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Topics in Literature

Character

Character
Any of the persons involved in a story or play, or the distinguishing moral qualities and personal traits of a character.

Developing Character aka dynamic character
A character who during the course of a story undergoes a permanent change in some aspect of character or outlook.

Flat Character
A character whose personality is summed up in one or two traits.

Foil Character
A minor character whose situation or actions parallel those of a major character, and thus by contrast sets off or illuminates the major character; most often the contrast is complimentary to the major character.

Round Character
A character whose personality is complex and many sided.

Static Character
A character who is the same sort of person at the end of a story as at the beginning.

Stock Character
A stereotyped character: one whose nature is familiar to us from prototypes in previous literature.

Minor Characters
Those figures who fill out the story but who do not figure prominently in it.

Existential Character
A person, real or fictional, who, whatever his or her past or conditioning, can change by an act of will.

Hero/Heroine
The leading male/female character, usually larger than life, sometimes almost godlike.

Anti-hero
A central character in a work of literature who lacks traditional heroic qualities such as courage, physical prowess, and fortitude.

Narrator
In drama, a character, found in some plays, who, speaking directly to the audiences, introduces the action and provides a string of commentary between the dramatic scenes. The narrator may or may not be a major character in the action itself.

contributed by Gifford, Katya


9 November 2004
  
  
Personae

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