Perhaps we are fascinated with his contemptible characters because they remind us of ourselves.
Sometimes, people just confirm the saying that "You may know how little God thinks of money by observing on what bad and contemptible characters he often bestows it".
"The Shape of Things," which opens today nationwide, pretends to raise questions about the responsibilities of artists and the corrupting effect of erotic power, but instead erects a straw man (or, more accurately, a straw woman) whose actions are so extreme that the only appropriate response is the sputtering obscenities to which the other, slightly less contemptible characters are reduced.
Fashion has many dark edges, many contemptible characters shuffling through its ranks, and, at the end of the day, you may believe it possesses neither the soul of art nor the spirit of good faith that it is, in effect, the glorification of merchandise.
But Stanton is a marginal figure here and, to most of the other characters, a contemptible one.
Despite the character's bulldozing vulgarity and contemptible bullying, a contradictory human empathy sustains.
And, although LaBute is clearly putting in a plea for the average-looking, morally decent guy like Greg, you feel he does this only by making all the other characters appear, at various times, contemptible.
Mr. Elyot's characters may be ridiculous and even contemptible, on some level, but he doesn't disavow the very real pain they feel.
Of the main characters, only Otho is not morally contemptible.
The character of Madoc is often very insipid and contemptible In short, according to my notion, the character is throughout languidly conceived".
