He might be a fool, but he's no softie. At fifteen, his parents died and he was left to fend for him and his younger brother. This made his resourceful and pugnacious. He built up a criminal business out of necessity but doesn't have the talent to expand it in the direction he wants. He is overly emotional and quixotic, and part of his failure is that he jumps form one project to another and enthusiastically adopts new things without thinking them through.
He lives with Katie, Jacob's ex-girlfriend. She tolerates his criminal side by ignoring it. What she likes about him is probably the same qualities she saw in Jacob, but she's continually on the brink of leaving him. He has a nice flat and a car and all the trappings of moderate success, as well as his wardrobe.
William is in charge of the gang at the start of the story, but as he gets in with Fiend, he soon sees the potential and hands over power to him in order to get the success he craves. Unfortunately as he gets dragged into the chaotic world of Fiend, his limitations put him in danger and he gets killed in the course of the story.
Recap of Character Dimensions
| Motivational | Uncontrolled and frenzied, disbelieves in alternatives |
| Purpose | Seeks the Ability to succeed, Speculates on highly unlikely future |
| Methodology | Not picking the most likely outcome, ranks competing theories |
| Evaluation | Belief without verifying things, doesn't think anything will ever end |
Reasons for each of these
Uncontrolled and frenzied - unlike Jake, he has never had to curb this natural tendency to fly off the handle, and it has served him well especially when bringing up Jake by himself. His tendency to sudden violence has made him partially successful.
Disbelieves in alternatives - bringing up Jake was said to be impossible, but he did it, so he doesn't believe anything is impossible any more. His drive for success is only matched by his unrealisable dreams of success. This makes him susceptible to madcap schemes.
Seeks the Ability to succeed - he knows he isn't succeeding as fast as he wants but it unaware that his limitations are more built-in than he imagines. His curtailed childhood has left him as a little bit undeveloped and childish and he is unable to find a way to improve himself.
Speculates on highly unlikely future - again linked to his feeling that he can achieve anything he wants, he spends a lot of emotional energy pursing schemes which are not going to be achieved. he seems unable to be realistic about his chances of getting what he wants.
Not picking the most likely outcome - linked to his unrealistic expectations, when he considers something, he always thinks the most likely outcome is the one successful for him. This can blind him to the serious pitfalls of what he is trying to do.
Ranks competing theories - although he always chooses the wrong one, he does do a good job at looking at alternatives. Due to the rigours of having to bring up Jake on his own, he is good at working out scenarios, just not very good at choosing the most likely one.
Belief without verifying things - he is very loyal himself, so trusts those around him. This comes from the time he and Jake were a tight unit and had to implicitly trust each other. This has expanded to a group of friends, and ultimately Fiend, whom he trusts implicitly.
Doesn't think anything will ever end - perhaps because of his parents death, William never considers anything will end if he's in charge. This can make him unable to see the natural conclusion of relationships and events which end messily and embroil him.
My thoughts about William at the start of the story
I like him, but I can also see where he could be dangerous. Not directly in a threatening way, but people who are over-confident in their abilities can sometimes lead a group of people to bad places. I am grateful for him for basically giving up his childhood to raise himself and Jake, that was a noble thing to do, but it has scarred him in a fundamental way, in that he doesn't realise he doesn't need to look after everything any more.
My thoughts about William by the end of the story
Although he sides with Fiend against the interests of Jake in the story, I understand why he does, and I still like him, and am sorry when he dies. He hasn't progressed in any major character way, he is still the same enthusiastic idiot who started the story. It's this inability to see danger coming that makes him vulnerable to his fate.
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