Classifications of characters

A character that dominates the story from the beginning up to the very end is called major main, protagonist, central, or a hero/heroine.

Protagonist is a character in which positive features predominate. Antagonist is the personage opposing protagonist, in which negative features prevail. Villain is a character with marked negative features. Foil is a character with distinctly opposing features to the protagonist through which the protagonist's positive features are sharply accentuated. When a character expresses the author's viewpoint directly he is said to be the author's mouthpiece. If a character is developed round one or several typical social features he becomes a type characterized by qualities that are typical of a certain social group or class. Caricature is a character with so exaggerated features that he appears ridiculous, yet recognizable.

According to their importance in a literary text characters can be divided into: simple/complex; static/dynamic; flat/well-rounded. A static character, who does not change in the course of a narrative is simple, usually flat, while dynamic character who does change is complex, well-rounded (e.g. Hamlet is a complex character). Simple characters are constructed round a single trait.

The terms "flat" and "round" were proposed by E.M.Forster (1927): 

"The test of round character is whether it is capable of surprising in a convincing way. If it never surprises it is flat. If it does not convince, it is flat pretending to be round".

FLAT CHARACTERS VS ROUND

FLAT characters

Ø one trait

Ø Characteristics can be sum up in a sentence

Ø Stable/ not developing

Ø Distant from actual human beings

Ø Their actions are determinate, logical, not surprising

ROUND characters

Ø Numerous traits

Ø Characteristics need elaborate description

Ø changeable/ developing

Ø Close to actual human beings

Ø Their actions are difficult to determine, not always logical, surprising

Characters may be described from different aspects: physical, emotional, moral, spiritual, social. A character trait is a relatively stable or abiding personal quality described in a literary text.

Characterization is the creation, presentation and development of character in fiction.

There are two basic types of textual indicators of character: direct definition and indirect presentation.

Using direct definition the author:

names the trait by an adjective {e.g. he was good-hearted)

an abstract noun (e.g. his goodness knew no bounds)

possibly some other kind of noun (e.g. she was a real bitch)

other part of speech (e.g. he loves only himself).

Direct definition leads to generalization. Its dominance in a given text produces a rational and static impression.

Using indirect presentation the author does not mention the trait but displays and exemplifies it in various ways, leaving to the reader the task of inferring the quality he implies.

Although a one-time action does not reflect constant qualities, it is not less characteristic of the character. On the contrary, its dramatic impact often suggests that the traits it reveals are qualitatively more crucial than the numerous habits which represent the character's routine.

Actions include small gestures, a thought, a word, a decision, an impulse or a whole event. A trait may be implied both by one-time actions, and by habitual ones.

One-time actions tend to evoke the dynamic aspect of the character, often playing a part in a turning point in the story.

Habitual actions tend to reveal the character's unchanging or static aspect, often having a comic or ironic effect.

Although a one-time action does not reflect constant qualities, it is not less characteristic of a character as the traits it reveals are qualitatively more crucial than the numerous habits which represent the character's routine.

Both one-time and habitual actions can belong to one of the following categories:

act of commission (i.e. something performed by the character)

act of omission (something which the character should, but does not do)

contemplated act (an unrealized plan or intention of the character)

Analyzing speech characteristic one should be alert for:

a) style markers (markers of official style; markers of informal conversational style; initiating signals; hesitation pauses; false starts)

b)  markers of the emotional state of the character (emphatic inversion; emotionally coloured words, breaks-in-the-narrative; the use of the tailing off into silence which reflect deep emotions or doubt)

c) attitudinal markers (words denoting attitudes, intensifiers)

d) markers of the character's educational level: bookish words, rough words, slang, deviations from the standard

e) markers of regional and dialectal speech, which define the speaker as to his origin, nationality, social standing

f) markers of the character's occupation

g) markers of the speaker's idiolect (his individual speech peculiarities)

Psychological portrayal is the analysis of character's motives by penetration into the mind of the character, description of his mental processes and some psychological changes that motivate his actions.

The name may be deliberately chosen to fit a certain character (Mrs.Murdstone = murder+stone), Shark Dodson, a shark= a person clever at getting money from others in dishonest or merciless ways. Such names are suggestive, as they bring into play the associations which the words they are composed of have.

Description of the world of things that surround the character.

Domestic interiors of the setting are sometimes treated a metonymic/metaphoric expressions of the character.

    A character's physical surrounding (room, house, street, town) and human environment (family, social class) are also often used as trait-connoting metonymies.

All the means of characterization the writer resorts to, enable the reader to visualize and understand the characters, to think, feel and worry with them, to trace the changes and growth in their personalities.

 

LCTURE 4.POINT OF VIEW.