Charlotte York Goldenblatt - Background and Personality

Background and Personality

Charlotte is viewed by some to be the most naive of the four characters, often showing signs of belief in the old-fashioned, "love conquers all" notion. This has earned her the nickname "Park Avenue Pollyanna," coined by Carrie Bradshaw in narrations. Yet, her friends are sometimes envious and even in awe of her overall optimism on love and life, leading Carrie to dedicate her book to Charlotte. Charlotte is fiercely optimistic, although often anxious to make sure everything goes right. She also possesses a supportive personality with regard to her friends, always "being there" for them. Due to her conservative outlook in relationships, however, she sometimes clashes with the sexually liberal Samantha, once asking, after Samantha has sex with Charlotte's brother, "Is your vagina in the New York City guide books? Because it should be; it's the hottest spot in town, it's always open!" Yet in this instance, she apologizes by baking Samantha a basket of muffins, demonstrating her classic graceful and sweet-natured style.

Her belief in romance leads her to decide to not have sex with fiancé Trey until the honeymoon. However, she is confronted by the problems of this when she discovers, the night before the wedding, when she tries to seduce Trey, that he is impotent. Later, she realizes he has problems sleeping with her and they do a lot of work to solve the issue. She is also very loyal to her friends (being uncharacteristically aggressive in cursing at Mr. Big after he abandons Carrie at the altar in the first film) and to her belief in the sanctity of marriage (she is the only friend to chastise and shame Carrie regarding her adulterous affair with Mr. Big). She also faces a comeuppance in her relationship with Harry Goldenblatt. She is not attracted to him but has sex with him and calls it "the best sex of my life". She tries to change him into her ideal man but stops when she sees how much that hurts Harry. Finally, she becomes hysterical after she converts to Judaism and prepares a perfect dinner for Harry, when he won't propose to her, and she insults him by telling him how unsuitable he is for her, which causes him to break up with her. Only when she finally agrees to accept Harry on his own terms, he does propose to her, and they, independent of any of Charlotte's machinations, end up having a relationship that fulfills all of the ideals of romanticism.

It is revealed throughout the series that Charlotte enjoyed much social acclaim in her younger life, such as being prom queen, varsity cheerleader, track and field captain, teen model, and equestrienne. She is occasionally described as a WASP, an identity she seems to happily accept but converted to Judaism. Charlotte is a sorority member of Kappa Kappa Gamma.