The Fictional 100: A Tour of the Top 10

By Lucy Pollard-Gott

Some of the most influential and interesting people in the world are fictional. Sherlock Holmes, Huck Finn, Anna Karenina, and Superman, to name a few, may not have walked the earth (or, in Superman’s case, flown), but they certainly stride through our lives. In our private reading, viewing, or listening experiences—moreover, in their widespread cultural presence--fictional people live in us and through us.

They influence us personally: as childhood friends, catalysts to our dreams of achievement, or even fantasy lovers. Peruvian author and sometime presidential candidate Mario Vargas Llosa, for one, confessed to a lifelong passion for Emma Bovary, Flaubert’s rural vixen in Madame Bovary. Characters can change the world: Witness the impact of Solzhenitsyn’s Ivan Denisovich, in exposing the conditions of the Soviet Gulag, or Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom, in arousing sympathies (however patronizing and belated) for those oppressed by slavery in America. Words such as quixotic, oedipal, and herculean show how fictional characters permeate our language. By tracing characters’ varied incarnations in literature, art, music, and film, we gain a sense of their shape-shifting potential. Who would have thought that Jane Austen’s Emma would turn up in Beverly Hills in Clueless, or that Dr. Frankenstein would don black lingerie and appear as Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show?

My list of The Fictional 100 (fully described in my book and on my website; see below for links) ranks the most influential fictional persons in world literature and legend, from all time periods and all around the world, ranging from Shakespeare’s Hamlet (1) to Toni Morrison’s Beloved (100). I did say fictional persons: to be eligible, a character has to be regarded both as fictional (no historical folks such as Julius Caesar, Richard III, or Napoleon, even when they appear in fictional contexts) and as a person, thus excluding animals, machines, and gods (sorry, no Mickey Mouse, HAL the computer, or Apollo). Seemingly fictional candidates sometimes turn out to be historical (Faust, for example, or Dracula—Vlad the Impaler) and sometimes the boundaries are fuzzy (Hercules is not a god but has one divine parent). In the last analysis, the case for inclusion must be made uniquely for certain characters. As for the rankings, a factor of three is a good rule-of-thumb for gauging uncertainty (e.g., while I rank Don Quixote 3^rd, others might make him 1^st, but few would leave him out of the top 10). A brief tour of the top 10 will illustrate the hallmarks of influence that these characters demonstrate.

1. Hamlet. Shakespeare’s magnificent Dane-in-the-doldrums takes first place, not least for the unsurpassed fame of his musing "To be, or not to be." He talks more than any other Shakespearean creation (making the Guinness Book of Records), and is, by many measures, the character most talked about (the 1997 Modern Language Association’s International Bibliography reports 2,310 sources on Hamlet, the most for any character on the Fictional 100). The ultimate isolated, tortured soul, Hamlet still gets around—one is as likely to see him on stage in Tokyo as in Topeka.
2. Odysseus. Quick-witted and crafty (remember the Trojan Horse?), and ruthless as well, this versatile playboy of the Mediterranean world was irresistible to human women and goddesses alike. And who else could shoot an arrow through 12 axes? His 3000-year cultural odyssey has continued all the way to 20^th century Dublin, guided by the pen of James Joyce.
3. Don Quixote. A hero in his own mind, he has been perhaps the most beloved character of the novel. Miguel de Unamuno thought Quixote was more real than his creator, Cervantes! The loquacious Don and his sidekick Sancho Panza have spawned many renowned duos, from Holmes and Watson to Batman and Robin. Lance drawn, tilting at windmills, Quixote’s gentle madness sprang from his own obsession with the fictions he read. He drew many others into his fantasy world—and still does.
4. Eve. Biblical mother of us all, she is the first to claim humanity’s gift of free choice, for good or ill. Her inclusion does not mean there was no such woman, only that she belongs to the legendary prehistory of our species (and would not appear in an ordinary biographical dictionary with historical figures whose approximate dates are known). She enjoys a long and varied career in art, literature (e.g., in Paradise Lost), and a vast stock of extrabiblical legend.
5. Genji. Hero of the world’s first novel, and the deepest fictional influence on Japan for 1000 years. This multitalented "shining prince" showed his greatest aptitude in the field of romance. In the closed society of Heian Japan, where women were literally screened from view, the persuasive Genji entered many a lady’s chamber by moonlight, and headed two households filled with devoted wives.
6. Oedipus. In 427 B.C., Sophocles’s masterful Oedipus the King once lost first prize to a play by Aeschylus’s nephew, Philocles (who?)! No one has forgotten Oedipus, however, especially not Freud, who saw in him, not just one man’s tragedy, but Everyman’s psyche. Freud’s take on Oedipus’s unwitting incest and patricide has left us forever uneasy about the sexual dynamics of the family.
7. Don Juan. After Odysseus, the most well-travelled of characters—from bedroom to bedroom, and from author to author: most notably, Tirso de Molina, Moliere, Mozart, Byron, Zorrilla, and Shaw. Tirso created the Burlador (Trickster) of Seville in 1630 and since then he is recognized as myth, psychological complex, and archetype.
8. Chia Pao-yu. Hero of China’s greatest novel, Dream of the Red Chamber (1792), also known as The Story of the Stone. An effeminate youth, he is pampered by his wealthy Chia family, whose machinations place him at the apex of a tragic love triangle. His character focuses the novel’s complex symbolism, encapsulated in its alternative titles, making him both the earthly Dreamer, who suffers from the poignant illusions of life, and a misplaced Stone of Heaven, or Precious Jade (Pao-yu), who must finally reclaim his spiritual destiny.
9. Sherlock Holmes. The most real of modern characters, the Baker Street detective receives thousands of letters a year from fans worldwide seeking his services. Conan Doyle couldn’t kill him—when he sent Holmes tumbling to the bottom of the Reichenbach Falls, readers demanded that Sherlock be resurrected to pursue further adventures. No matter who plays him, from William Gillette to Basil Rathbone to Jeremy Brett, Holmes’s unstoppable mind--and ego to match--make him unmistakable.
10. Arjuna. Hero of the Mahabharata, the national epic of India, this master archer conquered in the realms of love, war, and the spirit. Desired by many women, he won his most remarkable wife, Draupadi, in an archery contest (but by a fortuitous turn of events, he had to share her with his four brothers!). He was ultimately victorious in the war of royal succession that forms the epic’s action, yet on the brink of war he hesitated to battle his kinsmen. He addressed his moral dilemma to his charioteer, none other than Lord Krishna, an incarnation of the supreme god Vishnu. As Krishna’s chief disciple, Arjuna was privileged to receive firsthand the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita, the most beloved Hindu scripture, as his answer. Krishna exhorted Arjuna to perform his duty in the spirit of selfless devotion to God.

So ends my whirlwind tour of the Fictional 100’s top 10. To keep going, consult my website where I have compiled annotated bibliographies invaluable for students or anyone with a desire to meet more of these characters "in person."

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