And so, I continue to read A Face Like Glass, by Frances Hardinge.
Of course it was too much to hope that my teacher wouldn’t make us do blog entries
on a weekly basis, but it seems that’s what we’re doing so prepare yourself for
some characterization.
Neverfell in her chees maker clothing (left), taste tester uniform (top
right), disguised as a Cartographer (center right), and wearing her mask
(bottom right)
The main character of the story is
a girl named Neverfell. She is seen by the other characters as a little nutty,
but the further I read into the book, the more sense she seem to make compared
to the other characters. One of the main things about Neverfell is that she
showed up in Cheese Master Grandible’s tunnels in Caverna around the age of
five with no memory of her past. The reason this is so significant is that it’s
are her motivation for her actions. It’s the itch that one can never scratch
that imperishable feeling of forgetfulness and déjà vu. Neverfell knows she’s
forgetting something and desperately wants to remember. While some may see this
as cliché I think Hardinge handled this trait of Neverfell’s quite well. In
addition to amnesia, Neverfell’s face is different from every other character’s
as it’s like glass and always shows her emotions and motives. This makes it
impossible for her to lie, for the truth of her thoughts will always be shone
in her face which causes her to get mixed into a huge mess. Hardinge dose a
good job making it believable that she has little memory of her past and has
been looked away from Caverna her whole life; Neverfell’s innocent nature and
awestruck reaction when first venturing out into the world are believable things
that I’d expect someone in her situation to do.
One also must examine her “madness”
and tendency to behave in an illogical manner. Neverfell’s fits and moments
irritated me at first as along with her innocence it seemed as though she was
being played as the a fool who would never learn any better that we were just
meant to pity. As she learns more and more about how Caverna works she begins
to lose her innocence and gain more negative feelings and rounds out her personality.
Because of her newfound knowledge, Neverfell starts to become wary of those she
trusts most, while still continuing to be compassionate to others and looking
out for what she sees to be their best interest. Despite her kind nature,
Neverfell is determined to regain her memory, discover the true intentions of
Maxim Childersin, and escape from Caverna to the surface world. When she develops
the desire to help herself, Neverfell truly becomes and interesting character,
since before I saw her as little more than the over caring idiot who happened
to have a touch of madness. Personally I like to see characters that aren’t entirely
sane, since sometimes I don’t feel entirely sane myself. It give me hope that
all people suffer this sort of mental breakdown every now and then when black
and white are gone and all one can see is gray and I’m not mentally sick and
because misery loves company. All in all, I find Neverfell’s character to be
relatable, captivating, and sufficient for pushing forward the plot. Of course
she’s not the only character in the story, and far from being my favorite.
Erstwhile and his unicycle (left), Zouelle
Childersin (center), and Maxim Childersin (right)
Erstwhile the delivery boy is the
one who visits Neverfell and Master Grandible to deliver supplies to the cheese
tunnels in the beginning of the story and often shares stories about what it’s
like outside of the cheese tunnels. Later on he’s one of the few people
Neverfell can turn to once she spills some rare wine at the banquet thingy (I
don’t remember what it was called nor do I desire to look through the book to
find out) and fled with Zouelle. He also helps her when she escapes the
Kleptomancer (a thief) and later on the Childersin. Being one of the lower
class citizens Erstwhile has about (or exactly) five faces to express himself
with until Neverfell teaches him how to make an angry expression by scrunching
his face up like a frog.
For some reason Erstwhile is my
favorite character (right up there with Maxim). Maybe it’s because of his
position in the lower class give him a down-to-earth feeling, and his
frustration with Neverfell continuously getting into so much trouble. Sure he
can be rather prideful, as that was one of the main reasons he had extended
conversations with Neverfell before everything descended into chaos (pride in
the good he carried and having more faces than her as he only saw her mask),
but he also wanted to talk to her because he felt a need to be her friend in her
lonely prison. I don’t normally like a character just because they do something
nice, but when they do something nice despite how hard it is to be nice to
others (especially in this day and time) that’s something relatable and I can
respect or even favor a character for that reason. Now that I think about it,
Erstwhile seems to be the sensible character that’s sure to smack some reason
into others. Too bad he doesn’t have much authority to do so being in the
lowest class in Caverna (or something).
Another reason I like Erstwhile is because
he’s willing to adapt to change. While everyone chides Neverfell for her desire
to teach the whole public new faces to properly express themselves, Erstwhile
does this too but also agrees with her, and even goes as far as asking her to
teach him how to make an angered face as well. A character that can change is a
character that can develop and so long as characters don’t stay the same all throughout
a story I can stay interested in them (most of the time).
Then there’s also Zouelle, the
great, great, great maybe more or less greats niece of Maxim Childersin,
who is also his favorite and most trusted family member and working towards succeeding
him. An Eager young lady, only a few years Neverfell’s senior she rushes into
the game of the court at a very young age and is thrust in to a game of life or
death that depends on manipulating Neverfell for the benefit of her family. A
double edged sword, Zouelle often has a plan for any types of situation and is
incredibly skilled at keeping her composure when in peril. She does
overestimate herself far too often however and can sometimes find herself backed
into a corner without the right face. Her devotion toward her family also makes
her cold to everyone who isn’t family, including Neverfell at first and she
doesn’t deal well with long term loyalty too well due to trust issues from
being a part of the court.
Zouelle however still pulls through
when it counts, finding that she values her friendship with Neverfell more than
succeeding her family business after tricking Neverfell into aiding her and her
uncle with killing the Grand Steward (ruler of Caverna) to take his position.
She is also very good at deception (again something positive and negative) as
she has been able to hide the true nature of her intentions from her uncle once
she betrayed him (so far). I’d like for her character to make it to the end of
the story (Erstwhile too) since she’s such a clever yet, good natured character
who has been a wonderful foil to Neverfell as well as good support.
And Last but not least Maxim Childersin,
the head of his clan and owner of one of the best wine makers in Caverna. He is
Zouelle’s uncle, but treasures all his family dearly, trying to get them the
best of everything and put them in the best position of Caverna. A huge family
man he watches out for his relative though is still wary of those who plot to
overthrow him in his own house, and is even kind enough to take an outsider
like Neverfell into his home. His kindness was that which knew know bounds and
that’s one of the things I enjoyed most about his personality. Neverfell
totally needed someone with as good intentions as her to look out for her and
Maxim seemed to be the person once she left the safety of Grandible’s care. But
the best part about him is how he didn’t stay true to his family nature.
Turns out (if you didn’t pick it up
already) that Maxim is actually the mastermind behind killing the Grand Steward
and only took Neverfell into his care to prevent her from spilling the beans
about some illegal digging to the surface world when she accidentally fell into
his hole as a child. He’s a villain I love that came from such a good place but
twisted his ideals to the point where only those who have any use to himself
and/or are family are valuable. Knowing where he comes form makes him all the
more interesting and understandable a character, as well as making it harder to
root for Neverfell to succeed in killing him (thank goodness I pity the Grand
Steward of I’d be rooting for Maxim all the way). A Villain whit inhuman traits
that is the embodiment of evil and all that is nice when executed well, but villains
who come from understandable positions but are still unpredictable (for real, I
had only the slightest joking suspicion that Maxim was the antagonist, but didn’t
believe it till the book told me so) are the best villains. His deceptive
nature is truly his greatest quality but his greatest flaw as well. It causes
the very people he wants to protect to distrust him and attempt to kill (Zouelle)
him when continent thus making his methods useless (especially since he wants her
to be his successor). But overall, this relatable fox of an antagonist is my
favorite character right up there with Erstwhile.
As much as I’d like to discusses
and draw the other memorable characters in the story (Grandible, Madame
Appeline, the Grand Steward, the Kleptomancer) that would be way too long of a
blog post and you’re probably already bored with my rambling. Speaking of
drawings, I’d like to take this time to say the characters are copyright
Frances Hardinge, but the designs are my own. While they may derivate from the
original descriptions of the character of not match up perfectly, that’s just
how I see the characters in my head and nothing is going to change that fact
(unless the book is made into a movie or a cmix and my eyes are exposed to it).
Thanks for reading to the end.
