TopTenPicks: Female Characters I Admire

Top Ten Picks is a weekly meme hosted at Random Ramblings. Every week, there is a different and specific topic give. This week, the topic is: Female Characters You Admire.

I made a list of my picks, in no particular order. I love these women for different reasons.

1. Jane Eyre. (Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte) I love Jane Eyre because she is not a beauty. In fact, she describes herself as “poor, obscure, plain and little.” She may not be physically beautiful, but her soul is very much so. Because she is such a plain, ordinary girl, I could always identify with her more easily than with any other character. She is smart, educated, well-mannered and intelligent. She is also emotional and harbours notions of sensibility. Once she loves, she loves forever. She would make a great friend. She is also a reasonable young woman.

2. Elizabeth Bennet. (Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen) Elizabeth is an intelligent, witty, smart and playful young woman. She is full of radiant spirit and her flaws make her very human. Nobody is perfect, and neither is Elizabeth Bennet. She is a true relief amongst all the heroines that exist in literature. She is an atypical woman of her time, very strong-willed, independent and a free spirit. She likes to laugh, too. I would definitely love to be friends with someone like Lizzie.

3. Christine Daaé. (The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux) I mostly love Christine because she is a musical soul. Music is her life and it consumes her. I often feel the same way about music myself. She is extremely innocent and good-hearted, and very much naive. Her innocence, naivety and her naive belief that everyone is as good in their hearts as she is almost ruin her. Yet, she is also a woman of faith and she believes in goodness. She is very compassionate in times when many people could not feel compassion. She is frightened and haunted at the beginning of the novel and rightly so, but she eventually shows courage and determination as well. She blooms from a dependent girl into a woman. Her story, too, is remarkable.

4. Emma Woodhouse. (Emma by Jane Austen) Emma lives in her own happy world with her father, pampered and surrounded by her friends. She has a good hurt, but she is also stubborn and a bit vain. Again, a great heroine whose flaws make her perfectly human. Emma learns her lessons and become a really good, warm girl, but I like the independence that she always possessed. She is a clever girl, but not when it comes to the matters of the heart. She thinks she’s a great matchmaker, but she is often wrong and her attempts at matchmaking create more problems than she anticipates. It’s so great to see how she’s clever and sophisticated, but awkward in romance. A girl can easily see herself in Emma.

5. Sookie Stackhouse. (The Sookie Stackhouse novels by Charlaine Harris) Sookie begins her adventures as a plain, ordinary girl. She’s a waitress in Bon Temps, Louisiana, and she has no love life because she’s a telepath and the thoughts of men she meets disgust her. She also likes to read romance novels, to enrich her vocabulary. She wants to be smart. Everything changes when she’s sucked into the supernatural world of vampires, werewolves and other supernaturals. Throughout the adventures, Sookie remains brave and true to herself, which is very important. She knows who she is and that she does not really belong into the supernatural world, but she tries her best to help her supernatural friends, as well as to stay loyal to herself and humanity. She’s a great chick. She can kick ass too when she has to.

6. Gwendolen Harleth. (Daniel Deronda by George Eliot) Gwendolen is a spoiled young woman who wants comfort in her life. She’s not exactly a nice person from the start, but still, I love her. She gives off vibes of a majestic, beautiful woman, and that’s cool. Her friendship with Daniel Deronda brings out a new Gwen, a more likeable, friendly and human Gwen, and that’s the Gwen I like best. No matter what, I like her independence and how she refuses to give in. She’s the eldest daughter of a widow and she knows much depends on her. She has to marry well or work, and for a girl who knew comfort all her life, that’s not easy, so I didn’t even resent her posh behaviour. I love Gwen for her amazing character development. She grows from a spoiled, egoistic woman into a woman who begins to understand herself and others around her. She also becomes sympathetic and happy with her life. She does not need to grab for things in the end; she is content.

7. Holly Kennedy. (P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ahern) Holly is such a great inspiration. She was married to the love of her life and being married to him was enough for her, so she had no personal ambitions. She was dependent, but unaware of it. When she becomes a widow, she must go on a journey of self-discovery and out comes a great, passionate, strong and independent woman. Holly is an inspiration for women. You can do anything you want with will and love.

8. Bridget Jones. (Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding) Bridget is so crazy and neurotic that she’s great! She so much fun to read about and although she has many flaws, she is a great gal with a big heart. With her penchant for trouble, she goes through a lot, but she comes out triumphant and proud of herself and that’s what I love about Bridget. Life doesn’t get her down. She conquers her troubles and lives on. She is really silly, but has her clever moments and she definitely has a sharp tongue. She wants romance in her life, but she’s still a very independent woman.

9. Jamie Sullivan. (A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks) Jamie is a wonderful woman. So many teenagers nowadays say they don’t care about what people think about them, but they don’t really mean it. They obsess about themselves. Jamie doesn’t. She really doesn’t care what people think, she is who she is. She’s a quiet, bookish girl, with strong principles, a big heart and an incredible faith. She has a light inside her that just shines through her onto other people. It’s an amazing thing, I think. She’s a fighter, too, and well, she’s just incredible.

10. Catherine Morland. (Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen) I love Catherine because I was like her when I was a teenager. I read a lot of historical romances and mysteries, and my imagination ran wild. It was like I was in my own world entirely while reading those books and I was daydreaming a lot. That’s what Catherine’s like, too. She’s innocent, naive, sweet and good-hearted. She imagines things too much, but she learns her lesson. Still, in her essence, she remains the Catherine Morland she always was. I’m glad that she keeps a bit of the child in the body and mind of a mature, grown woman. She’s a sweetheart.