I feel that making people care for you characters through sympathy is necessary. And this article is going to be a bit technical so caution is strongly advised. 🙂
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*Movie examples*
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BRUCE WAYNE (BATMAN BEGINS): – Going into extensive points here because it’s one of my favourite movies.
- After confessing he was going to kill his parent’s murderer’s, his only friend Rachel, slaps him twice, looks at him like he’s a monster and says the worst thing ever to him, “Your father would be ashamed of you.”
Later this is followed up by Bruce throwing the gun away in disgust. What I felt was sadness for Bruce because I realised he was lonely and without a sense of direction. This is the point where he realises he’s made a mistake and he’s upset about it. He’s a good guy with a good heart but he’s almost went in the wrong direction because of his pain. He was also hurting of what Rachel said to him, Bruce holds his father in high esteem and to be told that his dad would be ashamed of him and that too from someone who means a lot to him is gut wrenching.
- Gotham’s most feared crime boss-Falcone insults Bruce’s dead father, has his men beat up a weak and young Bruce before throwing him out of the club. This all happens after when Bruce finds out just how corrupt Gotham really is, that the judge who handled the case of his parent’s murderer, is actually no more than Falcone’s plaything- he’s dining with ladies in Falcone’s gangster club. Police officers, government officials are also enjoying themselves in this corrupt place.
Falcone really hurts Bruce by saying, “He said your father begged. Begged. Like a dog.”
“You haven’t thought about your lady friend at the DA’s office or your old butler….. People from your world have so much to lose.”
At this point Bruce is not able to fight back because of his fear. He may not be a martial arts expert at this stage but here, he lacks the will to fight back probably because he doesn’t believe in himself and he wants to keep his butler Alfred and his friend Rachel safe. This scene confirmed that Bruce is a good person and cares about others than himself. He’s evoked my sympathy.
STANLEY IPKISS (THE MASK)
He’s such a nice guy that he lets people walk all over him. He gets bullied by his boss, his apartment manager Mrs Peaman, denied access to Coco Bongo club, manhandled and thrown on the ground by club mobsters. His friend ain’t even a friend because he ignores him most of the time and is too self indulgent. Stanley even gets ripped off by a pair of mechanics and given a banger car that literally falls apart.
But the strongest scene is when Stanley is on the bridge, after his car breaks down, he sees something floating in the water. Thinking it is a person, he jumps in to save them only finding out that it is a pile of floating rubbish.
We learn that Stanley is quick to help others at the expense of his own safety even if he is a doormat. He is too polite because he doesn’t want to disrupt harmony.
*USE YOUR CHARACTERS WEAKNESS TO EVOKE SYMPATHY FOR THEM *
Personally, I’m using MBTI (psychology archetypes) to do this. There’s two types of people in the world, Extroverted and Introverted.
Here’s the eight cognitive functions of MBTI.
Fi– Introverted Feeling
Fe– Extroverted Feeling
Si– Introverted Sensing
Se– Extroverted Sensing
Ti– Introverted Thinking
Te– Extroverted Thinking
Ni- Introverted Intuition
Ne– Extroverted Intuition
Humans primarily use four of these in fixed order. (You might want to research on your own more about MBTI).
There’s something called the inferior function, everyone has four primary ones.
Taken from this website: http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/understanding-mbti-type-dynamics/the-fourth-or-inferior-function.htm
“We often call the fourth function the inferior function when it emerges without conscious intention and tries to overpower the dominant and auxiliary. This can lead to a person feeling “in the grip” of his or her inferior function. The inferior may also manifest under stress, when resources of the dominant and auxiliary are exhausted. When the inferior function manifests in someone’s life, that person may say, “I don’t know what got into me.” It often feels like being out of control (outside the conscious ego). The inferior may manifest in negative, immature ways.”
The inferior fuction can be can be a way of evoking sympathy.
Like Bruce Wayne’s type is INTJ (Ni,Te,Fi,Se), so his inferior function would be SE- extroverted sensing, he acts irrationally and in the moment, like his decision to kill his parent’s murderers, like his choice of walking into a dangerous gangster bar without preparation.
Or in Stanley Ipkiss’ case who seems to be an ISFP, we can use the dominant function to evoke character sympathy, ISFP- (Fi,Se,Ni,Te) FI- introverted feeling- the desire to stand strongly by own moral principles and maintain harmony even at the expense of one’s confidence. Stanley suffers from this.
My advice: (for myself also)
Take their weaknesses and create a list of all the things can go wrong for them because of it.
Give legit reasons why they make these choices and not avoid them e.g. Bruce is still in pain over his parent’s death.
Read more MBTI, keep researching. Knowledge is power.
schsilverstar 