The assignment was to introduce and discuss the most compelling character in all my reading - but just picking one is difficult because I’ve lived a lot of years and I’ve grown, both emotionally and in maturity, so I’m going to cheat and include more than just one.

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For me, it began with Heidi from the book of that name by Johanna Spryi. I don’t remember all these years later if Heidi even had a last name, but I read that book over and over and for an entire year when I was around eight, and spent hours wishing I was Heidi. Orphan or not, it just seemed like she had the best life ever. Living on a mountainside with The Grandfather, never having to go to school, and spending her days with Peter the goatherd.

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As I dissect the character of Heidi today, I realize that what was most compelling was Heidi’s lifestyle. What made the character compelling was that she possessed a free-spirited view on life. She didn’t expect much from others, but was generous with her love and time, helping Peter with the goats, caring about her wheelchair bound cousin and turning a cantankerous old hermit into a loving, happy grandfather.

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As I grew older what drew me to a character grew with me. While I was in high school, both Ben Casey and Dr. Kildare were popular TV medical dramas. My mother and I watched both and she claimed Ben Casey was the sexiest. I was drawn to Dr. Kildare. Looking back on it, I think my mom was right. Ben Casey played by Vince Edwards really was the whole package and very sexy, while Dr. Kildare was just a pretty boy. Richard Chamberlain went on to play far more compelling roles though, so it wasn’t his acting, it was just his pretty boy looks and youth that caught my young fancy. However, here I must admit that neither of the characters were compelling enough for me to remember much about them.

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Now in my retirement years, and hundreds of books later, I have several favorites, but the MOST compelling character of all the books I’ve read is James Alexander Malcolm McKenzie Fraser. I read the book Outlander long before the stories ever became a TV series, although I have to admit that casting Sam Heughan as Jamie was a stroke of awesomeness. For over twenty years I had an image of Jamie in my mind that Sam Heughan has brought to life in flesh and blood. But what was and still is so compelling about the character of Jamie Fraser?

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The first time we have a hint of him, he is just a ghost watching over a woman on her second honeymoon just after WWII. That was just the teaser because at the time one is convinced that Claire Beauchamp is renewing her relationship with her husband Frank now that the war is over and they have been reunited, and one has no idea what that hint is going to lead to. Then Clair ends up traveling back through time to end up nearly ravished by a British Officer who is part of a posse chasing down border thieves, of which Jamie is one.

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The first time we see Jamie in the flesh, he is young – younger than Claire – and he is injured. As a war nurse, Claire is able to put his dislocated shoulder back in place, but she is far from being very impressed with him. Jamie is considered an outlaw by the British. He has been imprisoned and beaten. But he is also an educated man, far better than many men of his time having studied at a university if Paris, being fluent in several languages, trained in theology and the classics. He was also well-versed in the intellectual events and thinking of the Enlightenment era. He was the son of a laird, and a landowner. Jamie is a handsome character, red-headed, deep blue eyes, 6’ 4” and muscular. He’s skilled with a broadsword and the fact that he appears in a kilt does him no disservice either.

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But as we get further into the book Outlander we discover more about his personality beyond being smart, educated and a leader of men. Besides being a tall, handsome highlander, he has a magnetic personality. He is both strong and tender. He has a deep-seated sense of duty and honor. He is compassionate and sensitive and fiercely protective of those he cares about and would go to any lengths to defend them, including into a British prison to rescue them despite his own history of having been captured and tortured.

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I think this dichotomy of both strength and compassion, his sense of honor and pride all go into making Jamie Fraser an unforgettable and compelling character. He has been wounded (and is wounded again, both physically and mentally) yet does not let those wounds define who he is as a person. His loyalties are often torn, but he keeps his sense of honor and faithfulness, and his love for Claire never wavers no matter how trying she and her behavior are.

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Jamie Fraser is not perfect – too perfect to be real. He is stubborn, and headstrong, and often impulsive. He has a very understandable jealousy of Frank, sometimes having insecurities that color this jealousy. He has trouble sharing his emotions, especially when he is recovering from horrendous insults to his manhood and psyche.

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But that whole package of strong, laudable traits anyone, man or woman, could admire, coupled with the less likeable behavior is what makes him compelling well beyond the handsome, kilt-wearing, blue-eyed Scotsman. I’ve read a lot of great books and run into some really awesome characters, but the only one who comes close to Jamie Fraser is George Bailey, played by James Stewart in the movie It’s a Wonderful Life. George Bailey is a beaten man, completely disillusioned with the life he’s lived, feeling useless, and ready to end it all, until the angel Clarence points out all the good things George did in his lifetime that highlight the true character of the man.

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Besides my original fascination with Heidi, I haven’t met as many female characters I find compelling or memorable. I was never in love with the classics so Jane Eyre and Jo March, while interesting at the time don’t compel me to return to their stories as many other readers do. I found and still think that Scarlett O’Hara was a woman I would dislike if she were real and I could never root for her in Gone With the Wind. I did love Joanna Bennet in the Bennet Island books written by Elizabeth Ogilvie, but even she often seemed to be manipulative and less than heroic. I might have liked her for some of the same reasons I liked Heidi – Joanna Bennet lived the life I wished I was living, on an island off the coast of Maine.

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So, for me, it’s Jamie Fraser, but why not hop on over and find out who my fellow Round Robin Blog Hoppers liked best and why. Understanding what keeps a reader reading and in love with the characters is the best way to write compelling characters of your own.

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Anne Stenhouse 

Connie Vines 

Victoria Chatham 

Sally Odgers 

Dr. Bob Rich