In recent days, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has invoked everyone from Gandhi to Gary Cooper in his attempts to describe his plight. But Tribune critics and reporters suggest some more apt characters for comparison:
Category: Music
Character: Don Giovanni, in Mozart’s opera of the same name
Why: Swaggering, grandstanding Don scoffs at moral authority and ignores the warning that he will soon pay dearly for his crimes.
— John von Rhein
Category: Art
Character: Dorian Gray, in “Picture of Dorian Gray,” the famous 1943 painting by Chicago-area artist Ivan Albright
Why: The appearance of the subject in life never changes, but his transgressions register on the portrait.
— Alan G. Artner
Category: Television
Character: Maryland State Sen. Clay Davis, in “The Wire”
Why: Entertainingly over-the-top ego, puts personal enrichment above the needs of his constituents. Also, although he favored a different four-letter word, demonstrated a passionate affinity for profanity.
— Maureen Ryan
Category: Literature
Character: Kurtz, the mysterious character at the center of Joseph Conrad’s novel “Heart of Darkness”
Why: Deep in the Congo jungle, Kurtz set himself up as a god, leading natives on raids to build up a collection of severed skulls. He ends up mad, crawling on all fours, and dies, saying, “The horror! The horror!”
— Patrick T. Reardon
Category: Film
Character: Lenny Cantrow, the ambitious, weaselly sporting goods salesman played by Charles Grodin in the 1972 version of “The Heartbreak Kid”
Why: Because of his blinkered pursuit of the “[expletive] golden” opportunity.
Category: Theater
Character: Ensemble member, “Oh! Calcutta!”
Why: Because he has nothing left to hide behind.
— Michael Phillips
