Mary Wilkins-Freeman's Luella Miller

Emotional Memorability: Feelings We Develop Towards Characters Whether it is music, film, or a piece of writing, works such as these are meant to elicit some form of a reaction from an audience. To some extent, the ability to evoke a notable emotional response is one of the most gratifying characteristics a writer or director can give to a character. An audience ultimately remembers a character or a work because of how they were pushed to feel towards a character within a work. The ways in which an individual character both interacts with others and how he or she is portrayed directly reveals the character’s own scope of morality and his or her genuine personality, which is key in prompting an emotional reaction from an audience. Thus, due

Initially, the presentation of Luella Miller as a haughty character pushes an audience to feel far less compassionate towards Luella Miller than they might towards Lydia Anderson, who voices the majority of the tale and appears to see right through Luella’s true self. Luella is depicted as a manipulative being, draining the life from her husband, her sister in-law, her aunt, Maria Brown, her own doctor, and initially only partially from Lydia Anderson. Through Lydia Anderson’s description of the eponymous character, stating, “There was somethin’ awful about the way she looked at me and never spoke one word” (184), an audience member is inclined to feel predominantly repulsive toward Luella Miller. However, as all those who were close to Luella either pass away or strictly stay away from her, Luella begins to die, and an audience is inclined to feel slightly, perhaps subconsciously, sympathetic or at least understanding towards Luella because they are able to recognize that she is fundamentally a vampire. Regardless of Luella’s intentions, it is clear that she is a ‘bad’ character with a low scope of morality. Along with a better understanding of Luella’s character remain an audience’s initial emotions of disapproval towards Luella’s actions, and altogether this creates

As the title of the film establishes, Harry Potter is the main character within the story. However, another notable character who remains relevant throughout the conclusion of the series by means of the 8th film is none other than Remus Lupin, who, as Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban reveals, is a lycanthrope as well as a new professor at Hogwarts. In the first few scenes of the film that include Professor Lupin, the audience is given substantial information to assume that Professor Lupin is a ‘good’ character. For example, he serves an important mentor for Harry Potter throughout the film, helping Harry overcome his intense reaction to the dementors. However, the scene later in the film during which Lupin undergoes a transformation intentionally triggers feelings of panic and fear among its audience as the moon rises and the audience realizes that Lupin is now dangerous and a ‘bad’ character and is no longer associated with his true identity (1:39:27-1:40:23), contradicting the preliminary traits that identified Lupin as a ‘good’ character. Thus, the audience develops a complex mixture of positively-oriented emotions toward Professor Lupin’s