Mr. Collins will bloviate about Lady Catherine de Bourgh and things that interest no one, completely incapable of taking a hint that he should shut up.

Elizabeth Elliot will casually dismiss any thought of her middle sister, Anne. “It’s just Anne, she doesn’t matter.” She never once wonders how this might appear to other people–Anne especially, who . . . well, is not only human, but a good human at that, and has feelings. Elizabeth Elliot is above caring about the feelings of others. She’s the daughter of a baronet. She needn’t worry how she comes across to lesser people.

Mary Elliot Musgrove will whine and complain constantly about her illnesses and her slights and what is due her. She is completely self-absorbed. She never ponders whether other topics than herself and what she wants might be nice to talk about.

Notice anything in common?

These three characters are so utterly detestable that they all disgust me. Completely. Elizabeth Elliot is probably the only one of the three who is honestly an evil person at heart.

Nevertheless, they are all awful. You are meant, as the reader, to despise them.

And you do despise them. Because THEY LACK ALL DEGREE OF SELF AWARENESS.

Yes, if you want to make a character whom no one will like, make them utterly unaware of how they come across to others, utterly uncaring about the desires or opinions of others.

You see, every one has flaws and faults. That comes with being human. But, as we grow up, hopefully we develop enough maturity to recognize what our most egregious shortcomings are, try to mitigate them, and honestly apologize for them when we realize we are acting in a way that is inappropriate, foolish, or selfish.

These characters are just painful to read about, because they have no self-awareness of all.

It’s one of Austen’s tropes, I think, writing such characters. And I’m glad she does it. I can’t take such characters in every book I read, but she plays them off so well.

You know Austen understands how despicable these people are. She makes them the butt of her inimitable narratological wit.

Austen’s not expecting you to like them. Characters you feel for, like Elizabeth Bennett and Anne Elliot, don’t like them either. They share in your pain as you have to suffer being in their presence.

Austen has taught me, as a writer, that if there is one way to make sure my readers will hate a character, it’s to make sure that character lacks self-awareness.

You should never expect readers to sympathize with or care about such a character. Period. You’re setting yourself for a failure of a story if you do.

If you liked this point, you might want to check out this post about characterization in Persuasion or this one about characterization, faults, and flaws.

You can also check out my YA sword and sorcery fantasy, now available on Amazon. (KINDLE VERSION IS FREE THROUGH FRIDAY, PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD!)