TTT: Secondary Characters

 Top Ten Tuesday: Memorable Secondary Characters in Classic Literature

In 2021 I created a list of secondary characters that deserve their own novels. This time I want to highlight secondary characters who have interested me in classics. I'd like to know more about their stories but it is unlikely I'd read a whole book about them.

Mrs. Jennings in Sense and Sensibility (1811) by Jane Austen
The matchmaking busybody, who loves a good laugh and is actually quite kind.

Isabella Linton in Wuthering Heights (1847) by Emily Bronte
She falls in love with Heathcliff and marries him, but he treats her very badly.

Queequeg in Moby Dick (1851) by Herman Melville
A "cannibal" from Polynesia, friend of Ishmael, and a fellow sailor on the Pequot.

Father Zosima in The Brothers Karamazov (1880) by Ivan Dostoevsky
An elder and spiritual advisor and teacher to Alyosha, the third brother. 

Clara Peggotty in David Copperfield (1850) by Charles Dickens

The nurse and housekeeper in the Copperfield home. She's David's only friend and comforter in his childhood, remains a friend in his adulthood.

Lee in East of Eden (1952) by John Steinbeck
A brilliant, philosophical Chinese-American who acts as the loyal housekeeper, advisor, and surrogate father to the Trask family. He is the best character in the book, yet he wasn't included in the movie made from it.

Nick Carraway in The Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The narrator and moral compass in Gatsby. He gets tangled in the tragic romance at the heart of the story.

Chief Bromden in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962) by Ken Kesey
A psychiatric patient at the hospital when Randle McMurphy is brought into the ward as a patient. Ultimately McMurphy upsets the status quo of the whole ward and Chief Bromden is a witness. He ends up being the teller of the story and a hero in the end. 

Milo Minderbinder in Catch-22 (1961) by Joseph Heller
The chief mess officer and an all-around entrepreneur in Yossarian's unit in WWII. He buys and sells anything as long as he thinks he'll make money, including selling bombs to the Germans.

 

Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride (1973) by William Goldman
Not sure if he is actually a secondary character or a primary one, but I'd love to know more about this character. Actually, I'd love to know more several other characters in this wonderful book. Montoya is a mission to avenge his father's murder.

Anne