In response to The Daily Post’s writing prompt: “Green-Eyed Lady.”
I think anyone who has read Thrice Burned by now knows that even our favourite detective gets jealous.
The truth is that despite her attempts to embrace her introverted nature, Portia manages to surround herself with people worthy of being jealous of.
Annie Coleson for example is a petite gorgeous fashionable blonde who has capture the attention of Brian … Portia’s best friend. Not only that but Annie seems to have this innate quality of making everyone who meets her LOVE her. Who wouldn’t be jealous of such a bundle of happy?
And then there’s Gavin Whitaker, a brilliant medical examiner who has worked his entire life to raise himself up from his poor orphan beginnings with none of the help that Portia has benefited from in her life. Neither the loving mother nor the rich grandmother were in his corner. No, Whitaker is a self-made man who on several occasions will show-up the young detective with his superior skills around death.
Even Portia must beware the green-eyed monster!
I kind of ship Portia and Gavin. I can’t wait to see what happens between them in Book 3.
I am SO not surprised that you ship Portia and Gavin Rami.
What can I say? I like how they verbally and mentally duel with each other. It’s great stuff.
That’s a good way of preventing a character from being a “Mary Sue.” But I’ve noticed that modern casual usage persists in confusing jealousy and envy, which are two different emotions, although they feel similar, and a person can experience them simultaneously. Keeping the two states of mind separate allows authors more options for character development, conflict, and resolution.
This is a good point. I Portia’s reaction would be envy in both cases because she wishes she were more like the object of her envy.
In addition to her envy of Annie and Gavin, I can imagine Portia’s feeling a twinge of jealousy about Brian, depending on the degree of closeness of her friendship with him.
A character who has difficulty riding herd on his or her inner life is highly sympathetic and empathetic. That may be one reason why I like Robert Downey, Jr’s Sherlock much better than all the buttoned-down interpretations of Holmes. The film’s introduction of signs and symptoms of a personality disorder did a lot of good for Doyle’s detective.