Tip Sheet: Character

Defining CHARACTER:

According to KENNEDY and GIOIA, “A CHARACTER … is presumably an imagined person [or thing] who inhabits a story” (54).

Basic Types of CHARACTER:

  • Protagonist: A text’s main character.
  • Antagonist: The opponent of the protagonist.
  • Foil: A character used in contrast to reveal the unique qualities of another (especially main) character.
  • Hero / Heroine: Characters that are presented as better or more significant than most people.
  • Major Character: Those we learn more about and see most throughout the text, usually more complex than minor characters.
  • Minor Character: Placed in contrast to the major character.
  • Dynamic Character: A character that changes.
  • Static Character: A character that does not change.

More Terms to Remember (from Backpack Literature, 92):

  • Characterization: The techniques a writer uses to create, reveal, or develop the characters in a narrative.
  • Character Description: An aspect of CHARACTERIZATION through which the author overly relates either physical or mental traits of a character. This description is almost invariably a sign of what lurks beneath the surface of a character.
  • Character Development: The process by which a character is introduced, advanced, and possibly transformed in a story.
  • Character Motivation: What a character in a narrative wants, the reasons an author provides for a character’s actions. Motivation can be either explicit (these reasons are specifically stated in the story) or implicit (the reasons are only hinted at or partially revealed).
  • Flat Character: A term coined by English novelist E.M. Forster to describe a character with only one outstanding trait. Flat characters are rarely the central characters in a narrative and stay the same throughout the story.
  • Round Character: A term also coined by E.M. Forster to describe a complex character who is presented in depth in a narrative. Round characters are those who change significantly during the course of a narrative or whose full personalities are revealed gradually through the story.
  • Stock Character: A common or stereotypical character. Examples of stock characters are the mad scientist, the battle-scarred veteran, and the strong and silent cowboy.

Methods to Discuss Character: When discussing CHARACTER consider the following questions: Using the provided vocabulary, what type of CHARACTER is in the text? Do they change? How? How does the MAJOR CHARACTER(S) interact with those around them? How does this change the story? What is the purpose or the motivation behind such interactions? Where in the text can we find the evidence to support such claims? These questions, as well as those found in our anthology, help to build a better understanding not only the actions and motivations of CHARACTERS within the text but allow us to approach the text as a whole with much bigger questions.

Questions that will help to address character (straight from Norton)…

  • Who is the protagonist, or might there be more than one? Why and how so? Which other characters, if any, are main or major characters? Which are minor characters?
  • What are the protagonist’s most distinctive traits, and what is most distinctive about his or her outlook and values? What motivates the character? What is it about the character that creates internal and/or external conflict?
  • Which textual details and moments reveal most about this character? Which are most surprising or might complicate your interpretation of this character? How is your view of the character affected by what you don’t know about him or her?
  • What are the roles of other characters? Which, if any, functions as an antagonist? Which, if any, serves as a foil? Why and how so? How would the story as a whole (not just its action or plot) be different if any of these characters disappeared? What points might the author be raising or illustrating through each character?
  • Which of the characters, or which aspects of the characters, does the text encourage us to sympathize with or to admire? To view negatively? Why and how so?
  • Does your view of any character change over the course of the story, or do any of the characters themselves change? If so, when, how, and why?
  • Does characterization tend to be indirect or direct in the story? What kinds of information do and don’t we get about the characters, and how does the story tend to give us that information?