Top Ten Tuesday: Dynamic Duos

Batman & Robin, Lucy & Ethel:  Stand back.  We got your top ten literary pairs right here...

Lennie & George in Of Mice & Men.  The ultimate literary foils and - perhaps - America's first proletarian tragic hero.

Pi Patel & Richard Parker from Life of Pi.  Could either have made it without the other?  And what were they to each other exactly:  antagonists or two aspects of the same being?  Let the debates begin!

Elinor & Marianne in Sense and Sensibility.  Again, these gently comic foils draw us in.  In this case, perhaps because almost all of us can see some aspect of ourselves in these two sisters.  Same might perhaps be said of Elizabeth and Jane in Pride & Prejudice?  Nah, not really.  Still, they're a wonderful pair as well, no?  Go, sistahs!

Vladimir & Estragon in Waiting for Godot.  I've said it too many times to count now: It's the beauty of the way and the goodness of the wayfarers.  And if you haven't seen Godot performed by actors who get it, you haven't really encountered Godot.  Like The Importance of Being Earnest, it's best taken in as it was intended: as live theater.  So go seek it out.  You'll never forget these tragi-comic frenemies trapped in the limbo that is our human existence.

Algie & Jack in The Importance of Being Earnest.  Two charming cads make deception rather attractive and earnestness not so much... Who'da thunk?  Go rent the Firth/Everett version, or better yet, see a local production.  For this one, as for so many others, live theater is the best way to go!

Lady and Mr. MacBeth.  Bad juju, memorable mayhem.  The very model of the modern dysfunctionally codependent couple?  Out, damn spot! 

Griffin & Sabine from the novel of the same name.  Across years and miles and maybe even dimensions, they somehow "complete each other".  Luckily, not in smarmy sense.  To discover how so, open this interactive visual-verbal text and start puzzling out the mystery...

The Boleyn girls, Mary and Ann.  Again with the memorable foils, no?  And talk about sisters trying to do it for themselves.  But in a patriarchal age, we can only applaud their bravado and lament their fates. (Thanks to my cousin Mo for offering this one!)

Bottom & Quince in A Midsummer Night's Dream.  The clowns, the mechanicals, the buffoon and the micromanager.  Both utterly naive and useless without each other. 

Fred & George Weasley from the Harry Potter series.  Adorable mischief-makers offer comic relief, big-brother reality checks, loyal assistance in times of need, plus dramatic bravado when the going gets toughest.  Go Weasleys!

MFB, and thanks again to The Broke and the Bookish for hosting all these Tuesday blog hops. 
L