I don't mean the secondary characters like Samgrass. I'm talking about the main characters including Charles and members of the Flyte family.
shareBridey was insufferable. For all his adherence to tradition, he showed little interest in marrying someone acceptable and continuing the family line. His involvement in his family's affairs is also infuriating. When eventually does marry, it is to someone past her prime and unable to bear an heir.
shareSebastian. He was morally weak, and the way he treated his mother, on top of being sauced all the time, I was glad when Charles cut himself out of Sebastian's life.
shareI'm afraid that I must totally disagree with crinrgbrght5. I absolutely adore Sebastian; he makes the series for me. And I can't stand his mother.
shareI loved Sebastian. He had everything that life offers handed to him on a silver platter and wasted it - yet, you could feel your heart breaking for him. As with Claire Bloom's (mentioning her specifically because I've already referred to her in an earlier comment on this thread) portrayal, Anthony Andrews did a fabulous job.
shareSebastion was a pig but he was the most interesting character on the show.
sharewhy dont YOU tell us what YOU think? huh?
suzycreamcheese RIP Heath Ledger 1979-2008
I liked the characters but found that most of them could be repellent at times:
Sebastian's disastrously self destructive behaviour
Charles seemingly wanting everything the Flytes had for himself
Julia's mindlessness and selfishness
Bridey's complacency
Lady Marchmain's relentlessness
Cordelia was never repellent to me.
The players of The Game are the scum of the earth
Someone made the excellent point that Cordelia is rarely, if ever unlikable. I think she can be read to represent innocence and the positive aspects of religion and faith. You can certainly argue that she starts out naive and simplistic in her views, but she is child in the first part of the series. She is always shown trying to do good through the Church and her faith in God. Whereas Bridey represents the pious, pompous, inflexible, compassionless dogma and moral blindness that can be the dark side of strong religious belief.
For unsympathetic characters, Bridey is one of the worst for me, as is Lady Marchmaine. Rex Mottram is also pretty difficult to like and even though I feel as though I should have pity for her, Celia Ryder, Charles' ex-wife, is fairly repellent, at least seen through Charles's eyes. Sebastian is profoundly flawed, but way too tragic to actively dislike.
Om Shanti
Hi Troll: An excellent post. Thank you.
Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night. God said, "Let Newton be!" and all was light.
Lady Marchmain is a monster. I don't blame Sebastian for turning into a drunk.
Lady Marchmain is a monster. I don't blame Sebastian for turning into a drunk.I am of the same mind.
Well, despite your admonition, I'll still go with Samgrass.
While other characters act poorly, they don't act hypocritically. Samgrass portrays himself as a devout Catholic, but does not hesitate to commit perjury.
If you believe in such things: if there is on character in this whole story who is going straight to hell, it's Samgrass.
Samgrass portrays himself as a devout CatholicAre you sure? I don't recall his mentioning religion, other than within his work for Lady Marchmain.
Samgrass portrays himself as a devout Catholic, but does not hesitate to commit perjury.
I double-checked and Mr. Samgrass is NOT Catholic
I double-checked and Mr. Samgrass is NOT Catholic
Does Waugh state this in the novel?
Fair enough.
shareIt's possible that Waugh states that in the novel. However, in the episode "The Bleak Light of Day", Samgrass accompanies the family to the chapel to pray the rosary. Of course, he could be doing that to ingratiate himself with the family. So that, and given the intimacy that Lady Marchmain gives him into the family business and scandals, made me think that he was a fellow Catholic.
In any case, I find him the most repellent, no matter what his belief might be.
unlikely Theresa Marchmain would have asked a non-Catholic to write a book about her brotherThat IS odd. Particularly when it goes on to serve as some sort of 'test' of Charles's character.
The series is a fairly faithful straight rendition of the novel. I've read the novel two or three times and cannot remember Samgrass being described as having any religion. I took it as read that he was a Catholic. He is obviously on terms with Monsignor Bell and it is difficult to see Lady Marchmain coming into contact with such a man if it were not through Catholic connexions: she is not involved with academe and they did not occupy the same social circles.
shareThe series is a fairly faithful straight rendition of the novel.I'm aware. But several of the small-ish plot lines in the book never made it into the series. Not a lot, but some aren't even really film-able, and one that often comes to mind is Charles observing in the novel that Lady Marchmain was noted for her "little talks"; she liked to speak with others one-on-one, but she never seemed to schedule them; instead, she did something that ends up seeming quite devious or at least something that shows her strong abilities of manipulation... I believe Charles used the word "naturally" - so that would be, "it seemed to happen naturally" as best as I can recall from the text.... as said by Charles, Lady Marchmain doesn't have a habit of "summoning" people to see her. Instead, it would happen, on a walk, in a room, so on, that whoever she wanted to speak to, would eventually end up alone with her.
Mr Samgrass is introduced on page 106 of my edition, which runs to 329 pages, so about one-third of the way through. He is 'not a man of faith but knew than most Catholics about their church'.
As I remember the book Theresa Marchmain is talking about is the one written by her brother Ned, not Mr Samgrass's book. 'I wonder if you have seen my brother's book? It has just come out.' About six pages later. Later, as I recall, Sebastian tells Charles that his mother had seen she had failed with him (Charles). Charles tells Sebastian that he wrote to his mother but said very little and Sebastian tells him that if he was going to be any use to Lady Marchmain he would have said a lot. Of course we never know what's in the book.
Sebastian mentions Samgrass in the series and tells Charles that he is just someone of mummy's. In the VO shortly after Charles says that Samgrass was really 'someone of everybody's'.
Lady Marchmain coming into contact with such a man if it were not through Catholic connexions: she is not involved with academe and they did not occupy the same social circles.I thought that was meant to show the extraordinary lengths Mr. Samgrass goes through to get into such circles. Make himself indispensable. share
Bridey. A sanctimonious prig who believes his religion is as superior as his breeding when compared to the unwashed, uneducated masses. If Charles had any balls he would have broke his god damn nose when Bridey made his sister Julia cry by saying he couldn't let his fat pious bride-to-be live in the same house as her. His kind is probably why England left the mother church.
shareBridey. A sanctimonious prigI know, it's awful..but he's such a dope, in the opposite way of Rex. I feel sorry for him, so it's difficult for me to characterize him as "repellent". share