INKHEART

Characters
In Inkheart, the author introduces diverse characters that interact with
each other to discover a magic secret not only about Mo Folchart but also about
his daughter Meggie; who has to fight against Capricorn to whom Mo brought to
life by reading him aloud from the book Inkheart. These three characters are the
main ones: Mo Folchart, a good father, always willing to protect his daughter
from the evilest people; Meggie, a little girl who loves books so much as her
father, and Capricorn, an evil and a dark man who wants Mo to bring The
Shadow which is even darker than him.

“Meggie Folchart”
Meggie is a tall and slim 12 years old girl who has got light blonde hair
and blue eyes. People think she looks like her mother Teresa. She is also a
beautiful young girl who typically dresses in rather plain clothing and shoes and
does not focus on her appearance.

"How old is she now?" Dustfinger smiled at her. It was a strange smile.
Meggie couldn't decide whether it was mocking, supercilious, or just
awkward. She didn't smile back. "Twelve," said Mo. "Twelve? My word!"
Dustfinger pushed his dripping hair back from his forehead. (Chapter 1,
pp.7)

One of the main characters of this novel, Meggie, who comes from a
bookworm family, spends all her time reading books which means that she
sleeps with a book under her pillow at night. In addition, Meggie’s love for books
has been inherited from her father Mo who lives with her in a house that is
literally filled with books.

“The book she had been reading was under her pillow, pressing its cover
against her ear as if to lure her back into its printed pages. I'm sure it must
be very comfortable sleeping with a hard, rectangular thing like that under
your head," her father had teased the first time he found a book under her
pillow. "Go on, admit it, the book whispers its story to you at night."
(Chapter 1, pp.5)

“The books in Mo and Meggie's house were stacked under tables, on

chairs, in the corners of the rooms. There were books in the kitchen and
books in the lavatory. Books on the TV set and in the closet, small piles of
books, tall piles of books, books thick and thin, books old and new. They
welcomed Meggie down to breakfast with invitingly opened pages; they
kept boredom at bay when the weather was bad. And sometimes you fell
over them.” (Chapter 1, pp.6)

As for family’s relationship, Meggie is strongly attached to her father Mo.

It means, every time the girl is away from her father, she feels distressed as if
she did not even know how to overcome her fears by herself. In the following
quote, for example, we can perceive Meggie’s desperation after her father was
kidnapped by Capricorn’s men:

“Meggie didn't sleep in her own bed that night. […] Mo's quilt was cold
when she crept under it, and the pillow didn't yet smell of him either, only
of laundry detergent. Meggie put her hand under the pillow. Yes, there it
was: not a book, a photograph. Meggie drew it out. It was a picture of her
mother; Mo always kept it under his pillow. When she was little she
believed that Mo had simply invented a mother for her one day because
he thought she'd have liked to have one. He told wonderful stories about
her. "Did I like her?" Meggie always asked. "Yes, very much." […]

But now he was gone, and she was alone with Elinor, and Elinor's pebble
eyes.”(Chapter 9, pp.47)

Meggie’s behaviour is pretty stubborn since she really needs to know the
circumstances of what is happening around her. For example, in chapter 3
Dustfinger asks Mo for a ride south, Meggie gets angry because she wants to
discover the truth about her father and the book Inkheart. She leaves the van
and refuses to get back in until Mo tells her what she needs to know.

"I want to know what's going on!" cried Meggie."I want to know why we
had to get up at five o'clock and why I don't have to go to school. I want to
know if we're ever coming back, and I want to know who this Capricorn
is!" (Chapter 3, pp.17)

The fact that Meggie is rude, and also smart and determined, means that
she is not perfect which could allow some readers to identify with her. Indeed,
this is one of the great aspects of Meggie as a character. She is not a helpless
little girl as she has the courage and qualities that enable her to save her friends
and family but at the end of the book, she also becomes the hero of her own
story.
“Mortimer Folchart”
Mortimer “Mo” Folchart, also known as Silvertongue, is a bookbinder who
has the ability to bring fictional characters out from books by reading them
aloud. Regarding his physical appearance, it is not clearly described in the
story. However, in some lines through the story we discover that Mo is actually
a tall, burly man of maybe forty years old who has got dark hair. In fact, in
chapter 43, in Capricorn’s village Dustfinger has a conversation with Resa who
ask him about Mo´s appearance:

“"What does Silvertongue look like? I think you've asked me before. Well,
he isn't scarred like me." He tried to smile, but Resa remained grave. The
candlelight flickered on her face. You know his face better than you know
mine, thought Dustfinger, but I'm not going to say so. He's taken a whole
world from me, why shouldn't I take his wife from him? Rising to her feet,
she put her hand in the air above her head. "Yes, he's tall. Taller than you,
taller than me." Why didn't he lie to her? "Yes, he has dark hair, but I don't
want to talk about him now!" He heard the petulance in his own voice.
"Please!" (Chapter 43, pp.219)

Nevertheless, according to a research on the website wikivisually.com,

Funke states that she wrote the character of Mo with Brendan Fraser in mind.
As you know, Fraser plays Mo in the Inkheart movie version, so in this point, we
can say exactly how Mo Folchart looks like.

As for Mortimer’s emotional aspect we can consider him as a

compassionate man so when he brought Dustfinger to life, Mo felt guilty about it
which is very impressive considering how much troubles Distfinger has caused
in Mo’s life. The following quote describes that moment when Mo realizes what
Dustfinger felt about t.

“Mo sighed. "He broke into pieces only a few days later when a heavy
truck drove past the house. Obviously, very few creatures move easily
from one world to another. We both know what fun it can be to get right
into a book and live there for a while, but falling out of a story and
suddenly finding yourself in this world doesn't seem to be much fun at all.
It broke Dustfinger's heart."(Chapter 16, pp.80)

Furthermore, Mo is a clever man but despite this attribute, his feelings

could not be hidden by him, which allow other to realize what is on his head.
Here is what Dustfinger thinks about him

“Why? What could have made Silvertongue look so guilty? Dustfinger

glanced suspiciously around without knowing quite what he was looking
for. Silvertongue's face always showed his feelings; he was an open book,
which any stranger could read. His daughter was different. It wasn't so
easy to make out what was going on in her mind. But now, as she came
toward him, Dustfinger thought he saw something like concern in her
eyes, perhaps even pity. . . . What had that writer fellow said to make the
girl look at him like that?” (Chapter 26, pp.145)

Mo obviously really cares about his daughter Meggie since his first
thought is usually how to keep her safe. This turns difficult when you have got
an evil man, Capricorn, running around. For instance, when Basta and his men
break into Elinor’s house to fetch Mo and the book, he warns them of leaving
Meggie alone.

"No!" Mo snapped at him. "My daughter stays here or I won't give you the
book!" One of the men laughed. "Oh yes, Silvertongue, you'd give it to us
all right, but don't worry. We weren't told to bring her. A child would just
slow us down, and Capricorn's been waiting for you long enough already.
So where's that book?" Meggie pressed her ear against the wall so hard
that it hurt.” (Chapter 6, pp.41)

Another point to take into account is the fact that as the story is
developed, we do not know nothing about Mo’s family. We only know that he
has large families in Europe.

"Is this aunt as peculiar as the others?" was all she said. Mo had already
taken her to visit various relations. Both he and Meggie's mother had
large families whose homes, so far as Meggie could see, were scattered
over half of Europe.” (Chapter 2, pp.12)
Mo is a loving father and husband who will stop everything that goes against his
family.
“Capricorn”
“Capricorn's dressing gown was red, too. He was seated in an armchair
when Basta entered the room with the three new arrivals, and a woman
was kneeling in front of him cutting his toenails. The chair seemed too
small for him. Capricorn was a tall man, and gaunt, as if the skin had been
stretched too tight over his bones. His skin was pale as parchment, his
hair cut short and bristly. Meggie couldn't have said if it was gray or very
fair.”(Chapter 14, pp.70)

Capricorn is a cruel villain who is brought to life from the book Inkheart by
Mortimer. Since then, he tried to fetch Mo, who he calls Silvertongue, to bring
the Shadow to life from the same book which Capricorn comes from. He sets in
an old village located in Liguria, a place in Italy.

Capricorn’s personality is not only about of a villain, since he is extremely

cruel, ruthless, manipulative, sadistic and heartless, but also about a soft side
which belongs to his mother Mortola to whom he trusted the book Inkheart.
Returning to the main idea, he does not have a code of honour as he is always
ready to cheat to win. But, contrary to this he is also a coward man who prefers
to use his minions in battle. Here there is a description about Capricorn and The
Shadow made by Fenoglio, who was recalling a passage of his book Inkheart:

"They say," He continued at last, "that Capricorn had the Shadow made
from his victims' ashes by a troll, or the dwarves who know all that fire
and smoke can do. No one was certain, for it was said that Capricorn had
those who had brought the Shadow to life killed afterward. But everyone
knew one thing: The Shadow was immortal and invulnerable and as
pitiless as his master." (Chapter 40, pp.205

Another point to take into account is the fact that Capricorn has a
fascination for the colour red. The Church in the village which he uses as a sort
of headquarter is entirely red. So it could be associated with blood.
“It was dim and chilly inside the church. The morning light made its way
in only through a few windows, painting pale patches high up on the walls
and columns. No doubt these had once been gray like the flagstones on
the floor, but now there was only one color in Capricorn's church.
Everything was red. The walls, the columns, even the ceiling, were
vermilion, the color of raw meat or dried blood. For a moment, Meggie felt
as if she had stepped into the belly of some monster.” (Chapter 17, pp.86)

Capricorn loves to be in power and he is also greedy since the first thing
he makes Mo read out of a book is gold. Capricorn’s greed is not only for
money but also for knowledge since he does not want his men to learn to read
because Capricorn thinks they are stupid and he despises them.

“They make excellent and deadly presents. No, Silvertongue, all I want
today as a test of your skill is gold. I have such an appetite for money! My
men do their best to squeeze all that can be squeezed out of this part of
the country." At these words from Capricorn, Basta lovingly stroked his
knife. "But it's never enough for all the wonderful things that can be
bought in this infinitely wide world of yours. A world of so many pages,
Silvertongue, so very many pages, and I want to write my name on every
one of them p." (Chapter17, pp.93)

In the end, Capricorn is killed by the Shadow, his men scattered and his
empire fallen. Nevertheless, all the damage he has caused such as lost lives
still remains.