Editing Goldfinger (novel) (section)

===Characters===
The character of Bond was developed more in ''Goldfinger'' than in the previous novels; the historian [[Jeremy Black (historian)|Jeremy Black]] considers that Bond "was presented as a complex character".{{sfn|Black|2005|p=40}} The novelist [[Raymond Benson]]—who later wrote a series of Bond novels—sees ''Goldfinger'' as a transitional novel, making Bond more human than in previous books and more concerned with what Benson calls "the mortal trappings of life".{{sfn|Benson|1988|p=114}} This manifests itself in the opening chapter of the book as Bond sits in Miami airport and thinks through his fight with and killing of a Mexican thug. Benson also finds Bond developing something of a sense of humour in ''Goldfinger'', verbally abusing Oddjob for his own amusement.{{sfn|Benson|1988|p=116}}

The [[anthropologist]] Anthony Synnott examined several examples of racism in the Bond novels, and finds in ''Goldfinger'' examples of "the most blatant racism" of the series, all of which concern the Koreans;{{sfn|Synnott|1990|p=420}} as an example, Synnott highlights the sentence "putting Oddjob and any other Korean firmly in his place, which, in Bond's estimation, was rather lower than apes in the mammalian hierarchy".{{sfn|Fleming|2006a|p=244}} Benson agrees that Bond is shown as a bigot in the passage quoted, and observes that this is the only point in all the works in which Bond disparages a whole race.{{sfn|Benson|1988|p=116}}

{{Quote box|quote=...&nbsp;everything was out of proportion. Goldfinger was short, not more than five feet tall, and on top of the thick body and blunt, peasant legs, was set almost directly into the shoulders, a huge and it seemed almost exactly round head. It was as if Goldfinger had been put together with bits of other people's bodies. Nothing seemed to belong.|source=''Goldfinger''{{sfn|Fleming|2006a|p=36}}|width=25%|align=right|salign=right}}

The writer [[Anthony Burgess]], in his 1984 work ''[[Ninety-nine Novels]]'', describes Fleming's malefactors as "impossible villains, enemies of democracy, megalomaniacs"; Burgess goes on to write that Goldfinger "is the most extravagant of these".{{sfn|Burgess|1984|p=74}} The character was described by Benson as "Fleming's most successful villain" to that point in the series,{{sfn|Benson|1988|p=116}} and Fleming gives him several character flaws that are brought out across the novel. Black writes that psychologically Goldfinger is warped, possibly because of an inferiority complex brought on by his shortness,{{sfn|Black|2005|p=37}} in contrast to several of Fleming's other over-sized villains. Physically he is odd, with a lack of proportion to his body.{{sfn|Eco|2009|p=40}} According to the literary analyst LeRoy L. Panek, in his examination of 20th-century British spy novels, in several of Fleming's novels he uses "characters as psychological counters in a game of simplified psychology".{{sfn|Panek|1981|p=218}} Fleming writes that "Bond always mistrusted short men. They grew up from childhood with an inferiority complex.&nbsp;... Napoleon had been short, and Hitler. It was the short men that caused all the trouble in the world",{{sfn|Fleming|2006a|p=37}} an opinion Black considers a reflection of the "racialism and crude psychology" of early-twentieth century literature.{{sfn|Black|2005|p=37}}

Like many other of Fleming's villains, Goldfinger is not of British extraction (although he is a British citizen); other villains have been, for example, Russian, German, Jewish, Chinese-German or Slav.{{sfn|Parker|2014|p=158}}{{sfn|Bennett|Woollacott|1987|pp=72–73}}{{efn|Those villains are, respectively, Rosa Klebb (''From Russia, With Love''), Hugo Drax (''Moonraker''), Le Chiffre (''Casino Royale''), Dr. No (''Dr. No'') and Blofeld (''[[Thunderball (novel)|Thunderball]]'', ''[[On Her Majesty's Secret Service (novel)|On Her Majesty's Secret Service]]'' and ''[[You Only Live Twice (novel)|You Only Live Twice]]'').{{sfn|Bennett|Woollacott|1987|pp=72–73}}}} Synnott observes that in many of the Bond novels, including ''Goldfinger'', "Ugliness, evil and foreignness go together, complementing and reinforcing each other. Ugliness symbolizes evil and evil is symbolized by ugliness and foreignness."{{sfn|Synnott|1990|p=413}}

Fleming employs devices he uses elsewhere in the series to show Goldfinger is corrupt or outside what Fleming considered normal. Goldfinger cheats at cards and golf; Panek considers this is a traditional sign of a gauche individual.{{sfn|Panek|1981|pp=208–209}} Black considers that Goldfinger is portrayed as a killjoy as he does not consume cigarettes or alcohol—unlike many people of the time—but he does pay prostitutes; these aspects of Goldfinger's are condemned by Fleming for being outside normal appetites.{{sfn|Black|2005|p=37}}

Elisabeth Ladenson, the general editor of ''Romanic Review'', believes the character of Pussy Galore to be "perhaps the most memorable figure in the Bond periphery".{{sfn|Ladenson|2003|p=221}} Galore was introduced by Fleming for Bond to seduce her, proving Bond's masculinity by his being able to seduce a lesbian.{{sfn|Lycett|1996|p=329}} To some extent the situation also reflected Fleming's own opinions, expressed in the novel as part of Bond's thoughts, where "her sexual confusion is attributable to women's suffrage";{{sfn|Black|2005|p=106}} in addition, as Fleming himself put it in the book: "Bond felt the sexual challenge all beautiful Lesbians have for men."{{sfn|Fleming|2006a|p=265}} Ladenson points out that, unlike some Bond girls, Galore's role in the plot is crucial and she is not just there as an accessory: it is her change of heart that allows good to triumph over evil.{{sfn|Ladenson|2003|p=230}} The cultural historians Janet Woollacott and [[Tony Bennett (sociologist)|Tony Bennett]] consider that many of the female characters in the Bond series depart from Fleming's accepted cultural norms; both Pussy Galore and Tilly Masterton conform to this rule because they are lesbian. For those that Bond sleeps with, there is a back story explaining why they are outside Fleming's norm: in Pussy Galore's case, it is because she was raped by her uncle. According to Stephen Heath, the literature and cultural historian, Galore's lesbianism is explained by being anti-man, following the rape, and she is converted because, as she says in the book, "I never met a man before".{{sfn|Fleming|2006a|p=354}}{{sfn|Heath|1982|pp=98–99}} Bond's 'conversion' of Galore from lesbian to his bed partner "reflected Fleming's sexual politics".{{sfn|Black|2005|p=40}} It was, Black sees, a "crude end to the book, a form of [[happy ending]]".{{sfn|Black|2005|p=40}}