Character Traits
Famous for his gruff, ignorant, bigoted persona—blacks, Hispanics, "Communists," hippies, gays, Jews, Catholics, "women's libbers", and Polish-Americans were frequent targets of his barbs—Archie was in fact a complex character. Rather than being motivated by malice, he was portrayed as hardworking, a loving father and husband, and a basically decent man whose views were merely a product of the era and working-class environment in which he had been raised. Nevertheless, Archie was bad-tempered and frequently told his long-suffering, scatter-brained wife Edith to "Stifle" and "Dummy up". Series creator Norman Lear admitted that this is how his father treated Lear's mother.
As the series progressed, Archie mellowed somewhat, albeit often out of necessity. In one episode, he expressed revulsion for a Ku Klux Klan-like organization which he accidentally joined. On another occasion, when asked to speak at the funeral of his friend, Stretch Cunningham, Archie—surprised to learn that his friend was Jewish—overcame his initial discomfort and delivered a moving eulogy, closing with a heartfelt "Shalom." Most crucially, in 1978, the character became the guardian of Edith's step-cousin Floyd's nine-year old daughter, Stephanie (Danielle Brisebois), and came to accept her Jewish faith, even buying her a Star of David necklace.
Archie was also known for his frequent malapropisms and spoonerisms. For example, in referring to Edith's gynecologist as a "groinacologist", or Catholic priests who go around sprinkling "incest" (incense) on their congregation. By the show's second season, these were dubbed "Bunkerisms", "Archie Bunkerisms" or simply "Archie-isms".
Read more about this topic: Archie Bunker
Famous quotes containing the words character and/or traits:
“Most bad books get that way because their authors are engaged in trying to justify themselves. If a vain author is an alcoholic, then the most sympathetically portrayed character in his book will be an alcoholic. This sort of thing is very boring for outsiders.”
—Stephen Vizinczey (b. 1933)
“It is my conviction that in general women are more snobbish and class conscious than men and that these ignoble traits are a product of men’s attitude toward women and women’s passive acceptance of this attitude.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)