Java program that prints a string backwards

I'm trying to write a program that takes a string, breaks it up into characters, and prints each character backwards. I sort of see what the problem is, I just am not sure how to fix it. Here is my code:

public static void main(String[] args) {
    //takes a string and prints all the letters backwards all on one line

    String fruit = "apple";
    backwards(fruit);
    }

public static void backwards(String theFruit) {
    int length = theFruit.length() - 1;
    int counter = 0;
    while(length > counter) {
        char theCharacter = theFruit.charAt(length);
        System.out.println(theCharacter);
        counter++;
    }
}

For some reason it just prints all one letter and I am not sure why.