanation and backstory, the "words of wisdom", but the character himself held small interest for me (until, perhaps Deathly Hallows, when I saw his younger, more flawed--and therefore more interesting--nature).

And that is the end of my A.