Mr. Tambourine Man (Bob Dylan)

NAME/ORIGIN
Character name	Mr. Tambourine Man
Song/Album	"Mr. Tambourine Man"/Bringing It All Back Home
Act	Bob  Dylan
Writer	Bob Dylan
Release Date	1965
ABILITIES
Powers	-Remove the desire for sleep, no matter how exhausted one is "I'm not sleepy" "but still not sleeping/ My weariness amazes me." -Nullify the senses  "My senses have been stripped" "Left me blindly here to stand" -Numb physical sensation in the extremities "My hands can't feel their grip, and my toes too numb to step" -Make people dance, with magic "Cast your dancing spell" -Cause people to lose their sense of self, adopt multiple identities "I'm ready for to fade/ into my own parade" -Evoke memories so real they appear to replace reality "take me disappearing through the smoke rings of my mind/ Down the foggy ruins of time" -Temporarily, or permanently (at his beach), erase memories "Let me forget about today until tomorrow." "With all memory driven deep beneath the waves" -Cause manic euphoria "You might hear laughin’, spinnin’, swingin’ madly... far from the twisted reach of crazy sorrow" -Cause weightlessness, but only as high as 5 miles (edge of troposphere) "Swingin' madly across the sun... but for the sky, there are no fences."
Skills	-Can get an entire melody out of a tambourine "Play a song for me"
Attributes	Aloofness
Vulnerabilities	Deafness, the blocking of sound
Formidability	Limited to one or a few victims at once, perhaps small crowds.
Attractiveness	Extremely high "I'll come following you" "Waiting only for my bootheels to be wandering" "I'm ready to go anywhere" "Cast your... spell my way... I promise to go under it."
Source	N/A
Goals	N/A
POSSESSIONS
Weapons	-A branding iron "I'm branded on my feet."
Amulets	N/A
Objects	-A "tambourine," possibly several
Clothing	N/A
Vehicles	a "magic, swirling ship"
Dwelling	An "empire" on a beach (see Milieu) that is made of, then dissolves into, the sand overnight, until the "jingle-jangle" morning, to then rematerialize over the course of the day, completed by the time each evening arrives again.  "The evening's empire has returned into sand, vanished from my hand"
Milieu	-Plays tambourine in the morning "In the jingle-jangle morning" -He docks his "boat" at a starry, sandy, "windy beach" with a "circus" and "empire" made of sand, which lies beyond a cold, dark forest: "far past the frozen leaves/The haunted, frightened trees,  out to the windy beach, beneath the diamond sky  Silhouetted by the sea, circled by the circus sands" -Avoids urban areas, especially older ones "The ancient, empty street's too dead for dreaming."
BIOGRAPHY
Gender	Male
Age	N/A
Physique	N/A
Ethnicity	N/A
Origin	N/A
Ancestry	N/A
Profession	musician
Education	N/A
SES	Moderate to high, if he has a boat
Relationships	-Is followed by "a ragged clown" who is chasing a shadow the Tambourine Man sees and making up songs to the sound of the tambourine: "vague traces of skippin’ reels of rhyme/ To your tambourine in time." ("reels" in the sense of "skipping" Irish dances.) He's of no concern to those under the spell; "I wouldn't pay him any mind." His fate may be that of one who stayed under the spell too long. (speculative) -Causes his followers to lose their own relationships, and make no new ones "I have no one to meet."
Pets	N/A
PERSONALITY
Morality	Amoral
Intro/extrovert	Extrovert, actively seeks followers
Intelligence	N/A
Emotions	N/A
Sanity	N/A
Enemies	Purposeful people seem immune
Narrative Function	Catalyst
Other Notes	Like the Pied Piper, Mr. Tambourine Man likes to use music to lure people to his special, hidden realm. He begins each morning by playing his tambourine, which enchants people by numbing their senses and making them forget themselves-- their identities and memories. (This only works on those who don't like themselves or their memories and seek to abandon them.) He promises them "escape" on his magical ship, and they follow him to a beach. They don't know this, but while they are on their way there through streets and forests (and they can continue dancing there despite becoming tired), an entire empire is rising from the sand there. By the time they arrive at the beach in the evening, they find themselves in this magical circus atmosphere and are in a state of euphoria. However, when the sun rises, each finds himself alone on the beach, blind and branded on their feet (perhaps this is a metaphor for how hurt their feet are from the ceaseless dancing, which felt like flying while it was happening), with no empire around them, just a windy beach. The Tambourine Man's promise has been fulfilled in the worst way-- they wanted to forget themselves and their lives, and now they have. They are without identities, without communities, and without a memory or senses to guide them home. They have become blank slates once more, blind ragged clowns chasing shadows... at the edge of the water whence evolution itself began.