Fictional character

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A fictional character is any person who appears in a work of fiction. More accurately, a fictional character is the person or conscious entity we imagine to exist within the world of such a work. In addition to people, characters can be aliens, animals, gods or, occasionally, inanimate objects. Characters are almost always at the center of fictional texts, especially novels and plays. It is, in fact, hard to imagine a novel or play without characters, though such texts have been attempted (James Joyce's Finnegans Wake is one of the most famous examples). In poetry, there is almost always some sort of person present, but often only in the form of a narrator or an imagined listener.

In various forms of theatre, performance arts and cinema (except for animation and CGI movies), fictional characters are performed by actors, dancers and singers. In animations and puppetry, they are voiced by voice actors, though there have been several examples, particularly, in machinima, where characters are voiced by computer generated voices.

The process of creating and describing characters in a work of fiction is called characterization.

The opposite of a fictional character is a nonfictional character.

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Names of characters

The names of fictional characters are often quite important. The conventions of naming have changed over time. In many Restoration comedies, for example, characters are given emblematic names that sound nothing like real life names: "Sir Fidget", "Mr. Pinchwife" and "Mrs. Squeamish" are some typical examples (all from The Country Wife by William Wycherley).

Some 18th and 19th century texts, on the other hand, represent characters' names by the use of a single letter and a long dash (this convention is also used for other proper nouns, such as place names). This has the effect of suggesting that the author had a real person in mind but omitted the full name for propriety's sake. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo uses this technique. A similar technique was employed by Ian Fleming in his 20th Century James Bond novels, where the real name for M, if spoken in dialogue, was always written "Adm. Sir M**** M*******."

One reason for this dash is that, in Britain and in other countries with a feudal heritage, the names of counties and places might be the names of the feudal lords over those places. One cannot arbitrarily give someone the name "Earl of Manchester" because someone may either have or be elevated to such a title, so it may be grounds for a lawsuit. Hence fictitious names are based on disparaged historical characters, or tend to be re-used. For example, "Lady de Winter" is a character in Dumas père's Three Musketeers, and the family name was used in Du Maurier's Rebecca. (The same holds true for the names of houses: in the latter book, "Windermere" is named after a lake, not a feudal holding).

The 19th century movements of sentimentalism, realism and naturalism all encouraged readers to imagine characters as real people by giving them realistic names, names that were often the titles of books, such as Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre or Charles Dickens' David Copperfield. These conventions were followed by the majority of subsequent literature, including most contemporary literature.

Charles Dickens is also known for "Dickensian" character names (like Wackford Squeers and Oliver Twist) which occupy a middle ground between the emblematic names of 18th-century comedy and realistic naming. At least some of his surnames are real (if uncommon) English surnames ("Twist" being an example), but they often convey something indirectly about the character as well.

However, there are few characters with names that are completely arbitrary. At the very least, names tend to indicate nationality and status. Often, the literal meaning or origin of a name is of some symbolic importance.

The names of cartoon characters can also be developed as a brand, which is a marketing tool used to sell various products or services.

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Some ways of reading characters

Readers vary enormously in how they understand fictional characters. The most extreme ways of reading fictional characters would be to think of them exactly as real people or to think of them as purely artistic creations that have everything to do with craft and nothing to do with real life. Most styles of reading fall somewhere in between.

Here are some typical ways of reading fictional characters in literary criticism:

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Character as symbol

In some readings, certain characters are understood to represent a given quality or abstraction. Rather than simply being people, these characters stand for something larger. Many characters in Western literature have been read as Christ symbols, for example. Other characters have been read as symbolizing capitalist greed (as in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby), the futility of fulfilling the American Dream, or quixotic romanticism (Don Quixote).

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Character as representative

Another way of reading characters symbolically is to understand each character as a representative of a certain group of people. For example, Bigger Thomas of Native Son by Richard Wright is often seen as representative of young black men in the 1930s, doomed to a life of poverty and exploitation. Dagny Taggart and other characters from Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand are seen as representative of American's hard-nosed, hard-working class.

Many practitioners of cultural criticism and feminist criticism focus their analysis of characters on cultural stereotypes. In particular, they consider the ways in which authors rely on and/or work against stereotypes when they create their characters. Such critics, for example, would read Native Son in relation to racist stereotypes of African American men as sexually violent (especially against white women). In reading Bigger Thomas' character, one could ask in what ways Richard Wright relied on these stereotypes to create a violent African-American male character and in what ways he fought against it by making that character the protagonist of the novel rather than an anonymous villain.

Often, readings that focus on stereotypes demand that we focus our attention on seemingly unimportant characters, such as the ubiquitous sambo characters in early cinema. Minor characters, or stock characters, are often the focus of this kind of analysis since they tend to rely more heavily on stereotypes than more central characters.

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Characters as historical or biographical references

Sometimes characters obviously represent important historical figures. For example, Nazi-hunter Yakov Liebermann in The Boys from Brazil by Ira Levin is often compared to real life Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal, and corrupted populist politician Willie Stark from All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren is often compared to Louisiana governor Huey P. Long.

Other times, authors base characters on people from their own personal lives. Glenarvon by Lady Caroline Lamb chronicles her love affair with Lord Byron, who is thinly disguised as the title character. Nicole, a destructive, mentally ill woman in Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is often seen as a fictionalized version of Fitzgerald's wife Zelda.

Perhaps because so many people enjoy imagining characters as real people, many critics devote their time to seeking out real people on whom literary figures were likely based. Frequently authors base stories on themselves or their loved ones.

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Character as words

Some language- or text-oriented critics emphasize that characters are nothing more than certain conventional uses of words on a page: names or even just pronouns repeated throughout a text. They refer to characters as functions of the text. Some critics go so far as to suggest that even authors do not exist outside the texts that construct them.

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Character as patient: psychoanalytic readings

Psychoanalytic criticism usually treats characters as real people possessing complex psyches. Psychoanalytic critics approach literary characters as an analyst would treat a patient, searching their dreams, past, and behavior for explanations of their fictional situations.

Alternatively, some psychoanalytic critics read characters as mirrors for the audience's psychological fears and desires. Rather than representing realistic psyches then, fictional characters offer us a way to act out psychological dramas of our own in symbolic and often hyperbolic form. The classic example of this would be Freud's reading of Oedipus (and Hamlet, for that matter) as emblematizing every child's fantasy of murdering his father to possess his mother.

This form of reading persists today in much film criticism. The feminist critic Laura Mulvey is considered a pioneer in the field. Her groundbreaking 1975 article, "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema"[1], analyzed the role of the male viewer of conventional narrative cinema as fetishist, using psychoanalysis "as a political weapon, demonstrating the way the unconscious of patriarchal society has structured film form."

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Round characters vs. flat characters

Some critics distinguish between "round characters" and "flat characters" or types. The former are made up of many personality traits and tend to be complex and both more life-like and believable, while the latter consist of only a few personality traits and tend to be simple and less believable. The protagonist (main character, sometimes known as the "hero" or the "heroine") of a traditional novel is almost always a round character; a minor, supporting character in the same novel may be a flat character. Scarlett O'Hara, of Gone with the Wind, is a good example of a round character, whereas her servant Prissy exemplifies the flat character. Likewise, many antagonists (characters in conflict with protagonists, sometimes known as "villains") are round characters. An example of an antagonist who is a round character is Gone with the Wind's Rhett Butler. Experimental literature and postmodern fiction will often intentionally make use of flat characters, even for protagonists; the "round character" did not become the standard until well after the Renaissance.

A number of stereotypical or "stock" characters have developed throughout the history of drama. Some of these characters include the country bumpkin, the con artist, and the city slicker. Often, these characters are the basis of "flat characters", though elements of stock characters can also be present in round characters as well. An entire tradition of theater, the Italian commedia dell'arte, was based on performers improvising situations around well-known stock characters.

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Unusual uses

Postmodern fiction frequently incorporates real characters into fictional and even realistic surroundings. In film, the appearance of a real person as himself inside of a fictional story is a type of cameo. For instance, Woody Allen's Annie Hall has Allen's character call in Marshall McLuhan to resolve a disagreement. A prominent example of this approach is Being John Malkovich, in which the actor John Malkovitch plays the actor John Malkovitch (though the real actor and the character have different middle names).

In some experimental fiction, the author acts as a character within his own text. One of the earliest examples of this is Niebla ("Fog") by Miguel de Unamuno (1907), in which the main character visits Unamuno in his office to discuss his fate in the novel. Paul Auster also employs this device in his novel City of Glass (1985), which opens with the main character getting a phone call for Paul Auster. At first the main character explains that the caller has reached a wrong number, but eventually he decides to pretend to be Auster and see where it leads him. In Immortality by Milan Kundera, the author references himself in a storyline seemingly separate from that of his fictional characters, but at the end of the novel, Kundera meets his own characters.

With the rise of the "star" system in Hollywood, many famous actors are so familiar that it can be hard to limit our reading of their character to a single film. In some sense, Bruce Lee is always Bruce Lee, Woody Allen is always Woody Allen, and Harrison Ford is always Harrison Ford; all often portray characters that are very alike, so audiences fuse the star persona with the characters they tend to play, a principle explored in the Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicle Last Action Hero.

Some fiction and drama make constant reference to a character who is never seen. This often becomes a sort of joke with the audience. This device is the centrepoint of one of the most unusual and original plays of the 20th century, Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, in which Godot of the title never arrives.

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Iconic fictional characters

Some fictional characters are so famous that they can be referenced easily outside of the work from which they came, often because they have come to symbolize some archetype or ideal.

Character Description Significance Characters influenced
Alice The young heroine of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll Symbolic of a naïve girl introduced into a strange, new world Shadowcat in X-Men
Batman DC Comics superhero created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger Symbol of mystery and heroism driven by a dark obsession. The Punisher
Big Brother Iconic leader of the totalitarian state of Oceania in 1984 by George Orwell Term describing any propaganda symbol people are made to love fervently without sense or reason; also used for any monitoring or supervision perceived as overly intrusive
Bugs Bunny Carrot-chomping, Warner Bros. cartoon rabbit, known for the catch phrase “What’s Up Doc?” Symbol of benign slyness and cunning Babs and Buster Bunny
Archie Bunker Character in the sitcom All in the Family His name has become a term for bigot, especially an older one who maintains outdated attitudes Eric Cartman
Charlie Brown Child protagonist of the comic strip Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz Prototypical lovable loser and chronic worrier Arthur Dent
Captain America Marvel comics World War II Superhero The ultimate Super-Soldier at the peak of human physical and mental fitness. Star Wars Clone Troopers
Captain Ahab Sea captain from Moby Dick by Hermann Melville, who is on a never-ending quest to kill the title whale Often used to describe a person with a destructive, hate-driven and all-consuming quest Khan Noonien Singh
Cigarette Smoking Man Primary adversary of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully on The X-Files; member of a secret, malevolent shadow government in league with extraterrestrial invaders. Symbolizes government corruption and secrecy, malevolent covert operations and shadow government, the paranoia surrounding mass government conspiracies to conceal truth about UFOs, political assassinations and so forth from the public.
Cinderella Title character from an age-old rags-to-riches disney film Term for anyone who rises from a meager, unhappy life into a more pleasant one; especially a woman who does so through a relationship with an elite man Maria in Maid in Manhattan
Conan the Barbarian The barbarian in Robert E. Howard's series about Conan the Cimmerian. Noble Savage He-Man
Cthulhu Godlike monstrosity in H.P. Lovecraft's short story "The Call of Cthulhu" Personification of cosmic forces beyond mankind's comprehension Apocalypse in X men
Daleks Hideously mutated yet ultra-racist aliens housed in metal shells, most prominent enemies of the Doctor in Doctor Who. Catchphrase - "Exterminate!", shouted in stilted, shrill electronic voice. Have come to symbolize rampant, unchecked racism, fascism, authoritarianism and most especially Nazism; unthinking hatred of 'the Other' and the desire to purge and exterminate the different and unalike.
Darth Vader Hero-turned-villain-turned-Hero, and right hand to the Emperor in George Lucas’Star Wars films; an adherent of the 'Dark Side of the Force' and ruthless galactic warlord. The modern 'tragic hero' - a character, once a good person, who was corrupted and twisted into a ruthless embodiment of almost unstoppable evil and malevolence before finally being redeemed by love. Sephiroth
Don Quixote Title character from Miguel Cervantes' novel; believed he was a chivalric knight although he was actually a self-deluded buffoon Symbol of dedication to achieving one's goals in spite of all obstacles, especially reality; source of adjective "quixotic"
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Title characters from the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson; due to a wayward experience the quiet scientist Jekyll would transform into the malicious Hyde Refers to anyone particularly two-faced, especially with one bad and one good side Incredible Hulk,Two Face
Doctor Who Title character from the BBC Television show Doctor Who; a Time Lord who travels through time and space for the purposes of defeating evil Symbolic of time-travelling characters. Also, the eccentric who triumphs over adversity through a combination of superior knowledge, inspirational skill and good luck; the rootless, living-on-his-feet wanderer. A symbol of good-natured mystery and adventure. MacGyver
Dracula Title vampire from Bram Stoker’s horror novel Archetypal vampire, a metaphor for any person, thing or idea that is life or energy-draining Nosferatu
Victor Frankenstein Creator of the Monster in Frankenstein; scientist who creates a creature composed from the flesh of the dead, over whom he eventually loses control. Archetypical mad scientist; the scientist who's lust for power / knowledge and yearning to 'play God' leads to his / her defeat or ruin, usually through the construction of a terrible creature or weapon of his /her own devising. Dr. Moreau
Hamlet Protagonist of William Shakespeare play of the same name Symbol of any brooding, angry young man with a willingness to accost others; also used to symbolize indecisiveness
Heathcliffe Lover of Catherine in Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights The tortured and brooding gothic hero; the passionate and romantic man who's obsessive desire for the woman of his dreams destroys him and those around him. Angel
Holden Caulfield Protagonist of The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger Symbol of troubled, cynical young men Shinn Asuka
Homer Simpson Character from the animated sitcom The Simpsons, created by Matt Groening Often used to refer to an oafish American adult male Peter Griffin
Huckleberry Finn Runaway youth featured in several works by Mark Twain Symbol of anyone with an exceedingly simple moral code, especially one that clashes with larger society
Indiana Jones Globe-trotting archaeologist in a series of films by George Lucas and Steven Spielberg Symbol of high adventure Martin Mystery
James Bond Secret agent from a series of novels by Ian Fleming and a long-running series films Used to describe anyone who is suave, charming, clever and attractive to women; the personification of espionage at its most romantic
King Arthur Legendary British king; maybe not entirely fictional Epitome of righteousness, justice and virtue. Harry Potter
Lolita Nickname of the 12-year-old girl from Vladimir Nabokov's novel of the same name Name for any young girl involved with an older man.
Macbeth Title character from a William Shakespeare play of the same name Symbolic of anyone undone by a drive for power
Merlin Mentor of King Arthur A mysterious and wise mentor or wizard Gandalf, Obi Wan Kenobi, Albus Dumbledore
Ophelia Character in the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. One-time love interest of the title character; she who drowns, possibly by suicide Term used to describe any troubled and mentally unstable young woman
Puck Prankster from Shakespeare's play Midsummer Night's dream Trickster figure
Prince Charming Prince from the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault Term for any handsome, charismatic, and ideal male suitor
Robin Hood Outlaw from British legend who "steals from the rich to give to the poor" Archetypical “outlaw hero” who fights the wealthy and powerful for the sake of the poor and helpless. Green Arrow
Romeo and Juliet Title couple from William Shakespeare's play of the same name, lovers whose marriage is forbidden by a family rivalry. Their names are used to describe any passionate pair of young lovers, especially one whose love is doomed or forbidden
Sauron Primary antagonist in J.R.R Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings novels A figure of unstoppable, omnipotent and almost pure evil Lord Voldemort
Ebenezer Scrooge Wealthy, ill-tempered old man from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens Term used to describe anyone miserly and uncharitable Scrooge McDuck
Sam Spade 1930s private investigator in mystery novels written by Dashiell Hammett, including The Maltese Falcon. The classic image of the trenchcoat-clad 'gumshoe'; the depiction of the detective as a jaded, sarcastic and cynical investigator who nevertheless operates according to his own rigid code of honour and sense of 'tarnished idealism'. Philip Marlowe, Lennie Briscoe, numerous detective story / film noir heroes.
Santa Claus Jolly old, bearded figure delivering Christmas gifts to children Figure representing love and kindness towards children; the true meaning of Christmas.
The Scarlet Pimpernel Title character of novel by Baroness Orczy; seemingly foppish and idiotic English aristocrat who in reality is a courageous spy rescuing innocents from the Reign of Terror. Has come to symbolize duel identity, the hero who is not what he / she seems; the seemingly bumbling, ineffectual fool who is, in truth, a dashing, well-admired hero. Countless superheroes with secret identities; most notably Superman / Clark Kent
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective from several stories and novels by Arthur Conan Doyle, most notably The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Figure representing the power of observation, logic and reason, especially in the cause of justice or deductive analysis; symbol of a character devoted to logic and reason over passion and emotion. Mr Spock, Dr. Gregory House, M.D.
Spider-Man Marvel Comics superhero created by Stan Lee Friendly, neighbourhood superhero who has to cope with the problems of everyday life while coping with a dual identity. Static Shock
Superman DC Comics superhero created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster Archetypical superhero, modern messiah figure and a symbol of unstoppable good
Uncle Tom Character in Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, a black slave who is docile and obedient Term for a person who is a disgrace to his or her race, especially African Americans who act in a stereotypical manner or act to please the "white establishment"
Wile E. Coyote Warner Bros. cartoon character who constantly tries and fails to kill the Road Runner Symbol of dedication in the face of futility, or of incompetent malevolence inevitably defeated Ralph Wolf
Wonder Woman DC Comics superheroine Personification of supreme feminine physical power and self-confidence. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Zorro Dashing, black-clad pre-American Civil War era of stories by Johnston McCulley and several feature films. The face of resistance during times of corruption; the champion of the common man against brutal oppressors.


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Lists of fictional characters

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General

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Stock characters

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Fictional animals

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Lists of fictional characters in specific works or series

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Heroes and villains

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See also

es:Personaje de ficción eo:Fikciulo fr:Personnage he:דמות ספרותית hu:Kitalált szereplő nl:Personage ja:架空の人名一覧 pt:Personagem ru:Персонаж sq:Personazha fiktive simple:Fictional character sl:Izmišljena oseba fi:Kuvitteellinen hahmo

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