Characters who are redeemed

maryskl · Joined: 25 Apr 2009 Posts: 328 Location: Alabama

I am posting on another board about characters who begin as "evil" but end up redeemed in the end. The discussion morphed to gender. Are women more forgiving of male characters and willing to buy into their redemption than they are female characters? Which also brought up the point of redeemed female characters in literature. I am having a difficult time coming up with female characters who were redeemed and I actually bought into that redemption. Any thoughts?

LeeB. · Joined: 22 Mar 2007 Posts: 1226 Location: Seattle, WA

I thought Sandy Hingston did a great job with her bad to good heroine in The Suitor. http://www.likesbooks.com/cgi-bin/bookReview.pl?BookReviewId=4720
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library addict · Joined: 06 Dec 2008 Posts: 1237

The only one I can think of off the top of my head is Justine Davis' The Sky Pirate which I thought was an okay book, but did not enjoy nearly as much as the first book Lord of the Storm.

maryskl · Joined: 25 Apr 2009 Posts: 328 Location: Alabama

Scarlett O'Hara!

jaime · Joined: 23 Sep 2011 Posts: 360

It's been my experience in real life that women tend to be harder on other women than men. I am sure the same is true for fictional women.

What are some examples of redeemed male characters in fiction? And by redeemed I mean redeemed and still alive at the end - not like poor Sydney Carton in A Tale Of Two Cities...who wasn't a villain but somebody who had wasted his life until he fell for the heroine.

Some redeemed males that come to mind are the protagonist of The Dedicated Villain by Patricia Veryan and St Vincent from Kleypas' The Devil In Winter.

As for redeemed females - how about the heroine of Jennifer Crusie's Ain't She Sweet...

PWNN · Joined: 11 Apr 2010 Posts: 828

Yet in order for the Roland to be redeemed in The Dedicated Villain he had to be tortured and lose some body parts. I'd rather stay bad. Razz

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JMM · Joined: 23 Mar 2007 Posts: 492

Female characters are judged MUCH harsher than male characters - especially by female readers. It's sad.

jaime · Joined: 23 Sep 2011 Posts: 360

maryskl · Joined: 25 Apr 2009 Posts: 328 Location: Alabama

JMM · Joined: 23 Mar 2007 Posts: 492

Susan/DC · Joined: 26 Mar 2007 Posts: 1602

Mary Balogh's Helena in The Christmas Bride and Edith Layton's Annabelle in To Wed a Stranger were both redeemed from earlier bad behavior. Neither was a total villain, but in earlier books they did break hearts (Annabelle) or traumatize the earlier book's somewhat fragile hero (Helena).