Plot and Character Creation, Research Paper Example

Analysis of Paul Sheldon in Stephen King’s Misery

When the reader is first introduced to Paul Sheldon, he is lost in the pain of a recent car accident and unaware of his surroundings.  Through the use of flashbacks, we learn that Sheldon is a popular author who writes a series of romance novels featuring a heroine named Misery Chastain.  Sheldon had recently completed his latest novel–a literary tale utterly unlike the romance novels which have made him famous–when he was involved in the car accident that landed him in the clutches of his “number one fan” (King, 1988, pg. 6), Annie Wilkes.

King initially presents Sheldon as a fairly self-involved man with few friends who is consumed with the critical reaction to his popular novels.  He sees his Misery series as less-than-worthy, the work of a “hack” (King, 1988, pg. 286) and judges his writing abilities by the same standards.  Annie, an unstable ex-nurse, has not informed anyone that she has the injured author in her spare bedroom, instead choosing to nurse him back to health herself.  She reads his latest novel and is disgusted with his efforts–these same efforts that were so important to Sheldon.  In her role as reader, fan, and critic, she forces Sheldon to burn his literary work, causing Sheldon to think “that [Annie] would do that to him–that she could,when he had spent most of his adult life thinking the word writer was the most important definition of himself–made her seem monstrous, something he must escape.  […]  If she didn’t kill him, she might kill what was in him” (King, 1988, pg. 29).  This, effectively marks the destruction of his old, self-involved persona.  His problems with Annie are compounded when she reads his latest Misery Chastain novel and discovers he has killed off the heroine.  After torturing him at length, Annie forces Sheldon to write a new Misery novel.  In order to survive, he must channel the writerly abilities which so define him, ironically writing what might be his best novel.  He must finally admit his own shortcomings to himself, recognizing that his “self-image as a Serious Writer” (King, 1988, pg. 286) has distracted him all along from what he loves the most:  writing for the sake of it.  The act of writing gives Sheldon the confidence and strength to fight his captor, ultimately driving him to murder Annie Wilkes and thus gain both his freedom and a new approach to creativity.

References

King, S. (1988). Misery. New York, NY:  Signet.