How to overload the subscript operator to allow an array of RPG characters?

Question

Trying to overload my subscript operator, so I can make an array of characters for my game. Having trouble figuring out the big idea. I was thinking of just passing it an integer (ie for the index) and having it return the name of the invoking object(ie the character itself)

subscript operator

Character * Character::&operator[](int index)
{
     return this->mName[index];
}

The error I am getting is:

Error: a reference type of "Character*&" (not const-qualified) cannot be 
initialized with a value type of char.  

Btw, I am using my own string class -- which I wrote myself (ie this is school after all) -- so I can overload anything if necessary.

character.h

#ifndef CHARACTER_H
#define CHARACTER_H

#include "backpack.h"
#include "coinpouch.h"
#include "string.h"

class Character
{

public:
//Default constructor
Character();

//Destructor
~Character();

//Constructor
Character(const String & name, const CoinPouch & pouch, const BackPack & purse);

//Copy Constructor
Character(const Character & copy);

//Overloaded assignment operator
Character &operator=(const Character & rhs);

//Overloaded subscript operator
Character * &operator[](int index);

//Setters
void setName(String name);
void setCoinPouch(CoinPouch pouch);
void setBackPack(BackPack purse);

//Getters
String getName();
CoinPouch getPouch();
BackPack getPurse();

//Methods
void Display();


private:
//Data members
String mName;
CoinPouch mPouch;
BackPack mPurse;
};

#endif

Answer 1

You're confusing things! If you overload Character::operator[] , that means you want to be able to treat a Character object like an array. That is, you would do:

Character c("Bob", pouch, purse);
c[0]; // Using the Character like an array

But that's not what you want. Instead you just want an array of Character s. You don't need to overload operator[] to do that at all, you just declare an array:

Character array[10]; // This is an array of Characters
array[0].setName("Bob"); // This sets the 0th Character's name to Bob