in
Aachen in 2021.
Charlie Brown Charlie Brown is the main character, a young boy acting as the center of the strip's world and serving as an
everyman. While seen as decent, considerate, and reflective, he is also awkward, deeply sensitive, and said to suffer from an
inferiority complex. Charlie Brown is a constant failure: he can never win a ballgame, nor can he successfully fly a kite. His sense of determination, regardless of the certainty of failure, can be interpreted as either self-defeating stubbornness or admirable persistence. When he fails, however, he experiences pain and anguish through self-pity. The journalist
Christopher Caldwell observed this tension between Charlie Brown's negative and positive attitudes, stating: "What makes Charlie Brown such a rich character is that he's not purely a loser. The self-loathing that causes him so much anguish is decidedly not self-effacement. Charlie Brown is optimistic enough to think he can earn a sense of self-worth." Schulz named Charlie Brown after a colleague of his while working at
Art Instruction, whose full name was Charlie Francis Brown. Readers and critics have explored whether Schulz based Charlie Brown on himself. This question often carried the suggestion that the emotionally sensitive and depressed behavior of Charlie Brown drew from Schulz's own life or childhood experiences. Commenting on the tendency of these conclusions being drawn, Schulz said in a 1968 interview, "I think of myself as Charles Schulz. But if someone wants to believe I'm really Charlie Brown, well, it makes a good story." He explained in another interview that the comic strip as a whole is a personal expression, and so it is impossible to avoid all the characters presenting aspects of his personality. Biographer
David Michaelis made a similar conclusion, describing Charlie Brown as simply representing Schulz's "wishy-washiness and determination". Regardless, some profiles of Schulz confidently held that Charlie Brown was based on him.
Snoopy Snoopy is Charlie Brown's pet dog, who later in the development of the strip would be described as a
beagle. While generally behaving like a real dog and having a non-speaking role, he connects to readers through having human thoughts. Despite acting like a real dog some of the time, Snoopy possesses many different anthropomorphic traits. He frequently walks on his hind legs and is able to use tools, including his typewriter. He introduces fantasy elements to the strip by extending his identity through various alter egos. Many of these alter egos, such as a "world-famous" attorney, surgeon, or secret agent, were seen only once or twice, although others (such as the
World War I flying ace, or the sunglasses-wearing "Joe Cool") were featured many times over a period of years. His character is a mixture of innocence and egotism; he possesses childlike joy, while on occasion being somewhat selfish. He has an arrogant commitment to his independence but is often shown to be dependent on humans. Schulz was careful in balancing Snoopy's life between that of a real dog and that of a fantastical character. While the exterior of Snoopy's doghouse is of small dimensions, the interior is described in the strip as having such things as a recreation room, a library, a pool table, and being adorned with paintings of
Andrew Wyeth and
Van Gogh. However, it was never shown, as it would have demanded an inappropriate kind of
suspension of disbelief from readers.
Linus and Lucy Linus and Lucy are siblings; Linus is the younger brother, and Lucy is the older sister. Lucy is bossy, selfish, and opinionated, and she often delivers commentary in an honest, albeit offensive and sarcastic way. Schulz described Lucy as full of misdirected confidence, but having the virtue of being capable of cutting right down to the truth. He said that Lucy is mean because it is funny, particularly because she is a girl: he posited that a boy being mean to girls would not be funny at all, describing a pattern in comic strip writing where it is comical when supposedly weak characters dominate supposedly strong characters. Lucy, at times, acts as a psychiatrist and charges five cents for psychiatric advice to other characters (usually Charlie Brown) from her "psychiatric booth", a booth parodying the setup of a
lemonade stand. Lucy's role as a psychiatrist has attracted attention from real-life individuals in the field of psychology; the psychiatrist Athar Yawar playfully identified various moments in the strip where her activities could be characterized as pursuing medical and scientific interests, commenting that "Lucy is very much the modern doctor". Linus is Charlie Brown's most loyal and uplifting friend and introduces intellectual, spiritual, and reflective elements to the strip. He offers opinions on topics such as literature, art, science, politics, and
theology. He possesses a sense of morality and ethical judgment that enables him to navigate topics such as faith, intolerance, and depression. Linus acts as a philosopher and an open ear to Charlie Brown's dilemmas and worries. Schulz enjoyed the adaptability of his character, remarking he can be "very smart" as well as "dumb". He has a tendency to express lofty or pompous ideas that are quickly rebuked. He finds psychological security from
thumb sucking and
holding a blanket for comfort. The idea of his "security blanket" originated from Schulz's own observation of his first three children, who carried around blankets. Schulz described Linus's blanket as "probably the single best thing that I ever thought of". He was proud of its versatility for visual humor in the strip, and of how the phrase "security blanket" entered the dictionary.
Peppermint Patty and Marcie Peppermint Patty and Marcie are two girls who are friends. They attend a different school than Charlie Brown, on the other side of town, and so represent a slightly different social circle from the other characters. Peppermint Patty is a
tomboy who is forthright and loyal and has what Schulz described as a "devastating singleness of purpose". She frequently misunderstands things, to the extent that her confusion serves as the premise of many individual strips and stories; in one story she prepares for a "skating" competition, only to learn with disastrous results that it is for
roller skating and not
ice skating. She struggles at school and with her homework, and often falls asleep in school. The wife of Charles Schulz, Jean Schulz, suggested that this is the consequence of how Peppermint Patty's single father works late; she stays awake at night waiting for him. In general, Charles Schulz imagined that some of her problems were from having an absent mother. Marcie is bookish and a good student. Schulz described her as relatively perceptive compared to other characters, stating that "she sees the truth in things" (although she perpetually addresses Peppermint Patty as "sir"). The writer Laura Bradley identified her role as "the unassuming one with sage-like insights".
Supporting characters In addition to the core cast, other characters appeared regularly for a majority of the strip's duration: •
Sally Brown is the younger sister of Charlie Brown. She has a habit of fracturing the English language to comical effect. She reacts negatively to school and homework due to dealing with dogmatic memorization and obeying ambiguous instructions. She otherwise confidently delivers speeches in oral exams, using wordplay and puns while framing her topics with theatrics and suspense. •
Schroeder is a boy who is fanatic about
Beethoven. Each year he celebrates Beethoven's birthday, though on occasion he does forget and struggles to forgive himself. In this relatively innocent role, he serves as an outlet for the expressions of other characters. He most recognizably appears in the strip playing music on his toy piano, as the catcher on Charlie Brown's baseball team and the romantic foil to Lucy's unrequited affections who is always after a kiss especially when it's Beethoven's birthday. •
Pig-Pen is a physically dirty boy, normally appearing with a cloud of dust surrounding him. Schulz acknowledged that the scope of his role is limited, but he continued to make appearances because of his popularity with readers. •
Franklin is an
African American boy who first appeared at the suggestion of a reader following the
assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Since Schulz intended to achieve this without being patronizing, he is a relatively normal character who mainly reacts to the oddness of other characters. •
Woodstock is a bird and Snoopy's friend. He entirely communicates through peeps, which leaves it up to readers to guess what he says. Schulz said that Woodstock is aware that he is small and inconsequential, a role that serves as a lighthearted existential commentary on coping with the much larger world. •
Spike is Snoopy's brother who lives alone in the California desert. As well as the above, several other characters were introduced and then faded out of prominence during the strip's run: •
Shermy, a boy with a
crew cut, was introduced as one of Charlie Brown's friends in the first strip in 1950, but began disappearing by the end of the decade, last appearing in 1969. Schulz came to dislike Shermy, describing him as "an extra little boy", and only used him when he required a character with "little personality". •
Patty, another original character introduced in 1950, was initially a core character before her appearances dwindled to just being a sidekick or background character, especially after Peppermint Patty's arrival. Her last appearance was in 1995. •
Violet Gray, introduced in 1951, became memorable for her near-continual abuse of Charlie Brown, especially not inviting him to parties and bragging about her affluent father. Her last appearance was in 1996. •
Charlotte Braun was introduced in 1954 as a female counterpart to Charlie Brown, but her unpopularity led to Schulz "
killing her off" in a tongue-in-cheek letter to a fan in 1955. •
Frieda, memorable for her "naturally curly hair" and attempts to make Snoopy chase rabbits, first appeared in 1961 but was already an infrequent character by 1970. She last appeared in 1985 after a seven-year absence. •
Rerun, Lucy and Linus' younger brother, first appeared in 1973 and continued appearing until the final strip in 2000. Initially a background character, Rerun became a foreground character by the 1990s. •
Eudora, a friend of Sally's from summer camp, arrived in 1978 and had one of the shortest tenures in the strip, last appearing in 1987. •
Lydia, a classmate of Linus' who seemed to have a lukewarm romantic interest in him, was introduced in 1986 and appeared as a regular recurring character until 1999. ==History==