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Character analysis - Unreliable Narrators

If you've read any of my stories then you'll know that I love a good unreliable narrator and By The Firelight is no exception. The thing is, though, each part of BTFL has an unreliable narrator for different reasons.

Hawke – So she's obviously got a lot of problems going on, but she doesn't want the reader to know. She's in blatant denial of a lot of things (her feelings towards Varric, what actually happened during the friends with benefits, what happened with Siv and her mental health problems) and so she exaggerates, omits details and even makes some things up. She'd much rather be seen as a bitch than for the reader to realise she has feelings for Varric or that she's struggling with mental health problems and has been for quite a while. Instead, she'd much rather use Hugh as a scapegoat, change the conversation completely or blatantly lie, rather than face her problems.

This wasn't what she'd planned. Feelings were NOT supposed to be involved. No, no feelings. Not that her feelings were involved. Not at all. And Maker knows Varric could never fall for a shit like her.

Hawke mumbled. “I always mean to come [on a night] out.” “What's stopping you?” She shrugged, almost tempted to tell the truth. Whatever that was.

“I don't know about you,” Varric sighed, “but it really hurt to lose my best friend.” “Oh, I have plenty of best friends.”

If she's trying to hide it because of the stigma attached to mental health problems, the fear of the people around her finding out, the fear of being seen as weak or being scared that once she acknowledged it, it'll start to change things (but spoiler alert, it already has)... but whatever it is, I'll leave that for you to decide.

Varric – Poor guy, he goes through a lot throughout this story, so it makes sense that his emotions would cloud his judgement. Going by the chronological order of the story, he goes from being ecstatic during the friends with benefits, crushed when Hawke runs away, growing more and more bitter as the story progresses, his negative view of Hawke colouring how he describes her and therefore how the reader sees her. He also uses alcohol to cope with his emotions, but he's in denial about how much he actually drinks to cope with this.

She cast an eye towards the almost empty bottle of whiskey Varric had been nursing. Sure, he'd been drinking for hours now, but he wasn't drunk. Not like Hawke.

He made his way too his feet with a little more difficulty than expected, the room spinning as he stepped into the disco lights, making his way to the dance floor. Shit, was he really that drunk?

He also spends a lot of time in denial about his feelings towards Hawke. Unlike Hawke, though, he isn't actively denying these feelings and purposely lying to the reader or himself. For a lot of the story he just hadn't even considered that he could fall in love with her.

Even so, she was a sight to behold. That same part of him wished he could tell her that... but this was Hawke. Hawke. She probably already knew how beautiful she was anyway.

The way her eyebrows would furrow when she was thinking deeply about something was definitely... something.

As the story goes on and he becomes more bitter (for good reason, mind you) he becomes tormented by his feelings for her, wishing she could stop having control over him and his feelings.

Special. She'd already proven herself undeserving of the word, not that that could stop him thinking it. No, those two horrible people deserved each other and they could go be shits far, far away from him.

Also, it's worth noting that because Hawke never told Varric about Siv, he had no idea she existed, hence why she was only mentioned in Isabela's part.

Isabela – As the neutral party, she has the best view of what actually happened between the two, being a confidante of them both and someone not affected by their emotions and not really bothered about how the reader sees her. She knows who she is and she isn't afraid of people judging her harshly (which is pretty much the opposite of Hawke). She's only really bothered about helping her friends, even if that means giving Hawke a firm kick up the arse.

“Not to impose on a peaceful moment,” She butted in before Hawke could take another draw, “but you do realise that you fucked up?” Isabela pushed. Hawke sighed and put an arm over her eyes without even opening them. “Yes, Isabela. I know I fucked up. Happy now?” “See, I don't think you're quite getting it. You really fucked up, Hawke.” “I know.” She grumbled. “Well, I'm going to make sure that you know it.”

She's limited by her knowledge of what actually happened though, especially from Hawke's point of view and so she sometimes has to piece things together herself, not always understanding 100%. She's smart though, and since she's a bit of a busybody, she's no stranger to other people's problems.

Varric's face softened in slight surprise, but it was hard to tell what he was thinking right now. Hopefully not too about how much he hated her. But it would be understandable if he was.

And she does know minimal detail about Siv. Unlike Varric, she's more likely to push for information out of someone if she thinks it'll help them and that's what happened one night (I'm planning for the scene to be in Whirlwind Nights, so look out for it!)

That was probably a quote from Siv. Or Carver. Or maybe even her Mother. Shit, it was hard keeping track on all the people Hawke had disappointed.

She also uses a lot of sarcasm to get her point across (which doesn't make her unreliable but I just love anyway!)

The smell of weed bombarded her nostrils the moment the door opened. How lovely.

So I hope you've enjoyed my character analysis as much as I have writing it! If you have any questions about my story, feel free to send me an ask (because it's so bloody complex that even I have problems understanding it all!)

Thank you so much for reading!

#hd&wn #A's writing stuff #heatwave days and whirlwind nights #characterization #character analysis #btfl #hd&wn analysis

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