Character Limitations

One of the things that amazes me about Stephen King is that he often limits or physically restricts his characters. It makes for brilliant writing. My mom is reading The Stand, and wrote to me "Nick and Tom ... Brilliant paring."
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Of course, King's willingness to harm or kill characters always adds to the tension of any scene. He has no problem letting Stu take a fall or the Beaver get whacked while holding down an alien coming up the toilet.
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One of the strengths of King's writing is the handicaps he gives characters. It's got to be the kid in the wheelchair who fights the werewolf, right? This was really played with in Gerald's game. One woman, tied to a bed, fighting for every bit of movement. It gives us brilliant writing!
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This actually got King in trouble when writing Christiane. He allowed the narrator, Dennis, to get hurt in a football accident. This meant that Denny had to quiet down and allow Mr. Stephen King to take over the story telling for a spell.
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Tightening the noose:
King also uses situations to limit or handicap his characters. In Cujo the characters were limited to the car. King narrowed this in Misery, where Paul Sheldon is in bed with broken bones. He really tightened the noose when he wrote Gerald's game and actually tied his main character to the bed -- alone in the room. (Well, mostly alone)
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Like The Real World
These handicaps draw the reader into the novel in a unique way. While other writers might avoid the difficulty of creating such characters, the real world is full of people with various limitations. The Stephen King universe is all the more real.
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Here's a few interesting character limitations King has given us:

• Nick, deaf and mute. (The Stand)
• Tom, mentally handicap. (The Stand)
• Roland, hand injured (Dark Tower)
• Susanna, crippled. (Dark Tower)
• Jessie, tied to a bed. (Gerald's Game)
• Paul Sheldon, injured in auto accident. (Misery)
• Marty Coslaw, an eleven-year-old boy in a wheelchair. (Cycle Of the Werewolf)
• Clayton Blaisdell, Jr., mentally handicap (Blaze)
• Junior Rennie, migraines. (Under The Dome)
• Dennis, broken leg (Christine)
• Bill, stutters. (IT)
• Eddie, ashma. (IT)
• Jack, drinking. (The Shining) I'm not sure that one really counts. . .
• Polly, arthritis. (Needful Things)