Enca,
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The seemingly perfect woman can either be annoying in her perfection, or a deep and genuinely good person.
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Very good point. On the one hand you have a character who is rather like
Elsie Dinsmore... she's very good, very pretty, etc. Why did I dislike her so much when I read the book? Why would I dislike a girl who is good, as
Elsie is? The conclusion I came up with was this: it's because of the author's overwhelming presence. I don't exactly like
Elsie just in herself... but the way the author uses all the other characters as puppets to make
Elsie look better, and the way she obviously presents
Elsie as an ideal character that everyone else isn't and should be living up to.
On the other hand, you have a character like, as one example, one of the saints. They're very good, and often reach the highest point of goodness that anyone can reach, but so very often they're surrounded by people who are also good and saintly, and rather than standing there to 'set an example' for everyone, they concern themselves with being good, and the example comes with it. Though I have read some stories of saints where the author portrayed them as the annoying kind of good person.
We could take another example from Tolkien's books. Frodo is a very good person, that cannot be denied. He even has that oddness that can be found in many Mary-Sues. He's an Elf-friend and all that, when a typical hobbit is nothing of the sort. But I haven't yet met a person who will complain that Frodo is 'too perfect.' And again I think it's because of the author. Frodo exists along with many other good characters, and that helps greatly. But I think the greatest thing that makes him a realistic character rather than the absolutely perfect character is that he is in the story as a character, existing in his own way. Whilst Tolkien is writing of him he doesn't pause every few moments to sigh: "Ah! how ideal Frodo is! I have personified the ideal hobbit. I must show him to the world and try to show these immoral people how they really should behave. Ah, precious, precious, holy, saintly Frodo!"
From what I gather from your posts,
Enca and
Kitanna, we're much in agreement of what 'flawed' actually is. 'Flawed' doesn't mean they have to be murderers, or be at the extreme of any vice. But they still have places to go. There's a possibility of becoming better. They still have something to fight for, even if it's merely inside of themselves.
Thanks for all your interesting input so far.
