Sunday, 2 October 2011

The Character Jonathan

Jonathan is important to the plot of Scholarship, he was a close friend of Pip.  However, in real life Jonathan did not exist, he is actually a composite of three boys.

Mostly Jonathan is R.  R had a great nickname, he was one of a large number of brothers from a Catholic family, so shared some of the guilt that Catholicism seems to thrive on.  That he trained to be a priest did not surprise me, nor that he decided that priesthood was not really for him, also did not surprise me.  I see he now works abroad, no doubt supported by his faith.

Jonathan also has a chunk of S in him.  S was up for anything.  He was the naughtiest boy in the school but only because that is what people thought he was.  He never did anything terrible, just a bit of a mischief but his name was often called out at assembly, and that meant big trouble for him.  Even then, S was good looking with short very blonde hair and a permanent suntan.  I saw him some years later, walking down the other side of the street.  I wish I had plucked up the courage to speak to him, but he was with another boy from school, so I did not as they looked like they might be an item.

Jonathan also had a bit of C in him.  C was another natural mischief, very high spirited and adventurous, often in trouble.  His father was a famous expert and used to appear on TV ever so often.  I thought C would go on to do something similar, but there is no sign of him since we went to different schools.

No comments:

Post a Comment