1.
Definition
Any
personage in a literary work who acts, appears, or is referred to as playing a
part.
Things
to check when
reading a fiction about characters: name, physical appearance, objects and
places associated with it, actions, thoughts and speech, comments, narrator's
comments about the character
2.
Kinds of Characters
Old, Classic Fictions: Hero or Heroine("good guy") vs villain("bad guy")
Modern
Fictions prefers more neutal terms: Protagonist vs Antagonist
*Antihero: a hero possessing traits that make
him or her the opposite of a traditional hero difficult to like or
admire.
It
would be a mistake to see the quality of a work of fiction as dependent on
whether we find its characters likable or admirable, just as it would be wrong
to assume that an author's outlook or values are the same as those of the
protagonist.
3.
Major vs Minor
Minor
characters are just as important as Major characters
a Foil, a character that helps by way of contrast to reveal the unique
qualities of another (especially main) character
4. Flat vs Round, Static vs Dynamic
Flat
Characters: Simple, one-dimensional characters that behave and speak in
predictable or repetitive.
Round
Characters: having psychological complexity.
Dynamic characters are changing
Static characters are not changing
Stock
Characters seem to be out of a stockroom of familiar, prefabricated
figures.
Archetypes recurring in the myths and literature of many different ages and
cultures.
Characterization: the art and technique of representing fictional personages. We need to consider how the text shapes our interpretation of,
and degree of sympathy or admiration for, the character; what function the
character serves in the story; and what the character might represent.
5. Fate
is Character
Heraklitos, a Greek philosopher thought that character,
the essence of the individual, determines his or her experience; Character, the tone of the individual, resonates with the
music of his destiny. It is the flaws of character that are tragic. Viewing
destiny in this way, the fates are not outside us, in the heavens, weaving and
cutting the threads of our lives. Instead, they are consonant with our
character. This consideration is at the root of the world view that good things
happen to good people.