Título: Neil Simon
Seção: Characters
Background: Marvin Neil Simon (born July 4, 1927) is an American playwright, screenwriter and author. He has written more than 30 plays and nearly the same number of movie screenplays, mostly adaptations of his plays. He has received more combined Oscar and Tony nominations than any other writer. Simon grew up in New York during the Great Depression, with his parents' financial hardships affecting their marriage, giving him a mostly unhappy and unstable childhood.

Conteúdo: Simon's characters are typically portrayed as "imperfect, unheroic figures who are at heart decent human beings", according to Koprince, and she traces Simon's style of comedy to that of Menander, a playwright of ancient Greece. Menander, like Simon, also used average people in domestic life settings, the stories also blending humor and tragedy into his themes. Many of Simon's most memorable plays are built around two-character scenes, as in segments of California Suite and Plaza Suite.  Before writing, Simon tries to create an image of his characters. He says that the play, Star Spangled Girl which was a box-office failure, was "the only play I ever wrote where I did not have a clear visual image of the characters in my mind as I sat down at the typewriter." Simon considers "character building" as an obligation, stating that the "trick is to do it skillfully". While other writers have created vivid characters, they have not created nearly as many as Simon: "Simon has no peers among contemporary comedy playwrights," states biographer Robert Johnson.  Simon's characters often amuse the audience with sparkling "zingers," believable due to Simon's skill with writing dialogue. He reproduces speech so "adroitly" that his characters are usually plausible and easy for audiences to identify with and laugh at. His characters may also express "serious and continuing concerns of mankind ... rather than purely topical material". McGovern notes that his characters are always impatient "wi

user: Who is the most famous character he wrote?

assistant:   Simon's characters often amuse the audience with sparkling "zingers,

user: What type of characters did he enjoy writing?

assistant: Simon's characters are typically portrayed as "imperfect, unheroic figures who are at heart decent human beings",

user: Does he have a favorite character?

assistant: CANNOTANSWER

user: Did he write differently for play versus tv?

assistant: " However, Simon's characters will never be seen thumbing his or her nose at society."

user: What is another interesting aspect of his characters?

assistant: McGovern notes that his characters are always impatient "with phoniness, with shallowness, with amorality", adding that they sometimes express "implicit and explicit criticism

user: Do his characters draw from people he knew in real life?

assistant: used average people in domestic life settings, the stories also blending humor and tragedy into his themes.

user: Did his childhood influence his characters?

assistant: CANNOTANSWER

user: Did his characters change as he matured?

assistant: His characters may also express "serious and continuing concerns of mankind ... rather than purely topical material".