Benjamin Linus.  Every single person that reads this analysis will agree with the statement that Ben is a manipulator to the core.  Probably one of the most brilliant minds you will find on the island.  Simply because he’s brilliant doesn’t mean he’s not evil.  Evil seems to be very dependent on your point of view on many things.  Ben refers to himself and the rest of the “others” as the good guys, but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s right.  Good guys don’t kidnap people, run tests on children, and manipulate people to reach your own goals.  That’s a trait of an evil person.

We see Ben’s childhood, something that we don’t get to see for a lot of the other people on the island.  Seeing someone as a child explains many, many things about their life.  I can honestly say, seeing how Ben grew up, I understand why he is how he is.  Ben lacked a father figure; although he had a father, he wasn’t a good one.  I think that’s a very important thing in life.  We have to feel accepted in this world, and Ben unfortunately missed out on that.  Ben killed his dad, and felt it was greatly justified.  He didn’t even bury the body, which is unbelievable.

Ben is a genius.  He knows how to get exactly what he wants from not only people he knows very well, but also people that he doesn’t know very well, such as Jack, Locke, and many others.  He’s a skilled liar, as we see in Season two.  Remember when he claimed he was “Henry Gale.”  Most of the information about the balloon, where he was from, among a lot of other stuff, was created on the fly I’m sure.  It takes an extremely intelligent person to pull off something like that, and Ben did it with ease.  Ben is able to think on the fly in situations, such as we saw in the Season three finale, when informing his men to kill Sayid, Jin, and Bernard if he didn’t hear him within one minute.  That was simply a brilliant on-the-fly decision.

Although he’s a scoundrel sometimes, he at least has class.  We see some manners shine through, for example eating breakfast with Kate, and being courteous the entire time.  I guess sometimes it seems like his personality conflicts with itself.  We see his courtesy, but then at other times we see the exact opposite.  We can learn from Ben that a skilled manipulator can get what he wants when he wants it.  In fact, when I hear the name Benjamin Linus, I think manipulation.  We can also learn that a father figure is important in life.  Although Ben seems to get what he wants most of the time, it doesn’t seem that he is always happy, which is something that we have all been through at some point in life.

Juliet Burke.  I always had issues trusting Juliet.  Even though she eventually turned out ok, you still have to wonder if she’s really going to stick with them.  I mean, sure, she wants to get off the island just like everyone, but that doesn’t mean that she didn’t lie to the survivors at first, and continue helping Ben.  I think Juliet’s attraction to Jack is because she truly believe Jack can save her, and everyone else on the island, and she likes that persistence in him.  After seeing her past, it’s hard not to feel sorry for her.  You see her sister almost die from cancer, but then everything gets turned around.  The cancer is cured, and is pregnant.  Ben claimed the cancer returned, and he could cure it if Juliet would remain on the island, but Ben’s manipulation will be covered in greater detail in his analysis.

Juliet is a very caring person, and she demonstrates this many times.  She never stopped bringing Jack food, and was quick to trust him even after he almost killed her.  That tells you a lot about a person.  It’s similar to your walk in your religious faith, if you think about it.  Being one way in your place of worship is one thing, but acting like it outside the church is something totally different.  Even after Jack threatened her, she continued to do what was right, and that tells you a lot about her personality.  You see her get so upset when her ex-husband gets hit by a bus, and dies.  Of course we all would, but it just demonstrates her caring attitude.  I think Jack made a bit of a misjudgement trusting her so fast.  In fact, that’s a little out of Jack’s personality, usually it’s the opposite.

She feared not being accepted by the survivors of the plane crash, and her assumption that they wouldn’t trust her was right.  But, I can’t blame them.  You suddenly have a person that is part of a group that has kidnapped, and attempted to kill your people, wouldn’t you have issues too?  You have to wonder if it was Jacob that cured her sister’s cancer?  I mean, obviously we know that Jacob is supernatural; some type of god apparently, so is this the case?

In studying Juliet’s character, we can learn that lying is not a good thing.  Ben manipulated and used her, attempting to convince her that she could leave if he obeyed what she did, causing her to lie many times, even to the survivors.  But, being the person that she is, she saw the wrong in what she was doing and stopped before it was to late.  I think that’s a very valuable lesson to learn.

Ethan Rom.  We didn’t get a huge chance to see much of Ethan, until we started seeing him in some flashbacks in season three.  The first thing that I think of when I hear his name now, is his persistence.  If you remember, he altered the original plan of injecting Claire, and ended up kidnapping Charlie and Claire.  That tells me right there that he is persistent in what he does and doesn’t take no for an answer.  He seems like a kind person though, aside from a few moments.  I never really understood why you would send a surgeon to investigate matters going on, especially if he’s the only one they had.

Apparently, Ethan had some sort of obsession with Claire.  This is obvious, due to the fact that he probably kidnapped Claire and Charlie without any type of approval, but that’s simply speculation.  I believe that Ethan underestimated how clever the other survivors were, eventually leading to his death.  Ethan is also very convincing, as he assisted in talking Juliet into coming to the island to join the experiments.

Mr. Eko. Eko took up the John Locke’s religious position on the island when John lost faith.  John completely stopped believing that everything on the island happened for a purpose, and Eko had a prophetic dream about this, and took up John’s place in pushing the button.  Of course, as we all know, John eventually prevents Eko from pressing it, resulting in the explosion of the hatch.  I like Eko, for the same reason I like many other characters; because he has an enormous amount of faith.  There is just something about a person with faith, you just have respect for them; and know that they are devout, and there is something different about these type people.

Eko gave the ultimate sacrifice when he was a child.  Some guerrillas attempted to force Eko’s brother, Yemi, to kill a man, to prove that he was able to do it, in an attempt to get him to join with them.  Eko, knowing his brother didn’t want to do this, stepped in and shot the man for him.  This was a very brave move, and caused the guerrillas to take Eko instead of Yemi.  It’s a sacrifice that Eko gave up, to save his brother.  Yemi became a priest, and Eko grew up with the guerrillas, eventually becoming as wretched as they were.  So you have to stop and ask yourself, is Eko wrong in this situation?  Eko sacrificed himself to save his brother, but then turned just as evil as the guerrillas were.  I don’t think so; I think that life was placed before Eko, and he ended up exactly where he was supposed to be, which was on the island.

Eko is the only person that has stood up to the smoke monster and survived.  If you watch carefully, you can see all sorts of images flashing before his eyes in the scene.  A crucifix, Jesus’ face, his brother, and  many other things.  It is quite spooky, but interesting.  Eko in his past life, became a priest after his brother was taken onto a plane that was going to be used to smuggle drugs.  That very plane crashed on the same island that Oceanic Flight 815 did, which of course, Eko was on.  Eko’s reunion with his deceased brother was an incredible scene.

What can we learn from Eko comparing his life to ours?  That faith is a very good thing.  Faith in God, which he had, as well in faith in the island.  He knew that he had to pick up where John left off.  I think there’s a huge moral to the story, and that is when your friend falls, you have to be there to pick up where he left off, and encourage him to continue.  It doesn’t mean that it will always work, but it’s inspiring isn’t it?  Eko was so persistent to push that button; it almost reminds you of Locke when he first arrived on the island.