Ireth
Myth Weaver
Yet another post about my Hunchback of Notre Dame adaptation. Woo. I'm taking a bit of a break from figuring out the villain's motivation and inner struggles to focus on the heroine, Diana, and the problems she presents to me as the storyteller.
Setting aside the issues of her disability and curse for the moment, her situation is problematic. At the most basic level, she's a woman who's being abused for something she can't possibly help. This is a tragedy in any time period, but being set in the Middle Ages presents even more problems. Women in that age were considered the property of their fathers, brothers or husbands; they had no rights of their own, no means of standing up for themselves.
Having such a character as my heroine, and trying to make her at once realistic and likable, is going to be tough. It would be unheard of for a woman of that time period to stand up to her husband for any reason, let alone abuse of any sort. I want her to be a strong character, but that's tricky when she's constantly being beaten down and stripped of all self-esteem; having her rely on Vincent's influence to gain her inner strength seems like a not-so-appropriate message. So what can I do?
Setting aside the issues of her disability and curse for the moment, her situation is problematic. At the most basic level, she's a woman who's being abused for something she can't possibly help. This is a tragedy in any time period, but being set in the Middle Ages presents even more problems. Women in that age were considered the property of their fathers, brothers or husbands; they had no rights of their own, no means of standing up for themselves.
Having such a character as my heroine, and trying to make her at once realistic and likable, is going to be tough. It would be unheard of for a woman of that time period to stand up to her husband for any reason, let alone abuse of any sort. I want her to be a strong character, but that's tricky when she's constantly being beaten down and stripped of all self-esteem; having her rely on Vincent's influence to gain her inner strength seems like a not-so-appropriate message. So what can I do?