What is a character definition. Literary character, hero

character

character, wine pl. chew and live, m. (French personnage).

Actor dramatic or literary work(lit.). Character in the play.

trans. Person, personality (ironic). Comic character.

Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language. S.I.Ozhegov, N.Yu.Shvedova.

character

A, m. A character in a literary work, in a performance, as well as a person as an object genre painting. Comic p. Ostrovsky's characters. Characters of the paintings. Surikov.

New explanatory dictionary of the Russian language, T. F. Efremova.

Character

(French personnage, from Latin persona ≈ personality, face), the protagonist of a play (performance), script (film), novel and other works of art.

Wikipedia

Character

Character(, from - personality, person) - a character in a play, movie, book, game, etc. Characters can be completely fictitious or taken from real life. Characters can be human, animal, supernatural, mythical, divine beings, or personified abstract entities. The process of presenting information about characters in fiction is called characterization.

In the usual meaning, the same as a literary hero. Most often under character the actor is understood. But here, too, two interpretations differ:

1. A person represented and characterized in action rather than in description; then the concept character Most of all correspond to the heroes of dramaturgy, the images-roles.
2. Any actor, subject of action in general. In this interpretation, the character is opposed only to the “pure” subject of experience appearing in the lyrics, which is why the term character not applicable to the so-called " to the lyrical hero": you can't say "lyrical character".

Under character sometimes only a minor person is understood. In this understanding the term character correlates with the narrowed meaning of the term hero- the central person or one of the central persons of the work. On this basis, the expression “episodic character” arose.

Character (film)

"Character" is a 2006 American tragicomedy film produced by Columbia Pictures, directed by Marc Forster. Starring Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman, Queen Latifah and Tony Hale.

The pre-premiere screening of the film took place on September 9, 2006 at the International Film Festival in the Canadian city of Toronto. The film was released in wide release in the United States on November 10. And in Russia the premiere took place almost six months later - on May 24, 2007. Will Ferrell was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in the Best Actor category for his role as Harold Crick in 2007.

Examples of the use of the word character in literature.

Viktor Abramov - still wearing glasses, not contact lenses, with the face of a typical smart guy, an excellent student, a hooligan, a classic character math school folklore.

Irrationality, human nostalgia and the absurdity generated by their meeting - these are three character a drama that must be followed from beginning to end with all the logic of which existence is capable.

For Grigoriev, the man and the artist, duality and duplicity were intertwined and multiplied: undoubtedly, his real life was dual, characters his stories, and because of them autobiographical basis The author’s connections with his double heroes were dialectically dual.

Tao, Kundalini - concepts of eastern mysticism Agramant - character poems by L.

A thorough study of Georgian literature, monuments of material culture, the architecture of ancient monasteries and castles, frescoes, ornaments and miniatures helped the writer develop a clear idea of ​​the spirit of the time, the material appearance of the era, and its people - characters of her future work: Having mastered all this material, in 1922, when the Antonovsky family moved permanently to Moscow, the writer began work on the novel.

When characters Aristophanes fight for peace, then they stand for have a fun life, because many holidays were canceled during wartime.

Thus, Zeus of the Arthurian cycle received the name Myrddin, and this character entered the Norman-French novels about Arthur under more familiar name- Merlin.

Another character, found in the stories of the Arthurian cycle and occupying a very important place in the Celtic myths, is March ap Meirchion, whose pigs Arthur himself once tried to steal, just as Gwydion even earlier wanted to steal the pigs of Pryderi.

Nebuchadnezzar, Tiglath-pileser, Esarhaddon, Shenshok and others are now not only and not so much biblical characters, how many are real historical figures, and what the Bible reports about them was included in the total sum of historical sources relating to these individuals.

With all the traditional obligatory theological orientation of auto as specific genre Calderon's allegories are much deeper and more philosophical than his predecessors, and the most characters, displayed in them, are much more humane.

About fabulous characters, Bazhov always speaks jokingly about fairy-tale events, with a sly grin.

She laughed at recent moods, reproached herself for lack of will and extravagance, and set her favorite literary and historical heroes as examples. characters.

The only fictitious character- Pavel Berkov, although it is known that Bulgakov had several similar acquaintances who visited his house, whose names could be named.

In the legends of the northern tribes, living in the twilight of the dens, Where there are five names per village, and then more and more monosyllables, Where they don’t take off their skis and fur coats, they are proud of the heavy smell, They sing without opening their lips, and smear themselves with walrus fat, Where the day is short, like, where the crust is crunchy and the air is cruel, - There is an indispensable character, usually a teenage girl.

Finally everything characters from the fairy tale about Bitty Belina lay in nourishing baths.

In literary works, images of people, and in some cases their likenesses: humanized animals, plants (“Attalea princeps” by V.M. Garshin) and things (a fairy-tale hut on chicken legs) are invariably present and, as a rule, fall into the spotlight of readers’ attention. . There are different forms of human presence in literary works. This is a narrator-storyteller, a lyrical hero and a character capable of revealing a person with the utmost completeness and breadth.

This term is taken from French and is of Latin origin. The ancient Romans used the word “persona” to designate the mask worn by an actor and, later, the face depicted in a work of art.

The phrases “literary hero” and “character” are now used as synonyms for this term. However, these expressions also carry additional meanings: the word “hero” emphasizes the positive role, brightness, unusualness, and exclusivity of the person portrayed, and the phrase “character”—the fact that the character manifests himself primarily in the performance of actions.

A character is either the fruit of the writer’s pure invention (Gulliver and the Lilliputians in J. Swift; Major Kovalev, who lost his nose, in N.V. Gogol) or the result of conjecture on the appearance of a real person (be they historical figures or people biographically close to the writer, or even himself); or, finally, the result of processing and completing already known literary heroes, such as, say, Don Juan or Faust.

Along with literary heroes as human individuals, sometimes group, collective characters turn out to be very significant (the crowd in the square in several scenes of “Boris Godunov” by A. S. Pushkin, testifying to and expressing the people’s opinion).

The character seems to have a dual nature. Firstly, he is the subject of the depicted action, the stimulus for the unfolding of events that make up the plot. It was from this side that V.Ya approached the character sphere. Propp in his world-famous work “The Morphology of the Fairy Tale” (1928). ABOUT fairy-tale heroes The scientist spoke about the bearers of certain functions in the plot and emphasized that the persons depicted in fairy tales are significant primarily as factors in the movement of event series. A character as an actor is often designated by the term actant (Latin: actor).

Secondly, and this is perhaps the main thing, the character has an independent significance in the composition of the work, independent of the plot (event series): he acts as a bearer of stable and stable (sometimes, however, undergoing changes) properties, traits, qualities.

Characters are characterized by the actions they perform (almost primarily), as well as forms of behavior and communication (for it is not only what a person does that is significant, but also how he behaves), appearance and close surroundings (in particular, things belonging to the hero), thoughts, feelings, intentions.

And all these manifestations of a person in a literary work (as in real life) have a certain resultant - a kind of center, which M.M. Bakhtin called the core of personality, A.A. Ukhtomsky - a dominant determined by a person’s initial intuitions.

The phrase is widely used to denote the stable core of people’s consciousness and behavior value orientation. “There is not a single culture,” wrote E. Fromm, “that could do without a system of value orientations or coordinates.” The scientist continued, “every individual has these orientations.”

Value orientations (they can also be called life positions) are very heterogeneous and multifaceted. The consciousness and behavior of people can be directed towards religious and moral, strictly moral, cognitive, and aesthetic values. They are also associated with the sphere of instincts, with bodily life and the satisfaction of physical needs, with the desire for fame, authority, and power.

The positions and orientations of both real and fictional persons by writers often take the form of ideas and life programs. These are the “ideological heroes” (M. M. Bakhtin’s term) in romantic and post-romantic literature. But value orientations are often non-rational, immediate, intuitive, determined by the very nature of people and the tradition in which they are rooted. Let us remember Lermontov’s Maxim Maksimych, who did not like “metaphysical debates,” or Tolstoy’s Natasha Rostova, who “did not deign to be smart.”

The heroes of literature from different countries and eras are infinitely diverse. At the same time, in the character sphere there is a clear repetition associated with the genre of the work and, more importantly, with the value orientations of the characters. There are a kind of literary “supertypes” - supra-epochal and international.

There are few such supertypes. As noted by M.M. Bakhtin and (following him) E.M. Meletinsky, for many centuries and even millennia artistic literature dominated by an adventurous and heroic man who firmly believes in his strength, in his initiative, in his ability to achieve his goal.

He manifests his essence in active searches and decisive struggle, in adventures and accomplishments, and lives with the idea of ​​​​his special mission, of his own exclusivity and invulnerability. Capacious and accurate formulas life positions We find such heroes in a number of literary works. For example: “When you can help yourself, / Why cry out to heaven? / We have been given a choice. Those who dare are right;/ He who is weak in spirit will not achieve his goal./ “Unachievable!” - this is what only he says / Who hesitates, hesitates and waits” (W. Shakespeare. “The end is the crown of the matter.” Translation by M. Donskoy). “Under the hood, I thought about my brave plan, preparing a miracle for the world,” Pushkin’s Grigory Otrepiev tells about himself. And in the novel “The Brothers Karamazov” the devil expressed Ivan’s innermost thoughts: “Where I stand, there will immediately be first place.”

Characters belonging to the adventurous-heroic supertype strive for fame, long to be loved, have the will to “eliminate the fabulism of life,” that is, they tend to actively participate in changing situations in life, fight, achieve, and win. An adventurous heroic character is a kind of chosen one or an impostor, whose energy and strength are realized in the desire to achieve some external goals.

The scope of these goals is very wide: from serving the people, society, humanity to selfishly willful and self-affirmation that knows no boundaries, associated with cunning tricks, deception, and sometimes with crimes and atrocities (remember Shakespeare's Macbeth and his wife). The characters of the heroic epic gravitate towards the first “pole”.

Such is the brave and prudent, generous and pious Aeneas in the world-famous poem of Virgil. Faithful to his duty to his native Troy and his historical mission, he, in the words of T. S. Elist, “from his first to his last breath” is a “man of destiny”: not an adventurer, not an intriguer, not a tramp, not a careerist - he fulfills what is destined for him fate, not through coercion or a random decree, and certainly not out of a thirst for glory, but because he subordinated his will to some higher power for a great purpose” (meaning the founding of Rome).

In a number of other epics, including the Iliad and the Odyssey, the heroic deeds of the characters are combined with their self-will and adventurism (a similar combination in Prometheus, which, however, for many centuries became a symbol of sacrificial service to people).

Much has been said about the essence of the heroic. The concept of adventurism (adventurism) in relation to literature is much less understood. MM. Bakhtin associated the adventurous beginning with the solution of problems dictated by the “eternal human nature“self-preservation, thirst for victory and triumph, thirst for possession, sensual love.”

In addition to this, we note that adventurism may well be stimulated by a person’s self-sufficiently playful impulses (Kochkarev in N.V. Gogol’s “The Marriage”, Ostap Bender in I. Ilf and V. Petrov), as well as a thirst for power, as in Pushkin’s Grishka Otrepiev and Emelyan Pugacheva.

An adventurous-heroic supertype, embodying the striving for something new, at any cost (i.e., a dynamic, fermenting, exciting principle human world), is represented by verbal and artistic works in various modifications, one not similar to the other.

Firstly, these are the gods of historically early myths and folk-epic heroes inheriting their features from Arjuna (the Indian “Mahabharata”), Achilles, Odysseus, Ilya of Murom to Till Eulenspiegel and Taras Bulba, invariably exalted and poeticized.

In the same row are the central figures of medieval chivalric novels and their similarities in the literature of recent centuries, what are the characters in detective stories, science fiction, adventure works for youth, and sometimes “great” literature (remember Ruslan and the young Dubrovsky in Pushkin, the hero of E. Rostand’s play “Cyrano de Bergerac”, Lancelot from “Dragon” by E. Schwartz).

Secondly, these are romantically minded rebels and spiritual wanderers in XIX literature-XX centuries - be it Goethe’s Faust, Byron’s Cain, Lermontov’s Demon, Nietzsche’s Zarathustra, or (in another, down-to-earth variation) such heroic ideologists as Onegin, Pechorin, Beltov, Raskolnikov, Orestes (“The Flies” by J.-P. Sartre).

The named characters (Zarathustra is a significant exception) are, as it were, half-heroes, or even anti-heroes, such as, for example, the central character of Notes from Underground and F.M.’s Stavrogin. Dostoevsky. In the appearance and destinies of the characters of this, so to speak, “demonic” series, the futility of intellectual and other adventurism, devoid of connections with morality and cultural tradition great historical time.

Thirdly, the heroic-adventurous principle is to some extent involved in romantically minded characters who are alien to any demonism, believe that their soul is beautiful, and are eager to realize their rich potential, considering themselves to be some kind of chosen ones and lights. This kind of orientation in the coverage of writers, as a rule, is internally crisis-ridden, full of sad drama, and leads to dead ends and disasters.

According to Hegel, “the new knights are predominantly young men who have to fight their way through the worldly cycle that takes place instead of their ideals.” Similar heroes, continues German philosopher, “consider it a misfortune” that the facts of prosaic reality “cruelly oppose their ideals and the infinite law of the heart”: they believe that “it is necessary to make a hole in this order of things, to change, improve the world, or, at least, in spite of it, to create a heavenly corner on earth."

Characters of this kind (remember Goethe’s Werther, Pushkin’s Lensky, Goncharov’s Aduev Jr., Chekhov's characters) heroes in in every sense words are not. Their lofty thoughts and noble impulses turn out to be illusory and futile; romantically inclined characters suffer defeats, suffer, die, or over time come to terms with the “base prose” of existence and become philistines, or even careerists. “Hero,” notes G.K. Kosikov, based on the writing experience of Stendhal, Balzac, Flaubert, becomes a bearer of ideal and degradation at the same time.”

Thus, the hero of romantic and post-romantic literature (both in his “demonic” and “beautiful” varieties), while maintaining his involvement in the adventurous-heroic supertype (an aura of his own exclusivity, the will to large-scale acquisitions and accomplishments), at the same time appeared as a symptom and evidence of the cultural and historical crisis and even exhaustion of this supertype.

Among the characters belonging to this supertype, fourthly, we find adventurers themselves, even less heroic than those listed above. From the tricksters of early myths, threads stretch to the characters of medieval and Renaissance short stories, as well as adventure novels. The critical reinterpretation of adventurism in the literature of the New Age is significant, most clearly in the works about Don Juan (starting with Tirso de Molina and Moliere).

The images of place-seekers in high society, careerists in the novels of O. de Balzac, Stendhal, Guy de Maupassant. Hermann in Pushkin’s “The Queen of Spades,” Gogol’s Chichikov, Dostoevsky’s Rakitin and Pyotr Verkhovensky, Tolstoy’s Boris Drubetskoy are in the same row. In other, also very different variations (and far from being apologetic), the type of adventurer is captured in such literary figures of our century as Felix Krul in T. Mann, the famous Ostap Bender of Ilf and Petrov, and the much less popular Komarovsky in Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago.

A completely different, one might say, polar to the adventurous-heroic “supertype” is revealed in medieval hagiographies and those works (including eras close to us) that, to a greater or lesser extent, directly or indirectly, inherit the hagiographic tradition or are akin to it.

This supertype can rightfully be called hagiographic-idyllic. The kinship between hagiographic holiness and idyllic values ​​is clearly evidenced by the famous “The Tale of Peter and Fevronia of Murom,” where “the halo of holiness surrounds not the ascetic monastic life, but the ideal married life in the world and the wise sovereign governance of one’s principality.

Characters this kind are not involved in any struggle for success. They reside in a reality free from the polarization of successes and failures, victories and defeats, and in times of trials they are able to show perseverance, avoiding temptations and dead ends of despair (which is confirmed by the words about one of Shakespeare’s heroes who suffered injustice: he has the gift of translating “into the meek, clear mood of fate, severity" - "As you like it"). Even being prone to mental reflection, characters of this kind (for example, Leskov's Savely Tuberozov) continue to reside in a world of axioms and indisputable truths, rather than deep-seated doubts and insoluble problems.

Spiritual fluctuations in their lives are either absent or turn out to be short-term and, most importantly, completely surmountable (remember: Alyosha Karamazov’s “strange and uncertain moment” after the death of Elder Zosima), although these people are prone to repentant moods. Here there are firm attitudes of consciousness and behavior: what is commonly called loyalty to moral principles.

Such characters are rooted in a close reality with its joys and sorrows, communication skills and everyday activities. They are open to the world around them, capable of loving and being friendly to everyone else, ready for the role of “communication and communication workers” (M.M. Prishvin). They, using the terminology of A.A. Ukhtomsky, is characterized by “dominance to another person.”

In Russian literary classics XIX-XX centuries The hagiographic-idyllic supertype is presented very vividly and widely. Here is Tatiana of the eighth chapter of “Eugene Onegin”, and the “group portrait” of the Grinevs and Mironovs in “The Captain’s Daughter”, and Prince Guidon (“The Tale of Tsar Saltan”), who did not need to go far away in search of happiness.

In post-Pushkin literature, this is Maxim Maksimych M.Yu. Lermontov, characters in the family chronicles of S.T. Aksakova, old-world landowners N.V. Gogol, characters " Family happiness", Rostov and Levin in L.N. Tolstoy, Prince Myshkin and Makar Ivanovich, Tikhon and Zosima by F.M. Dostoevsky.

One could also name many heroes of A.N. Ostrovsky, I.A. Goncharova, N.A. Nekrasova, I.S. Turgeneva, A.P. Chekhov. In the same row - Turbines at M.A. Bulgakov, the hero and heroine of the story “Fro” by A.P. Platonova, Matryona A.I. Solzhenitsyn, a number of characters in our “village” prose (for example, Ivan Afrikanovich in “ Business as usual" IN AND. Belova, the hero of the story “Alyosha Beskonvoyny” by V.M. Shukshina).

Turning to the Russian diaspora, let's call the prose of B.K. Zaitsev and I.S. Shmelev (in particular, Gorkin from “The Summer of the Lord” and “Politics”). In the literature of other countries, such persons are deeply significant in Charles Dickens, and in our century - in the tragic novels and stories of W. Faulkner.

The origins of the hagiographic-idyllic supertype are the characters of the ancient Greek myth Philemon and Baucis, who were awarded by the gods for loyalty in love for each other, for kindness and hospitality: their hut turned into a temple, and they themselves were granted longevity and simultaneous death.

From here threads stretch to the idylls of Theocritus, Virgil’s “Bucolics” and “Georgics”, the idyll novel “Daphnis and Chloe” by Long, to Ovid, who directly turned to the myth of Philemon and Baucis, and - after many centuries - to I.V. Goethe (the corresponding episode of the second part of Faust, as well as the poem “Herman and Dorothea”). The origins of the “supertype” under consideration are a myth not about gods, but about people, about the human in man (but not the human-divine, if we resort to vocabulary characteristic of the beginning of the Russian 20th century).

The hagiographic-idyllic supertype was also outlined by the didactic epic of Hesiod. In "Works and Days" Homer's apology for military prowess, booty and glory was rejected, and everyday life was glorified. common sense and peaceful peasant labor, good behavior in the family and moral order, which is based on folk legend and experiences captured in proverbs and fables.

The world of the characters in the series under consideration was also preceded by ancient Greek symposia, which gave rise to the tradition of friendly mental conversation. In this regard, the figure of Socrates is important as real personality and as the hero of Plato’s dialogues, where the great thinker of antiquity appears as the initiator and leading participant in peaceful and confidential conversations, often accompanied by friendly smiles. The most striking dialogue in this regard is the Phaedo, about last hours life of a philosopher.

In the formation of the hagiographic-idyllic supertype, the fairy tale also played its role with its interest in what is valuable in the implicit and formless, be it the stepdaughter Cinderella or Ivanushka the Fool, or good wizard, whose features are possessed by the scribe-sage Prospero from Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”.

Heroes of a hagiographical-idyllic orientation are characterized by non-alienation from reality and involvement in the environment; their behavior is creative in the presence of “kindred attention” to the world (M.M. Prishvin). Apparently, there is reason to talk about a trend in the development of literature: from positive coverage of adventurous-heroic orientations to their critical presentation and to an increasingly clear understanding and figurative embodiment of hagiographic and idyllic values.

This trend, in particular, was reflected with classical clarity in creative evolution AC. Pushkin (from " Caucasian prisoner" and "Gypsy" to "Belkin's Tales" and "The Captain's Daughter"). It finds justification and explanation in the philosophizing experiments of our century. Thus, the modern German philosopher J. Habermas argues that instrumental action, oriented towards success, eventually gives way to communicative action aimed at establishing mutual understanding and striving for the unity of people.

Literary characters can appear not only as “bearers” of value orientations, but also as embodiments of, of course, negative traits or as the focus of trampled, suppressed, failed humanity. The origins of the “negative” supertype, worthy of ridicule and denunciation, passing through the centuries, are the hunchbacked and askew, grumbling and mocking Thersites, the enemy of Achilles and Odysseus, who is described in the Iliad. This is perhaps the first European literature antihero.

This word was introduced into use by F.M. Dostoevsky: “All the traits for an anti-hero are deliberately collected here” (“Notes from the Underground”). Suppressed humanity is embodied in the myth of Sisyphus, doomed to an existence hopelessly painful and meaningless. Here a person has no time for value orientations! Sisyphus as an archetypal figure was considered by A. Camus in his work “The Myth of Sisyphus. An Essay on the Absurd." The named characters of ancient Greek mythology anticipate much in the literature of later and closer eras.

In reality, where there is no place for any worthy of a person landmarks and goals, many Russian characters live writers of the 19th century in., in particular - N.V. Gogol. Let us remember, for example, the crazy Poprishchin, or Akakiy Akakievich with his greatcoat, or Major Kovalev, who lost his nose.

“The leading Gogol theme,” says S.G. Bocharov, “there was “fragmentation,” historically widely understood as the essence of the entire European modern era, which reached its culmination in the 19th century; the characterization of modern life in all its manifestations as fragmented and fractional extends to man himself.

In Gogol's St. Petersburg stories with the hero-official, a special scale of depiction of a person was established. This scale is such that a person is perceived as a particle and a fractional value (if not “zero,” as the head of the department suggests to Poprishchina).”

The person here, Bocharov continues, speaking about the hero of “The Overcoat,” is “a creature reduced not only to the absolute minimum of human existence, value and significance, but simply to the zero of all this”: “Akakiy Akakievich is not just a “little man.” It is, one might say, even “smaller” little man, below the most human measure."

Many characters in “post-Gogol” literature are completely subordinated to lifeless routine, deadened stereotypes of the environment, and are subject to their own selfish motives. They either languish over the monotony and meaninglessness of existence, or they reconcile with it and feel satisfied.

In their world there is present, if not reigns supreme, what Blok called “immense) gray spider-like boredom.” Such is the hero of the story “Ionych” and his numerous similarities in Chekhov, such (in a unique variation) is the atmosphere of a number of Dostoevsky’s works. Let us remember the terrible image that arose in Svidrigailov’s imagination: eternity is like a neglected village bathhouse with spiders.

A person driven (or driven himself) into a dead end of boredom was repeatedly recognized and portrayed by writers as oriented only hedonistically - towards bodily pleasures, as alien to morality, tolerant of evil and prone to its apology.

Baudelaire in Western European literature - Marivaux, Lesage, Prévost, Diderot and de Sade) - hedonism and its flip side, evil) were subjected to careful, varied and impressively bleak analysis.

Speaking about Dostoevsky’s characters as those who preceded the human reality of a number of works of the 20th century. J. Kristeva, not without reason, uses such phrases as “cracked selves”, “split subjects”, bearers of “torn consciousness”.

A person whose value guidelines have been shaken or are completely absent has become the subject of close attention of writers of our century. These are the horrors of F. Kafka, and the theater of the absurd, and images of participants in the mass extermination of people, and the artistic concept of man as a monster, a monstrous creature.

This is (in the most approximate outlines) the character sphere of a literary work, if you look at it from the perspective of axiology (theory of values).

V.E. Khalizev Theory of literature. 1999

Character concept

In literature, the term “character” is used to denote the image of a person who participates in the events of a work of art.

Let's compare different interpretations of this term.

The term "character" is taken from the French language and is of Latin origin. The word “persona” was used to describe the mask worn by the actor and, later, the face depicted in a work of art.

In modern literary criticism, the phrases “character” and “literary hero” are often used in the same meaning as “character.”

N.D. Tamarchenko in literary encyclopedia terms and concepts defines the term “character” as well as “literary hero”:

“A literary hero is a character in a literary work, as well as a bearer of a point of view on reality, on himself and other characters.”

The concept of “character” is broader than the concept of “image”.

A character is any character in a work, so it is incorrect to replace the concepts of “image” or “lyrical hero” with this concept. But we note that in relation to the minor characters of the work, we can only use this concept. Sometimes you can come across the following definition: a character is a person who does not influence the event, who is not important in revealing the main problems and ideological conflicts.

A character (French personage, from Latin persona - personality, face) is an active person, as well as one of the main elements of the subjective structure of a verbal work, along with the author - creator, storyteller (or narrator). P. is a secondary literary subject (P. and the storyteller / narrator are created by the author - the primary speech subject), his word (replicas, dialogues, monologues) is the subject of the image for the narrator or storyteller.

A character (from the Latin persona - face, personality) is the protagonist of a drama, novel, story and other works of art. The term is more often used to refer to minor characters.

Character (French personage, from Latin persona, face mask), usually the same as a literary hero. In literary criticism, the term "P." is used in a narrower, but not always the same sense, which is often revealed only in context.

A character is any character (or allegorical figure) of a literary work, regardless of its significance in the narrative and personal qualities.

A character (from the French personage - personality, face) is a character in a work of art. Typically, the character accepts Active participation in the development of actions, but the author or one of the literary heroes can also talk about it. There are main and secondary characters. In some works the focus is on one character (“A Hero of Our Time”), in others the writer’s attention is drawn to a whole range of characters (“War and Peace”).

Character (from the Latin persona - person, face, mask) is a type of artistic image, the subject of an action, experience, statement in a work. In the same meaning, in modern literary criticism the phrases literary hero, character are used (mainly in drama, where the list of characters traditionally follows the title of the play).

A literary character is, in essence, a series of successive appearances of one person within a given text. Over the course of one text, the hero can be found in the most different forms.

A character is a character in a drama, novel, story and other works of art. The term "P." often used in relation to minor characters.

A character, in the strict sense of the term, should be understood as a type of artistic image of a character endowed with external and internal individuality. The general synonymous series: character and protagonist is complemented by the no less popular phrase literary hero.

Epic and dramatic works depict human individuals with their inherent behavior and appearance. worldview. These individuals are usually called either characters, or characters, or heroes of a work, or, finally, characters.

A character is a type of artistic image, a subject of action. This term in a certain context can be replaced by the concepts of “character” or “literary hero”, but in a strict theoretical sense these are different terms. This interchangeability is explained by the fact that, translated from Latin word"character" means an actor playing a role wearing a mask, expressing a certain type of character, therefore literally a character.

The terms “character”, “character”, “hero”, “actor” are used in all the works of scientists.

The word "character" denotes an object artistic knowledge: embodiment in human individuality of common, essential, socially conditioned properties of a number of people.

The word “hero” is unsuccessful when applied to characters in whom negative traits predominate... The expression “character” does not look convincing when applied to characters who manifest themselves in actions less than in the emotional perception of the environment and reflections on what they see.

The hero is one of the central characters in a literary work, active in incidents that are fundamental to the development of the action, focusing the reader’s attention on himself.

The phrase “literary hero” arose in ancient times under the influence of ancient Greek mythology. In myths, along with gods and titans, there were so-called heroes, descendants of mixed marriages, demigods, half-people. Gradually, the status of the character decreased, but he continued, in accordance with tradition, to be called a hero, and if such a character was at the very bottom of the social ladder: Bashmachkin, Plyushkin. But, obviously, it is awkward to call someone who lacks heroic traits a hero.

Choosing the optimal terminological option, we prefer to call images of people endowed with high positive content “heroes”, and “characters” or “characters” (usually in dramatic work) - the rest. The last two terms are neutral and do not carry an inappropriate evaluative element.

Talking about this concept, we must consider the content of the character's image. In each image-character there is an individual and a general. By degree of generality artistic images can be divided into individual, characteristic, typical.

Individual images are original, unique. With their help, the writer strives to emphasize the exceptional features of the hero.

A characteristic image already generalizes. It contains features inherent in many people of a certain era and a certain social class.

A typical image represents the highest level of a characteristic image. The typical image contains and concentrates the most significant and indicative features and qualities of people of a certain era, belonging to a particular social group, nation. The universal human content of image-types makes their names household names far beyond the boundaries of the environment and era that gave birth to them.

Let's look at the character system.

The artistic form of a work consists of individual images. Their sequence and interaction with each other - important point, without which it is impossible to understand either the shades of artistic content or the originality of the form that embodies it.

Like any system, the character sphere of a work is characterized through its constituent elements (characters) and structure - “a relatively stable way (law) of connecting elements.”

The character system is the correlation of all the characters in a work of art, their classification: main and secondary, male and female, episodic, non-stage (in a dramatic work). Characters, as a rule, are connected by the course of events depicted, artistic logic author, and form a complete system. Analysis of this correlation and understanding of the features of constructing a character system help to understand artistic design author

The character system is a certain ratio of characters. There are three types of characters:

· main

· minor

episodic

The main characters are at the center of the plot, so the reader’s main attention is directed to them; have independent characters and are directly related to all levels of the content of the work.

The secondary characters are quite actively involved in the plot and have their own character, but they are given less authorial attention; in some cases, their function is to help reveal the images of the main characters. They help express the idea of ​​the work.

Episodic characters appear in several episodes of the plot, often do not have their own character, and stand on the periphery of the author’s attention; their main function is to give impetus to the plot action at the right moment or to highlight certain aspects of the main and secondary characters.

The character system is a strict hierarchical structure. Heroes are typically differentiated based on their artistic significance (value). They are separated by the degree of authorial attention (or frequency of image), ontological purpose and the functions they perform. Traditionally, there are main, secondary and episodic characters.

The main characters, those whose fate attracted Special attention writers are called heroes. Other characters are divided into minor, auxiliary and incidental or situational." "In this case, the following complications are possible: minor characters can, while attracting the reader's attention, at the same time attract his sympathy or dissympathy; in the first case, the author usually seeks to set limits on the reader's interest.

In general, regarding the classification of characters, we can talk about a well-known polyphony of research literature; the use of terms in most cases is determined individual approach researcher. So it stands out " central character, whose psychology and point of view on events is revealed by the author”, the “centralizing role of the main character” is noted, as well as “side characters” and “supporting characters”. In the system of structural analysis Yu.M. Lotman distinguishes “two groups of characters: mobile and stationary,” i.e. "actors and conditions and circumstances of action".

The main characters are always “in sight”, always at the center of the work. They have a strong character and strong will. And therefore they actively master and transform artistic reality: predetermine events, perform actions, conduct dialogues. The main characters are characterized by a well-remembered appearance and a clear value orientation. Sometimes they express the basic, general idea of ​​creation; become the author’s “mouthpiece”.

The number of characters at the center of a literary narrative may vary. At I.A. Bunin in “The Life of Arsenyev” we see only one main character. In the Old Russian “Tale of Peter and Fevronya” there are two characters in the center. In J. London's novel “The Hearts of Three” there are already three main characters.

Around the main characters, minor ones are grouped, participating in the struggle on one side or the other (the most important property of the structure is hierarchy). At the same time, the diversity of specific characters in archaic plot genres can be classified.

Secondary characters are located next to the main characters, but somewhat behind them, in the background of the artistic image. The heroes of the second row, as a rule, are the parents, relatives, friends, acquaintances, and colleagues of the heroes of the first row. Characters and portraits minor characters rarely detailed; rather, they appear dotted. These heroes help the main characters “open up” and ensure the development of the action.

To understand the main problematic character(s), secondary characters can play a large role, highlighting various properties of his character; as a result, a whole system of parallels and contrasts, dissimilarities in similarities and similarities in dissimilarities arises.

Episodic characters are on the periphery of the world of the work. They don’t quite have characters and act as passive executors of the author’s will. Their functions are purely official. They only appear in one select episode, which is why they are called cameos. Such are the servants and messengers in ancient literature, janitors, carters, casual acquaintances in the literature of the 19th century.

Minor, episodic characters, to whom the author pays significantly less attention than the central figures, in most cases play a supporting role... The role of minor characters is often reduced to the function of a “spring” that sets the plot mechanism in motion.

But it often happens that the character’s parameters do not coincide with each other, most often in cases where a minor or episodic person from the point of view of the plot carries a large content load.

Complex compositional and semantic relationships can arise between the characters of a work: two images are opposed to each other, one character is opposed to all others, characters are united by similarity.

The characters in a real work of fiction constitute a complete system. They are somehow “linked” together not only by the course of the events depicted, but also, ultimately, by the logic of the writer’s artistic thinking. The system of characters reveals the content of the works, but it itself reveals one of the sides of their composition.

A character is a character in a work of art with his characteristic behavior, appearance, and worldview.

In modern literary criticism, the phrases “character” and “literary hero” are often used in the same meaning as “character.” But the concept of “character” is neutral and does not contain an evaluative function.

According to the degree of generality, artistic images are divided into individual, characteristic, and typical.

IN works of art A special system is formed between the characters. The character system is a strict hierarchical structure.

The character system is a certain ratio of characters.

There are three types of characters:

· main

· minor

episodic

· according to the degree of participation in the plot and, accordingly, the amount of text that this character is given

by degree of importance this character to reveal aspects of artistic content.

Who is a literary character? We devote our article to this issue. In it we will tell you where this name came from, what literary characters and images are, and how to describe them in literature lessons according to your desire or the teacher’s request.

Also from our article you will learn what an “eternal” image is and what images are called eternal.

Literary hero or character. Who is this?

We often hear the concept of “literary character”. But few can explain what we are talking about. And even schoolchildren who have recently returned from a literature lesson often find it difficult to answer the question. What is this mysterious word “character”?

It came to us from ancient Latin (persona, personnage). The meaning is “personality”, “person”, “person”.

So, a literary character is an active person. We are mainly talking about prose genres, since images in poetry are usually called “lyrical hero”.

It is impossible to write a story or poem, novel or story without characters. Otherwise, it will be a meaningless collection of, if not words, then perhaps events. The heroes are people and animals, mythological and fantastic creatures, inanimate objects, for example, Andersen’s steadfast tin soldier, historical figures and even entire nations.

Classification of literary heroes

They can confuse any literature connoisseur with their quantity. And it’s especially hard for secondary school students. And especially those who prefer to play their favorite game instead of doing homework. How to classify heroes if a teacher or, even worse, an examiner demands it?

The most win-win option: classify the characters according to their importance in the work. According to this criterion, literary heroes are divided into main and secondary. Without the main character, the work and its plot will be a collection of words. But if we lose minor characters, we will lose a certain branch storyline or expressiveness of events. But overall the work will not suffer.

The second classification option is more limited and is suitable not for all works, but for fairy tales and fantasy genres. This is the division of heroes into positive and negative. For example, in the fairy tale about Cinderella, poor Cinderella herself - positive hero, she evokes pleasant emotions, you sympathize with her. And here are the sisters and evil stepmother- clearly heroes of a completely different type.

Characteristics. How to write?

Heroes of literary works sometimes (especially in a literature lesson at school) need a detailed description. But how to write it? The option “once upon a time there was such a hero. He is from a fairy tale about this and that” is clearly not suitable if the assessment is important. We will share with you a win-win option for writing a characterization of a literary (and any other) hero. We offer you a plan with brief explanations what and how to write.

• Introduction. Name the work and the character you will talk about. Here you can add why you want to describe it.
• The place of the hero in the story (novel, story, etc.). Here you can write whether he is major or minor, positive or negative, a person or a mythical or historical figure.
• Appearance. It would not be amiss to include quotes, which will show you as an attentive reader, and will also add volume to your description.
• Character. Everything is clear here.
• Actions and their characteristics in your opinion.
• Conclusions.

That's all. Keep this plan for yourself, and it will come in handy more than once.

Famous literary characters

Although the very concept of a literary hero may seem completely unfamiliar to you, if you tell you the name of the hero, you will most likely remember a lot. Especially it concerns famous characters literature, for example, such as Robinson Crusoe, Don Quixote, Sherlock Holmes or Robin Hood, Assol or Cinderella, Alice or Pippi Longstocking.

Such heroes are called famous literary characters. These names are familiar to children and adults from many countries and even continents. Not knowing them is a sign of narrow-mindedness and lack of education. Therefore, if you don’t have time to read the work itself, ask someone to tell you about these characters.

The concept of image in literature

Along with character, you can often hear the concept of “image”. What is this? Same as the hero or not? The answer will be both positive and negative, because a literary character may well be literary way, but the image itself does not have to be a character.

We often call this or that hero an image, but nature can appear in the same image in a work. And then the topic of the examination paper can be “the image of nature in the story...”. What to do in this case? The answer is in the question itself: if we are talking about nature, you need to characterize its place in the work. Start with a description, add character elements, for example, “the sky was gloomy,” “the sun was mercilessly hot,” “the night was frightening with its darkness,” and the characterization is ready. Well, if you need a description of the hero’s image, then how to write it, see the plan and tips above.

What are the images?

Our next question. Here we will highlight several classifications. Above we looked at one - images of heroes, that is, people/animals/mythical creatures and images of nature, images of peoples and states.

Also, images can be so-called “eternal”. What's happened " eternal image"? This concept names a hero who was once created by an author or folklore. But he was so “characteristic” and special that after years and eras other authors write their characters from him, perhaps giving them other names, but that doesn’t make any difference changing Such heroes include the fighter Don Quixote, the hero-lover Don Juan and many others.

Unfortunately, modern fantasy characters do not become eternal, despite the love of fans. Why? What's better than this funny Don Quixote of Spider-Man, for example? It's difficult to explain this in a nutshell. Only reading the book will give you the answer.

The concept of "closeness" of the hero, or My favorite character

Sometimes the hero of a work or movie becomes so close and loved that we try to imitate him, to be like him. This happens for a reason, and it’s not for nothing that the choice falls on this character. Often a favorite hero becomes an image that somehow resembles ourselves. Perhaps the similarity is in character, or in the experiences of both the hero and you. Or this character is in a situation similar to yours, and you understand and sympathize with him. In any case, it's not bad. The main thing is that you imitate only worthy heroes. And there are plenty of them in the literature. We wish you to meet only good heroes and imitate only the positive traits of their character.

Etc. A character is any person, person, personality, or entity that exists in a work of art. The process of presenting information about characters in fiction is called characterization. Characters may be completely fictional or based on a real, historical basis. Characters can be human, animal, supernatural, mythical, divine, or personifications from the abstract.

In its usual meaning, the same as a literary hero. In literary criticism the term character used in a narrower, but not always the same sense. Most often under character the actor is understood. But here, too, two interpretations differ:

1. A person represented and characterized in action rather than in description; then the concept character Most of all correspond to the heroes of dramaturgy, the images-roles.
2. Any actor, subject of action in general. In this interpretation, the character is opposed only to the “pure” subject of experience appearing in the lyrics, which is why the term character not applicable to the so-called “lyrical hero”: you cannot say “lyrical character”.

Under character sometimes only a minor person is understood. In this understanding the term character correlates with the narrowed meaning of the term hero- the central person or one of the central persons of the work. On this basis, the expression “episodic character” arose.

Archetypes

A character in particular may be based on an archetype, which is a general characterization image, such as those listed below. Jung's archetypes are modeled on mythology, legends and folk tales. For example, Puck from William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Bugs Bunny demonstrate the Jungian trickster archetype, as they challenge established standards of behavior. After being accepted by literary criticism, archetypes began to play special role in the plot.

see also

• Ethos is an ancient Greek term for character, used by Aristotle in Poetics

Notes

Categories:

• Literary theory
• Characters
• Film and Video Terminology
• Role-playing game concepts
• Computer games
• Theater
• Analytical psychology

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See what “Character” is in other dictionaries:

- (French personnage, from personne person, personality). A significant, important person; a role played by an actor or actress. Dictionary foreign words, included in the Russian language. Chudinov A.N., 1910. CHARACTER character Ph.D. theatrical... ... Dictionary of foreign words of the Russian language

character- a, m. personnage m. 1. A character in a work of art (usually a drama, novel). BAS 1. Each of the courtiers was afraid that the character’s old age would stick to him along with his clothes. Duty. Temple 70. Here are all the main singers... ... Historical Dictionary of Gallicisms of the Russian Language

In fiction there is a character. Since it is man who is the bearer of social relations, in fiction, images reflecting people in their interactions are the most frequent and the most... ... Literary encyclopedia

Cm … Synonym dictionary

CHARACTER, character, vin. pl. eat and live, husband. (French personnage). 1. A character in a dramatic or literary work (lit.). Character in the play. 2. transfer Person, personality (ironic). Comic character. Dictionary Ushakova. D.N.... ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary