Monday Motivation: Getting the measure of your man

 In Monday Motivation

One of your chief concerns as you write your story is to show what sort of man your protagonist is.  One excellent way of doing this is to confront him with alternatives. The choices he makes will tell us what sort of man (or woman, or mouse, or robot) he is.

When Satan approaches Christ in the wilderness, he offers him dominion over the world:  “… The devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. All this I will give you,’ he said, ‘if you will bow down and worship me.'”

Christ refuses.

When Mephistopheles approaches Faust, he offers him wisdom (and riches, and women, and fame), in return for his immortal soul.

Faust accepts.

These choices tell us everything we need to know about the characters being tested.

Macaulay had a great idea for showing character. “The measure of a man’s real character is what he would do if he knew he would never be found out.”

That’s a real moral test – and it applies as much to the schoolboy facing a shelf of chocolates when the proprietor has popped out of the store, as it does to the Cabinet Minister offered an untraceable cash bribe.

It’s the test that a South African moral philosopher used to pose to his philosophy students. “Imagine,” he said, “that you’re hiking through the bush. Your track takes you close to a road where a vehicle has stopped. You observe a man concealing something in a tree. After the man has returned to his car and made off, you check out the tree. In a hollow within it, you find a bag full of cash – and a plastic packet filled with a white powder. What do you do?”

There are moral implications to any choice you might make under these circumstances. It’s such a fine test that we’ve used this scenario in our workshops as a handy exploration of character.

So: test your protagonist with secret temptations and so reveal his true character.

Happy writing,

Richard

 

Upcoming courses

Weekend Retreat, Temenos, McGregor – 24 to 26 March

Creative Saturday, Muizenberg, Cape Town – 1 April

30-Day Writing Workout, online – 2 to 31 May

Click here for a complete list of our 2017 courses

Click here for all our latest blogs: Monday Motivations, Author Q&As, Writing Competitions and Newsletters
Recommended Posts

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Contact Us

We're not around right now. But you can send us an email and we'll get back to you, asap.

Not readable? Change text. captcha txt
0