The phrase "abject character" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe a person or character that is extremely bad, miserable, or lacking in dignity.
Example: "The novel's protagonist was portrayed as an abject character, constantly struggling with his failures and despair."
Alternatives: "wretched character" or "despicable character".
However, its inclusion here, in a kind of limping, inconclusive last act that swipes at trying to rehabilitate its abject main character, does nothing to rescue the preposterous narrative.
You would never catch Edward Cullen, the vampire, creating a media event out of an abject failure of character; as in being away from his kids on Father's Day (a criminal offense), cheating on his wife and evidently not even telling her where he could be reached in an emergency (also a felony), and hooking up in the first place on a "trade visit" to Argentina.
It stares unblinkingly at abject fear, abject denial (one character says she is looking forward to being taken to a lovely place called Treblinka) and devastating compromise.
I first noticed Philip Seymour Hoffman in a big way when I was reviewing movies for this magazine and spotted him — I referred to him as "the scene-stealing Philip Seymour Hoffman" — playing Scotty J., a chubby gofer with an abject crush on Mark Wahlberg's character in Paul Thomas Anderson's 1997 film, "Boogie Nights".
By Daphne Merkin February 5, 2014 I first noticed Philip Seymour Hoffman in a big way when I was reviewing movies for this magazine and spotted him — I referred to him as "the scene-stealing Philip Seymour Hoffman" — playing Scotty J., a chubby gofer with an abject crush on Mark Wahlberg's character in Paul Thomas Anderson's 1997 film, "Boogie Nights".
By far his weakest character is Daisy's abject mother, Angela, who cannot let go of grievances about her brother.
Bringing a whisper of infirmity to Lear at his most confident and a glow of grandeur to the character at his most abject, Mr. Plummer creates a portrait for the ages, drawn in self-consuming fire.
Instead, depression is put down as a quirky side effect, a 'trait' designed to make the character more pitiful or abject.
Instead, it's put down as a quirky side effect, a "trait" designed to make the character more pitiful or abject.
You know what it is you are seeing: utter and abject confusion taking the shape of a TV character.
