You have now met your protagonist. You want to make this character someone your readers will never forget. It is time to think about some characters who have reached that goal with spectacular success. Despite these characters having been written a long time ago, you will have almost certainly heard of them all. Why? What has made them so enduring? That is for you to work out.

Alice in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was written by the British mathematician and author, Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, under the pseudonym of Lewis Carroll. These characters are all stereotypes, in a way - people Alice will confront as she grows. Like most fictional characters, they are extremes in the personality trait they represent. This is a terrific story to analyse in terms of the characters and their purpose. Don't be fooled by thinking Alice is only for kids!

Alice is the heroine of the story. She possesses exceptional composure for a child, growing more confident as the story progresses. Her adventures begin when she follows the White Rabbit down the rabbit-hole. He is known for his a pocket watch.  He is always rushing, always concerned with time.

The mellow Caterpillar gives Alice some valuable advice about how to survive in Wonderland. He smokes a hookah and sits on a mushroom. He gives Alice the valuable gift of the magic mushroom - biting one side makes her bigger, and the other makes her smaller.

When Alice first meets the Duchess, she is a disagreeable woman nursing a baby and arguing with her cook. She is put under sentence of execution, but later Alice notices that the Duchess speaks only in pat morals. The Cook is argumentative, and convinced that pepper is the key ingredient in all food. The Cheshire Cat possesses remarkably sharp claws and teeth, yet is courteous and helpful, despite his frightening appearance. His face is fixed in an eerie grin. He can make any and all parts of his body disappear and reappear.

The Hatter is a madman who has been at his tea party with the March Hare and the (mostly) sleeping Dormouse ever since Time stopped working for him. Alice finds the it to be the stupidest tea party she has ever attended.

The Queen of Hearts is nasty, brutal and loud, delighting in ordering executions which are never carried out. Terrifying her people, Alice eventually grows  to a giant size, therefore being able to stand up to the Queen's temper and her threats.

Alice's sister appears at the beginning and at the end, after Alice wakes up from her strange dream. Her presence lets us know that Alice is back in the real world, safe in her home with her family.

This is not Frankenstein - it is a film version of his creation, the Fiend.

Frankenstein

Victor von Frankenstein is the protagonist of the 1818 novel Frankenstein, written by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

Frankenstein is a young Swiss scientist who becomes obsessed with the idea of creating life. He assembles a human-like creature by stitching together pieces of human corpses. Bringing his monster to life, Frankenstein is repulsed and terrified by his horrifying creation and flees. Abandoned, the monster begins a course of vengeance, killing several of Frankenstein's family and friends.

Frankenstein pursues the creature he calls "Fiend" to the Arctic to destroy it. He ultimately fails. He tells his frightening story to the captain of a ship that has rescued him. Stress, grief, and exposure to the elements eventually lead to his death.

The Fiend, discovering the death of his maker, is overcome by remorse and vows to commit suicide. There the novel ends.

Some film versions portrayed Frankenstein as insane, the mad scientist, but the original novel depicts him more as a tragic character, driven by ambition and scientific curiosity but then unable to deal with the consequences of his actions.

Frankenstein was very clever, very successful, very ambitious, very focussed, sometimes very mad, very sad, and eventually very dead.

Tom Sawyer

Tom Sawyer is the protagonist of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and a character in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

He is a mischievous and lively boy around the age of ten. Hence, as the protagonist, he is the epitome of naughtiness. A famous passage will show you how Mark Twain achieved such memorable character. Tom has been told to whitewash the front fence, a job he hates. Ben is free to do as he wants, passing by the miserable Tom, eating his apple and imitating the steamer Big Missouri.

As Mark twain wrote:

Tom went on whitewashing -- paid no attention to the steamboat. Ben stared a moment and then said: "Hi-yi! You're up a stump, ain't you!"

No answer. Tom surveyed his last touch with the eye of an artist, then he gave his brush another gentle sweep and surveyed the result, as before. Ben ranged up alongside of him. Tom's mouth watered for the apple, but he stuck to his work. Ben said:

"Hello, old chap, you got to work, hey?"

Tom wheeled suddenly and said:

"Why, it's you, Ben! I warn't noticing."

"Say -- I'm going in a-swimming, I am. Don't you wish you could? But of course you'd druther work -- wouldn't you? Course you would!"

Tom contemplated the boy a bit, and said:

"What do you call work?

"Why, ain't that work?"

Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly:

"Well, maybe it is, and maybe it ain't. All I know, is, it suits Tom Sawyer."

"Oh come, now, you don't mean to let on that you like it?"

The brush continued to move.

"Like it? Well, I don't see why I oughtn't to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?"

That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom swept his brush daintily back and forth -- stepped back to note the effect -- added a touch here and there -- criticised the effect again -- Ben watching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more absorbed. Presently he said:

"Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little."

Tom considered, was about to consent; but he altered his mind:

"No -- no -- I reckon it wouldn't hardly do, Ben. You see, Aunt Polly's awful particular about this fence -- right here on the street, you know -- but if it was the back fence I wouldn't mind and she wouldn't. Yes, she's awful particular about this fence; it's got to be done very careful; I reckon there ain't one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can do it the way it's got to be done."

"No -- is that so? Oh come, now -- lemme just try. Only just a little -- I'd let you, if you was me, Tom."

"Ben, I'd like to, honest injun; but Aunt Polly -- well, Jim wanted to do it, but she wouldn't let him; Sid wanted to do it, and she wouldn't let Sid. Now don't you see how I'm fixed? If you was to tackle this fence and anything was to happen to it --"

"Oh, shucks, I'll be just as careful. Now lemme try. Say -- I'll give you the core of my apple."

"Well, here -- No, Ben, now don't. I'm afeard --"

"I'll give you all of it!"

Tom gave up the brush with reluctance in his face, but alacrity in his heart. And while the late steamer Big Missouri worked and sweated in the sun, the retired artist sat on a barrel in the shade close by, dangled his legs, munched his apple, and planned the slaughter of more innocents.

Scrooge

Ebenezer Scrooge is the protagonist in Charles Dickens' 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. He is extraordinarily mean spirited and lonely.

His surname has become a byword for miserliness and misanthropy, traits displayed by Scrooge in the exaggerated manner for which Dickens is well-known. The story of his transformation by the three Ghosts of Christmas (Past, Present and Future) has become a defining tale of Christmas.

Scrooge's phrase, "Bah, humbug!" is used to express disgust with Christmas traditions and other spiritual events.

The inspiration for Charles Dickens' character was from that of the Scot, Ebenezer Lennox Scroggie.

Dickens used gross exaggeration to make his characters the extremes of the traits they represented. You can do this with parody and humour, or by much more subtle means. That's your creative call!

Analyse these characters and how the writers managed to make them so strong. These are extreme cases, but can give you some ideas. Note how many had spoken expressions which distinguished them. Or maybe items like the White Rabbit's watch. Does your protagonist have such distinguishing traits? Maybe they should.

Talk to your protagonist. Ask how you can make him or her more. More honest or more caring or more ambitious or more brilliant or more whatever they are!

Be careful to stay within your genre, though. If you are writing a realistic story, then you can only take your protagonist to the extremes of what can be real. Otherwise your readers will find him or her unbelievable. This is the sign of a great writer - to be able to find that balance.