"Many a Mistake has been made in the Name of Loneliness."

“Many a Mistake has been made in the Name of Loneliness.”

Never a truer word spoken and more so in Fiction writing which is densely populated with the lonely.  It’s a way of getting people to make mistakes and of moving the story forward while garnering the reader’s sympathy.  No one wants to read about an un-lonely person, well, not unless they’re a character in a crime novel and about to be murdered.

My number one all-time favourite and lonely fictional character, who epitomises the above quote, is the lonesome Quoyle, protagonist in the novel The Shipping News by Annie Proulx.  

One night, Quolye meets a woman, the ruinous Petal, in a bar. Thin moist hot. Winked at him.

Followed  by: 

As a hot mouth warms a cold spoon, Petal warmed Quoyle. He stumbled away from his rented trailer, his mess of dirty laundry and empty ravioli cans, to painful love, his heart scarred forever by tattoo needles pricking the name of Petal Bear.

                There was a month of fiery happiness. Then six kinked years of suffering.

Do you have a favourite fictional character whose life is blighted by loneliness?