16 of the Most Famous Characters in Literature

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As the pages of a book turn, characters come to life and weave tales that captivate readers from all generations. From classic to contemporary works, famous characters in literature have left a lasting impact on readers of all ages. They have inspired and entertained us through the years.

If you have ever found yourself so invested in a story that you felt as though you knew the characters personally, you know what I mean.

This article covers 16 of the most famous characters in literature. Classic characters that have withstood the test of time; beloved characters from our childhoods; even modern characters that resonate today. Unforgettable characters who have become household names will always be with us.

Join me on a journey as we uncover some of the most famous characters in literature. They include:

tragic heroes of Shakespearean plays,
whimsical creatures of children’s literature, and
complex characters of modern fiction.

Throughout, we’ll search for what makes these characters memorable and how they have influenced the literary world and popular culture.

So, get ready to journey through the pages of 16 of literature’s most iconic characters.

Classic Literature Characters

Hamlet

The first on our list is arguably the most famous character in all Western literature. Hamlet, the eponymous prince of Denmark from Shakespeare’s classic play, is a handsome young man with a dilemma.

His father has recently died, and his mother shortly afterward married his father’s brother. One night, the ghost of Hamlet’s father approaches him. He tells Hamlet his brother murdered his father and Hamlet must now murder his own brother to exact revenge. This creates an existential crisis for Hamlet that has echoed throughout the ages.

The play has been performed hundreds of thousands of times and has been adapted in every form. Although Hamlet’s situation is specific, countless individuals project Hamlet’s crisis in their own lives. Through the character, Shakespeare probed the heart of human nature in a way that will always endure and be relevant.

Elizabeth Bennet

When talking about women in particular, Elizabeth Bennet is another of the most famous characters in literature. The protagonist of Jane Austen’s novel – Pride and Prejudice. She is the strong-willed second-eldest daughter of a prosperous family. Beautiful and witty Elizabeth attracts the attentions of the handsome Mr Darcy.

What makes her remarkable is her desire to marry for love in a time when property was more important. In many ways, she set the standard for what would become the entire concept of romantic comedy. An entire genre of films attempted to capture the magic of her courtship with Darcy.

Her feminism was ahead of the times. Elizabeth Bennett’s resourcefulness and brains has inspired myriad female readers of Pride and Prejudice. And she has remained an icon ever since.

Jay Gatsby

The enigmatic Jay Gatsby is the protagonist of F Scott Fitzgerald’s classic short novel The Great Gatsby. Gatsby was a millionaire known for throwing lavish parties during the 1920s, but most people didn’t know his true origins. He grew up poor and gradually rose to notoriety, due to a mixture of luck, pluck, and some criminal enterprises.

Underneath a suave exterior hides a wounded soul deeply in love with a woman, Daisy, who doesn’t return his affections. To the literary world, Gatsby has thus come to represent both decadent excess as well as tragedy.

Fitzgerald critiqued the dark underbelly of the Jazz Era. And the great irony of The Great Gatsby was and may still be that many people still only focus on the surface glamour that glosses over reality.

Sherlock Holmes

When talking about the most famous characters in literature, it’s impossible to ignore Sherlock Holmes. A self-proclaimed consulting detective, Holmes is famed for being the greatest detective in the world. He has such a sharp mind, attention to detail, and broad scope of knowledge, he can make deductions that no one else can. He is like a superpower. And he can walk into a room and deduce in a moment exactly who perpetrated a crime.

Holmes is well known for his relationship with his partner, Dr Watson, who accompanies him on his cases. He’s often there as Holmes’ sounding board and to show how Holmes impresses him by his deductions. Over the course of the stories, however, Holmes’ method rubs off on the doctor.

Sherlock Holmes has left an indelible mark on British culture. He is one of the key reasons the mystery genre remains so popular. He’s been adapted countless times across all media, and is one of the most beloved fictional characters ever.

Children’s Literature Characters

Anne Shirley

The protagonist of the beloved Anne of Green Gables, Anne Shirley is one of the most famous characters in literature. Lucy Maud Montgomery first wrote about this redheaded orphan in 1908 and continued to write 8 more books about her.

Anne is a dramatic young dreamer who has a romantic view of the world. Despite her humble background, she regularly quotes from poetry. Even as the books track her life from its impoverished beginnings to wife and mother, she remains imaginative and daring.

Anne Shirley has inspired generations of young women with her wit, bravery, and brains. As a reader herself, she remains a feminist role model to young girls who have grown up equally bookish. Her story has been adapted numerous times, perhaps most famously in a PBS miniseries in the 1980s.

Alice

Possibly the best-known female character in children’s literature, Lewis Carroll’s Alice is an ordinary girl who goes on grand adventures. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass are considered phenomenal works of deliberate nonsense.

In many ways, Alice is a reader surrogate character. We don’t know much about her other than she’s middle class and her experiences in Wonderland constantly baffle her. In the novels, Carroll satirised the Victorian adult world, revealing their social rules to be baffling to a child.

Even today, people identify with the idea of being thrust into a world with preposterous rules. That’s even though not everyone understands the specifics of pointed humour today. Alice has been adapted into every conceivable format and is loved by the young and old alike.

Winnie the Pooh

Not all the most famous characters in literature are human. Winnie the Pooh is a bear—and even more so, specifically a teddy bear. A. A. Milne’s son had a collection of stuffed animals who his father made a series of books about. This included Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner.

Living alongside friends in the Hundred Acre Wood, Winnie the Pooh is described as a – bear of very little brain. Throughout the books, he has a series of misadventures that often have to do with his simple approach to life. That said, he isn’t unintelligent but, in many ways, just has the literal mind of a child.

Generations have loved the Pooh stories, thanks to the original books and the Disney adaptations. There was even a series of books called The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff analysing him through Chinese philosophy.

Matilda

The eponymous character of Roald Dahl’s classic novel, Matilda, is a precocious young girl who leads a revolution. She is a voracious reader and hugely intelligent, underappreciated by most people and emotionally abused by her parents. She receives similar abuse at the hands of her school’s cruel headmistress, Miss Trunchbull.

Over the course of the book, all of Matilda’s rage coalesces into phenomenal psychic powers. She gains telekinetic abilities with which she triumphs against Trunchbull by the end of the novel. Countless children over the years have identified with her as a brilliant outcast who defeats evil adults.

Time Magazine listed Matilda as one of the best young adult books ever. It’s been adapted into an American film and a hit stage musical. Recently, they made the musical into a British film, starring Emma Thompson as Trunchbull.

Contemporary Literature Characters

Katniss Everdeen

The protagonist of the wildly popular The Hunger Games trilogy, Katniss Everdeen is a young woman who becomes a revolutionary. The books take place in a dystopia. In it, a privileged upper class force poor people to fight to the death for food, for their entertainment. Katniss volunteers to take the place of her sister, who’d been chosen.

Resourceful, brave, and smart, Katniss succeeds at the deadly competition, breaking the rules of the game. In so doing, she becomes a symbol for the growing rebellion, as well as one of its primary figures. The Hunger Games became a hugely successful film series, catapulting Jennifer Lawrence, who played Katniss, to stardom.

Meanwhile, countless young people have been inspired by Katniss to similarly challenge people in power

Lisbeth Salander

Lisbeth Salandar is another one of the most famous characters in literature. The protagonist of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series, she appears in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and two sequels. Then, after his death, David Lagercrantz, in an official capacity, wrote another three novels that featured her.

Lisbeth is a computer hacker with a distinctive look: black-dyed hair, an androgynous style, and pierced eyebrows and nose. She also has several tattoos, including the famous dragon one on her back. She’s known for her photographic memory and her antisocial behaviour. She’s a fascinating mix of both heroine and anti-heroine.

The Millennium books were enormously popular internationally, largely thanks to readers both identifying with and wanting to emulate Lisbeth. It was adapted into a film trilogy in Sweden and a Hollywood film. Later, one of the Lagercrantz sequels became a film as well.

Holden Caulfield

The famous book cover of J. D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye”.
"catcher-in-the-rye-cover" by samhsloan@gmail.com

Holden Caulfield is one of the most famous male characters in American literature. Appearing in numerous writings by J. D. Salinger, he’s best known as the protagonist of The Catcher in the Rye. A disaffected youth, Holden is expelled from a fancy prep school, and subsequently spends two days in Manhattan.

Holden then has a variety of encounters highlighting his quest for emotional truth amidst the adult world’s phoniness. By the end of the novel, he is left exhausted and mentally unwell.

Ever since the 1950s, countless teens have identified with Holden. He’s both a powerful symbol of teen angst and rebellion as well as someone who exposes the hypocrisies of society. By this point, his novels are on so many high school curriculums that the establishment seems to have ironically coopted him. However, in his heart, he’s still an extremely powerful character.

Atticus Finch

Another of the most famous characters in literature is Atticus Finch from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. A kind lawyer, Atticus is known for being a strong anti-racist voice in the Deep South during the 1950s. When Tom Robinson, an African American man is accused of raping a young white woman, he agrees to defend him.

Over the years, Atticus has become famed for standing up for his principles in the face of overwhelming odds. This includes the disapproval of his community. He was portrayed by Gregory Peck in the film, a performance that the American Film Institute dubbed the all-time greatest hero of American film.

Villains in Literature

Iago

Iago is one of the scariest most famous characters in literature. The right-hand man of Othello, the lead character of Shakespeare’s tragedy of the same name, he hates him in secret. While pretending to be his friend, Iago is racist towards Othello, resenting his position in the Venetian army.

Scheming against him, his evil machinations end up convincing Othello that his wife, Desdemona, has cheated on him. In the end, Othello smothers her with a pillow, and upon discovering Iago’s lies, takes his own life.

Iago stands out in the Shakespearean canon as one of the most loathsome villains but also one of the smartest characters. His intelligence and ability to manipulate are as impressive as they are terrifying. He has been the inspiration for countless other ingenious evil fictional characters.

Count Dracula

The entire modern day obsession with vampires likely began with Bram Stoker’s Dracula. On the surface he is a handsome, dashing European aristocrat. Underneath that, however, he’s a horrifying monster with what seems like an endless list of superpowers.

He can transform into various animals, including bats and wolves. Turn himself into smoke. He has psychic powers and the ability to control peoples’ minds. He set the standard for the mysterious, handsome vampire that has echoed throughout literature since. His influence can be felt in places such as Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles, and the Twilight serie.

Miss Havisham

Of Charles Dickens’ countless memorable characters, the most memorable might be Miss Havisham. That’s for her cruel schemes but even more so for her distinctive look. Years earlier, the man she loved had left her waiting at the altar. Since that day, she’d never taken down her wedding decorations or cake, or even taken off her dress.

Years later, she remains in her crumbling dress in a decrepit mansion filled with the decaying remnants of that day. She also schemes to plot her revenge against all men for what that one man did to her. Even people who haven’t read Great Expectations are aware of her. And whenever a new adaptation occurs, there’s always significant excitement around her casting.

The Wicked Witch of the West

The Wicked Witch of the West is a great example of how effective a simple villain can be. The main antagonist of L Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, her motivation is very straightforward. Her sister who was also evil has died, and she wants her magical shoes that a young girl has taken.

Despite that, however, this green-skinned witch has managed to be a menacing figure haunting children’s nightmares for over a century. This is in large part thanks to Margaret Hamilton’s performance of her in the classic MGM film.

Part of the character’s legacy is Wicked—a book and then a musical—that made the witch the protagonist. In this version, she’s a misunderstood outcast, a powerful role reversal that opened the character to new generations.

Final Thoughts

The characters in this article have left an indelible mark on our lives. They have inspired us to be better, challenged us to think deeper, and transported us to worlds beyond our own.

In this article, we’ve explored the classic characters that have stood the test of time. We explored beloved characters of our childhood, and modern characters that speak to present-day experiences. We examined the impact these characters have had on literature and popular culture, and how they continue to influence us.

Thanks to the authors who brought them to life. Their imaginations have given us a glimpse into the human experience. Their characters have become a part of our collective consciousness.

The next time you pick up a book, remember the characters who came before and those who will come after. They are the heart and soul of literature. Their stories will continue to inspire and captivate us for generations to come.

FAQs

Who is considered the most iconic literary character of all time?

Answer: While opinions may vary, many scholars and readers consider characters like Sherlock Holmes, created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, or Hamlet from William Shakespeare’s play to be among the most iconic literary characters in history.

What makes a literary character “famous” or “memorable”?

Answer: Memorable literary characters often possess enduring qualities such as complexity, relatability, and the ability to resonate with readers across different cultures and time . Characters that explore universal themes or undergo significant development tend to leave a lasting impact.

Are famous literary characters limited to classic literature, or are there modern examples as well?

Answer: While many classic characters are widely recognised, modern literature has also produced iconic figures. Characters like Harry Potter from J.K. Rowling’s series or Katniss Everdeen from Suzanne Collins’ “The Hunger Games” have achieved widespread fame in contemporary literature.

Can a villain be considered a famous literary character?

Answer: Absolutely. Villains often play a crucial role in literature, and some of the most famous characters are antagonists. Examples include Count Dracula from Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” or Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Villains contribute to the richness and depth of literary narratives.

How have famous literary characters influenced popular culture?

Answer: Famous literary characters have a profound impact on popular culture, influencing art, film, music, and even language. Characters like Romeo and Juliet, created by Shakespeare, have inspired numerous adaptations, while figures like Jane Eyre or Jay Gatsby have become archetypes shaping the way we perceive and understand human experiences.

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