From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A
fictional character
is a
person
or animal in a
narrative
work of
fiction
(such as a
novel
,
play
,
television series
, or
movie
)
[1]
[2]
[3]
The character can be completely made up or based on a real-life person. In that case, the difference between a "fictional" and "real" character can be made.
[2]
A character who is based on more than one person is called a
Composite character.
Coming from the
ancient Greek
word χαρακτ?ρ, the English word dates from the
Restoration
,
[4]
although it became widely used after its appearance in
Tom Jones
in 1749.
[5]
[6]
From this, the sense of "a part played by an
actor
" developed.
[6]
Character, mainly when played by an actor in the
theatre
or
cinema
, involves "the illusion of being a human person."
[7]
In literature, characters guide readers through their stories, helping them to understand plots and ponder themes.
[8]
Since the end of the 18th century, the phrase "in character" has been used to describe an effective
impersonation
by an actor.
[6]
Since the 19th century, the art of creating characters, as practiced by actors or writers, has been called
characterisation
.
[6]
The word
character
can also mean "personality". We can say that someone has a "strong character" meaning a strong, confident personality. It is sometimes used as a noun in this sense: "He is a real character" (meaning someone you cannot easily forget).
A
character role
in a play means one of the people in the play who have a particular character (personality). They contrast with the main characters of the play. For example, a pair of lovers may be the main characters of the story. The character roles who help the story might be: a wicked
stepmother
, a kind
nurse
, an old
wise
man, a
fool
, a
domestic worker
who is very old, a "
Mary Sue
" who is virtually without flaws, and so forth. These may be archetypes.
- ↑
Matthew Freeman (2016).
Historicising Transmedia Storytelling: Early Twentieth-Century Transmedia Story Worlds
.
Routledge
. pp. 31?34.
ISBN
978-1315439501
. Retrieved
January 19,
2017
.
- ↑
2.0
2.1
Maria DiBattista (2011).
Novel Characters: A Genealogy
.
John Wiley & Sons
. pp. 14?20.
ISBN
978-1444351552
. Retrieved
January 19,
2017
.
- ↑
Baldick (2001, 37) and Childs and Fowler (2006, 23). See also "character, 10b" in Trumble and Stevenson (2003, 381): "A person portrayed in a novel, a drama, etc; a part played by an actor".
- ↑
OED
"character" sense 17.a citing,
inter alia
,
Dryden's
1679 preface to
Troilus and Cressida
: "The chief character or Hero in a Tragedy ... ought in prudence to be such a man, who has so much more in him of Virtue than of Vice... If Creon had been the chief character in
Œdipus
..."
- ↑
Aston and Savona (1991, 34), quotation:
[...] is first used in English to denote 'a personality in a novel or a play' in 1749 (
The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary
, s.v.).
- ↑
6.0
6.1
6.2
6.3
Harrison (1998, 51-2) quotation:
Its use as 'the sum of the qualities which constitute an individual' is a mC17 development. The modern literary and theatrical sense of 'an individual created in a fictitious work' is not attested in OED until mC18: 'Whatever characters any... have for the jestsake personated... are now thrown off' (1749, Fielding,
Tom Jones
).
- ↑
Pavis (1998, 47).
- ↑
Roser, Nancy; Miriam Martinez; Charles Fuhrken; Kathleen McDonnold. "Characters as Guides to Meaning".
The Reading Teacher
.
6
(6): 548?559.