Similar Products - Misery Characters

Paul Sheldon:

Paul Sheldon is a famous author of a series of books known as "misery", which is about a girl and her life. He returns to the very same "silver creek lodge" in western Colorado in order to write the drafts of his book, therefore promoting himself as very superstitious in terms of sticking to a routine/ritual in the hope that his books will be successful. However when he attempts to begin another novel, of which is not from the misery selection things begin to change and he becomes very unlucky and is a victim of a dangerous car accident as a result of bad weather, then is his luck gradually gets from bad to worse when his "number 1 fan" saves him and keeps him hostage.
Paul's morality and ethics shown are generally to be "making the best out of a bad situation", where he compliments, obeys and abides by the rules set out by Annie, this is a result of his fear of what could happen.. from the pills she gives him to the abusive behaviour she provides. He aims to find a way out of his situation through the easiest way possible, however he is fairly naive at the beginning to believe her "nice" ways and that she will look out for him.. this changes when he realises she is no longer a nurse at the hospital due to a series of killings that occurred.

I think Paul is a genuine person to whom is desperate to get home from the bad situation that he finds himself in, he is very scared but stays calm throughout as he knows that is only way to survive. As he is attempting to begin another book, it shows that Paul is experimental and willing to try something new, however this is rejected by Annie and her love for Misery therefore he is persuaded to "bring Misery back to life".
The way in which Paul went about surviving was what helped him to get out of there, although i feel that he should've been a great deal more careful when hiding & disguising his plans.. such as the knife in which she found and he was painfully punished for as she broke his ankles.

Annie Wilkes:

Annie Wilkes is an ex-nurse, living her on her own and the number one fan of Paul Sheldon's series of books "Misery", she is a very controlling, condescending and abusive person that knows exactly what she wants and will go to any cost in order to get it. Over the course of the story we see Annie in different lights, firstly as a caring nurse that saved Paul's life, however over time this changes as she becomes angry and aggressive towards him and orders him to re-write and bring back to life Misery. Her obsession with the character and Paul means that she will do anything to get what she wants, which is proven at the end when she attempts to kill him and herself.
I don't think that she has many strong morals and ethics except her passion for the books and to do anything in order to get what she wants making her a very independent yet selfish individual. She does not take into account the consequences of her serious actions and is also very naive to what could happen and will happen.

In my opinion I think that Annie has "mental issues" in terms of giving both physical and psychological harm to Paul, particularly in shooting a random person (police officer) and by being able to tie Paul up, putting a block between his legs and using a large hammer to break his ankles to stop him from getting away.
i believe if Annie had been given severe help from the outside world previous to this then it would've possibly prevented all of this.. however i also think that Annie doesn't see that she needs this help and therefore without that help cannot be made.

Similar Products - protagonist VS antagonist

All films use various types of characters and plot however in every story there is a protagonist and an antagonist character, these are generally main characters within the film.

Protagonist:

A protagonist character is generally the “main character“ of a film in which may be the hero, the villain or even the bystander. It is the person to whom the film is evolved around, in which the story is about. One example of a protagonist would be Paul Sheldon (James Caan) in Misery as he is the character to whom everyone is looking for but is captured by the antagonist character. We know that Paul is the protagonist because he is shown to be the main character in which the audience revolve around this is done by following his career at the beginning, the accident occurrence, being held against his will, trying to escape and finally dealing with his “problem”.

Another example of the protagonist character within thriller may be Liam Neeson in Taken as he must try to save his daughter from being trafficked in Europe; he is the protagonist character generally because he is the main character to whom the storyline follows, particularly in terms of getting revenge.

Antagonist:

An antagonist character is the opposite of the protagonist, in the way that they provide obstacles for them, for example the protagonist could be a criminal making the antagonist possibly a police officer. There can be more than one antagonist meaning that it varies however with thriller there is generally just the one, such as; misery Annie Wilks is the antagonist preventing Paul from escaping and living his life freely.

Also an example of the antagonist character may be Malorie Cobb in inception as she constantly aims to prevent Dom from living his life and being with his children, but also within the dreams she becomes an important element to trying to “ruin” the occurrence of the dreams/project/inception.

Similar Products - Character Analysis 1

Taken - Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson)
Plot:
Bryan is an ex-CIA agent who retired in order to build upon his relationship with his daughter Kim although after her 17th birthday she goes travelling with a friend after being given "forced" permission from Bryan from extensive pressure given by his ex-wife Lenore. Whilst in Paris Kim is kidnapped in order to be trafficked by an Albanian pimp, but just before she notices people in her house and phones her father to help, he hears the entire kidnapping. He must then try to figure out how to get his daughter back...

Bryan Mills: - Retired CIA officer, highly trained
                   - Father of Kim (Maggie Grace)
                   - Divorcee of Lenore (Famke Janssen)

The clip above shows Bryan on the phone to his daughter's kidnappers as he threatens them, I feel that it shows him personally as determined, angry and protective of his family.

From the beginning of the film we see Bryan visiting his daughter on her 17th birthday as he brings her an expensive karaoke set knowing that since she was little she wanted to be a singer, however he is "down-staged" by her step-dad who buys her a horse, this shows Bryan to be not as lucrative and slightly unable to treat his daughter as well as others.
We then see him being fairly resistant to letting his daughter go travelling with her friend due to knowledge and therefore fear of what could happen, however his ex-wife, Lenore, persists on letting her "live her life". By this Bryan then is shown to be fairly persuasive with his decisions although still very protecting as he insists on Kim keeping constant contact with him throughout the trip.
Next we see Kim phoning her dad as she knows there are people in her apartment, but then with Bryan previous knowledge of working with the CIA he must tell her to let them take her and shout out as many physical details as possible for him to hear. By this I feel that it shows him to be prepared for sacrifice if it means he can succeed and get his daughter back as quickly and safely as possible.

As Bryan searched France and Europe for his daughter Kim we see him fighting for her at fast pace, as he pushed himself to reach his "aim" ... his determination shows to get back his daughter before it's too late. Until eventually his high skill from the CIA helps him to find her traffickers.. soon to be punished for it.

From this clip we learn that Bryan is a very clever man and will not be patronised or condisended in anyway at all, this is good for his values as it displays himself to be a man who is in control of the situation whether it is bad or good and also that he won't take any "nonsense" from anyone. This "in control" image that is portrayed shows a side of Byran that makes him dominant in many if not all aspects of his life such as protecting his daughter (being the situation he deals with in this film).