What makes you feel sorry for someone?

Question

Would like to write sympathic character that everyone can relate to his sorrow. So can ya help me. Thanks for your time and posts.

Answer 1

I feel sorry for a person who is truly good, but is misunderstood and unable to communicate her good will.
Yeah, I feel sorry for me.

Answer 2

I feel sorry for a lot of people. 1 People that are taken advantage of without knowing it - as in a older person with not a lot of $$ that gets taken for a few extra hundred bucks at the auto repair shop. 2 People that get rejected when they think they have a chance at something - example on American Idol the people that can't sing and when they are told that it is like seeing someone lose everything they have ever wanted, another is seeing a guy/girl get rejected when asking someone out. here are just a few examples...

I also feel sorry for Older people (40+) that have never been married, people that don't have any friends, people that think they can dance/sing and are very bad but people are just nice to them and they think they are good... etc

Answer 3

Most people will sympathize with a character who has made them feel something (love, pity, sadness, etc.). In order to do that you need to develop a character that makes you feel something. Even a bad guy can evoke sympathy from readers. Take Ocean's Eleven, (Sorry to reference a movie, but most people have seen it.) don't you feel sorry for and relate to George Clooney's character when you find out he is still in love with his ex-wife. Even though he is a thief (bad guy), you cheer him on, and want him to succeed. Why? Because the writer is sympathetic to the character and wants the him to succeed.

Answer 4

As ornery as this answer is going to seem, I am 100% sincere:

I feel sorry for anyone who:

1. Swallows the current PC crap in our society today.

2. Who only vote only according to their pocket books or to follow the party line. (Democrat OR Republican)

3. Who believe every single word spewed from the mouths of today's liberal media.

4. I feel sorry for people who are easily led by politicians, the media or marketing techniques because they have no critical thinking skills.

5. I feel sorry for any victim of any crime when the perpetrator is either released, given too light sentencing or gets off all together.

6. I feel sorry for the head of a household who is charged with murder while defending his own home and family.

7. I feel sorry for the millions of children slaughtered each year in this country while undergoing a "medical" procedure.

8. I feel sorry for the atheist, because he has no hope for anything outside of his lowly, empty and solitary existence in which to believe in.

9. I feel sorry for the millions of people who honestly believe that being "given" a higher minimum wage will improve their lot in life. (can anyone say "Lay-off" or "inflated prices?")

10. I feel very sorry for all of the people around the world who wish that they could have 1/100th of the blessings in this country that we Americans take for granted.

Answer 5

Don't forget that sorrow and pity get boring and tiresome for a reader to have to deal with page after page. They'd go from sympathy to disgust if the character didn't evolve. People generally cheer the underdog, not the cry baby.

Answer 6

For me it to see someone try and fail. Someone that has not done anything wrong but due other circumstances they are hit with over mounting hurdles.
Ex: A not so bright student that studies hard, enters a contest and is rejected or humiliated. A girl who enters a beauty contest and others make fun of her. A man that works hard, truly cares for his wife and family and illness takes him or a family member, or someone destroys his business.
I guess it would be almost the opposite of what makes you feel proud for someone. It is that edge of success or failure.
Good luck.

Answer 7

Compassion is what makes us feel sorry for someone.

There's an old proverb that might help give you inspiration:

As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool returns to his folly.

If you've ever been around a dog that gets sick, you see him wretch, and barf... then he walks away from it... and then he comes back and eats his own puke. That's how people are when they go back to doing things that they shouldn't do.

So a sympathetic character is someone who is basically good, but has one, self-damaging habit or flaw, that other people can see.... that he always returns to.

Like someone who is hooked on porn.... rather than spending time with people he loves... he'd rather drive them off so he can be alone with his pictures... It's tragic to see... real people are so much more fulfilling than porn... but your sympathetic hero doesn't see it, and he lets porn ruin his relationships, and drive away the people who love him.

You can see it coming - you can see how he can avoid it... but your sympathetic character is blind to it....

Answer 8

Lack of education or lack of the motivation to take advantage of free education basics. I feel sorry for anyone who graduates from high school who can't write a letter without spelling and grammar errors. I also feel sorry for those who are willing to learn, but are inhibited by society because of their inability to "fit in".

Answer 9

I feel sorry when I can relate to someone because I've experienced what they are going through, when they are not valuing their worth by settling for less, giving up on their dreams because of disappointments or feel otherwise defeated.

Answer 10

1. someone who has bee systematically abused as a child, but managed to overcome extreme psychological damage gets my sympathy immediately (although I can't say I have ever been abused)

2. someone who has grown up in a very poor household and been deprived of childhood pleasure-things that most of us take for granted

3. a naive-like and extremely kind-hearted person who is taken advantaged of by almost everyone he or she meets (like Forrest Gump only not that retarded)

Answer 11

when someone who has such a good heart and personality and when everything goes wrong in there life, they try to accomplish there goals but something always gets in the way, life is an obstacle course, but shouldn't be too too much on one, well hope this somewhat helps :o)