Character
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This woodcut from Pantagruel-the great burlesque novel by French writer François Rabelais (about 1494- 1553)-depicts the giant Panurge, a roistering student and vagabond. |
The cast of characters can be the most fascinating aspect of any book. When an author develops characters that are clearly described and vibrant, he makes us want to watch what is happening. The central character, the hero (or heroine), is usually the one who we concentrate our attention on as the story's action is focused on him. Generally, he will be seen in more depth "in the round" than other characters.
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The painting below, by the French artist Honoré Daumier, shows Cervantes's aging Don Quixote riding off in search of further adventures, to the dismay of his servant Sancho Panza. |
On the other hand, less important characters can be made very colourful and memorable by highlighting one or two individual characteristics, even though they are "flat" in that we know such a small amount about them. The hero meets a vast number of people in David Copper's area, but each one stands out as a distinct individual because of the talent with which Dickens draws them; for example, the mercurial Mr. Micawber, who is always waiting for "something to turn up" the fawning clerk Uriah Heep, constantly rubbing his hands; and David's quirky aunt Betsy Trotwood.
As we can never really see a story's characters, the storyteller needs to try to build them in our imaginations. If he teaches us much about their physical presence and personality, we will begin to mould perceptions of them. Sometimes, the storyteller succeeds in describing characters so well that they stand out quite independently of the story in our memory. Such a character is the detective Sherlock Holmes, invented by the English writer Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), with his deerstalker hat and curved pipe; or the thin, quirky Don Quixote on his old horse.
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Alice in Wonderland (1865) was one of the first books to feature a child as the central character. This drawing by John Tenniel shows Alice meeting the Dodo-a scene in which Carroll seems to poke fun at Charles Darwin's Origin of Species (published 1859). |
However, watching a character is not enough; to understand him as a human and obey his story, we need to be aware of the desires, feelings, and motivations that drive him to behave as he does. There are many ways the storyteller can do that. He may play the role of an impartial narrator, as did the Scottish novelist Walter Scott (1771-1832) in his historical novels, offering his own interpretations, commentaries, and opinions on the characters.
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A character's vividness will also be enhanced by comparing one form of an individual with another so that major distinctions can be pulled forth. In Fathers and Sons (1862), for example, by the Russian writer Ivan Turgenev (181 8-83), Bazarov's brash, offensive is set against his mild-mannered comrade Kirsanov.
The author obviously builds upon his own understanding and experience of real people when inventing characters. But to keep the reader's attention, he must ensure that his characters adhere to the reader's own understanding with men, to some degree at least. In a plot, we expect a person to do and say exactly what such a person will do and say, even if he can often do-completely "out of character." like real humans. This being one constraint, the author should rely on all the vast possibilities of human existence.
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