Characterization or characterisation is the representation of persons (or other beings or creatures) in narrative and dramaticworks. The term character development is sometimes used as a synonym. This representation may include direct methods like the attribution of qualities in description or commentary, and indirect (or 'dramatic') methods inviting readers to infer qualities from characters' actions, dialogue, or appearance. Such a personage is called a character.^[1] Character is a literary element.^[2]

1. The more it feels real to you, the bigger the chance that the reader will feel at least some of it too. When writing a play a few months ago, I experienced what building characters really means. In a play, that’s all you have: characters and dialogue. The characters need to be developed before you even start writing.
2. Alphanumeric Characters: Since computers (or central processing units, to be specific) use machine language in the form of numbers to communicate, computer programmers need to write their instructions using numbers rather than alphabet characters. To do this, programmers use numeric representations of what humans see as alphabet characters.
3. Villagers can come in several different personality types. They include: Jocks, Uchi (Big Sister), Normal, Peppy, Lazy, Snooty, Cranky, and Smug.Certain types of villagers will always show up on.

History[edit]

The term characterization was introduced in the 19th century.^[3]Aristotle promoted the primacy of plot over characters, that is, a plot-driven narrative, arguing in his Poetics that tragedy 'is a representation, not of men, but of action and life.' This view was reversed in the 19th century, when the primacy of the character, that is, a character-driven narrative, was affirmed first with the realist novel, and increasingly later with the influential development of psychology.

Direct vs. indirect[edit]

There are myriad ways to unlock fighters — the single unifying gist is that the more you play Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in any mode, the more characters you unlock — but there is one method.

There are two ways an author can convey information about a character:

Direct or explicit characterization

The author literally tells the audience what a character is like. This may be done via the narrator, another character or by the character themselves.

Indirect or implicit characterization

The audience must infer for themselves what the character is like through the character's thoughts, actions, speech (choice of words, manner of speaking), physical appearance, mannerisms and interaction with other characters, including other characters' reactions to that particular person.

In drama[edit]

Characters in theater, television, and film differ from those in novels in that an actor may interpret the writer's description and dialogue in their own unique way to add new layers and depth to a character. This can be seen when critics compare, for example, the 'Lady Macbeths' or 'Heathcliffs' of different actors. Another major difference in drama is that it is not possible to 'go inside the character's head' in the way possible in a novel, meaning this method of character exposition is unavailable. Still another is that in drama, a character usually can be seen and heard and need not be described.

In mythology[edit]

Mythological characters have been depicted to be formulaic and are a part of a classification that consists of several differing, limited archetypes, which is type of component. Multiple components, such as archetypes and other elements of a story, together form a type of configuration that results in fully realized myth. These configurations can be mixed and matched together to form new types of configurations, and humans have never tired of using these configurations for their mythologies. This is an idea that uses the kaleidoscopic model on narrating for mythology. Another perspective holds that humans when reading or hearing a mythology do not dissect it into various parts, that when physically together humans do not tell stories by using limited components in a configuration, and that people and their cultures do change and thus this leads to new developments in stories, including characters.^[4]

Mythological characters have influence that extends to recent works of literature. The poet Platon Oyunsky draws heavily from the native mythology of his homeland, the Yakut region in Russia and the Sahka people. In several of his stories, he depicts a main character that follows historic examples of heroism, but fashions the main character using Soviet examples of heroism, even using real life figures, such as Stalin, Lenin, etc. in a new type of mythology. These figures often play the lead in tragic stories full of sacrifice.^[5] An example of this includes his character Tygyn, who on his quest for peace determines that the only way for peace to exist is to use military strength to enforce.^[6] The use of mythology is used in Shakespeare's Hamlet as a device to parallel the characters and to reflect back on them their role in the story, such as the use of the Niobe myth and the twin sister of Gertrude.^[7]

Character archetypes[edit]

The psychologist Carl Jung identified twelve primary 'original patterns' of the human psyche. He believed that these reside in the collective subconscious of people across cultural and political boundaries. These twelve archetypes are often cited in fictional characters. 'Flat' characters may be considered so because they stick to a single archetype without deviating, whereas 'complex' or 'realistic' characters will combine several archetypes, with some being more dominant than others – as people are in real life.Jung's twelve archetypes are: the Innocent, the Orphan, the Hero, the Caregiver, the Explorer, the Rebel, the Lover, the Creator, the Jester, the Sage, the Magician, and the Ruler.^[8]

Character's voice[edit]

A character's voice is his or her manner of speech.^[9] Different characters use different vocabularies and rhythms of speech. For example, some characters are talkative, others taciturn. The way a character speaks can be a powerful way of revealing the character's personality. In theory, a reader should be able to identify which character is speaking simply from the way he or she talks.^[10] When a character voice has been created that is rich and distinctive, the writer can get away with omitting many speech attributions (tag lines).^[11]

The manner of a character's speech is to literature what an actor's appearance and costume are to cinema.^[12] In fiction, what a character says, as well as how he or she says it, makes a strong impression on the reader.^[13] Each character should have his or her distinctive voice.^[14] To differentiate characters in fiction, the writer must show them doing and saying things, but a character must be defined by more than one single topic of conversation or by the character's accent. The character will have other interests or personality quirks as well.^[15] Although individual temperament is the largest determinant of what a character says, it is not the only one. The writer can make the characters' dialogue more realistic and interesting by considering several factors affecting how people speak: ethnicity, family background, region, gender, education, and circumstances.^[16] Words characterize by their diction, cadence, complexity, and attitude.^[17] Mannerisms and catch-phrases can help too. Considering the degree of formality in spoken language is also useful. Characters who spend a lot of their lives in a more formal setting often use a more formal language all the time, while others never do.^[18] Tone of voice, volume, rate of delivery, vocabulary, inflection, emphasis, pitch, topics of conversation, idioms, colloquialisms, and figures of speech: all of these are expressions of who the character is on the inside.^[19] A character's manner of speech must grow from the inside out. The speaking is how his or her essential personality leaks out for the world to see; it is not the sum total of his or her personality.^[20]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

1. ^Baldick (2004, p. 37)
2. ^Literature (2015, p. 353)
3. ^Harrison (1998, pp. 51-2)
4. ^Georges, Robert (1979). 'The Kaleidoscopic Model of Narrating: A Characterization and a Critique'. The Journal of American Folklore. 92 (364): 164–171. doi:10.2307/539386. JSTOR539386.
5. ^Romanova, Lidia Nikolaevna (2018-09-30). 'Myth Creation in the Poetic Evolution of P. A. Oyunsky'. Journal of History Culture and Art Research. 7 (3): 280–292. doi:10.7596/taksad.v7i3.1729. ISSN2147-0626 – via Academic Search Complete.
6. ^Myreeva, Anastasiya Nikitichna (2018-09-30). 'Folklore and Epic Traditions in Yakut Novels between Two Ages'. Journal of History Culture and Art Research. 7 (3): 460–468. doi:10.7596/taksad.v7i3.1737. ISSN2147-0626 – via Academic Search Complete.
7. ^McCollum, Cayla (2012). 'Mirrors: Shakespeare's use of Mythology in Hamlet'. Journal of the Wooden O Symposium. 12: 114–119. ISSN1539-5758 – via Academic Search Complete.
8. ^Golden, Carl. 'The 12 Common Archetypes'. SoulCraft. Retrieved June 29, 2016.
9. ^Gerke (2010, p. 70)
10. ^Hamand (2009, pp. 73–74)
11. ^Gerke (2010, p. 114)
12. ^Gerke (2010, p. 70)
13. ^Kress (2005, p. 104)
14. ^Lamb (2008, pp. 184–185)
15. ^Gerke (2010, p. 68)
16. ^Kress (2005, pp. 106–108)
17. ^Kress (2005, p. 179)
18. ^Hamand (2009, pp. 73–74)
19. ^Gerke (2010, pp. 70–71)
20. ^Gerke (2010, p. 70)

References[edit]

• Aston, Elaine, and George Savona (1991), Theatre as Sign-System: A Semiotics of Text and Performance. London and New York: Routledge. ISBN0-415-04932-6.
• Baldick, Chris (2004), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN978-0-19-860883-7
• Gerke, Jeff (2010), Plot versus Character: A Balanced Approach to Writing Great Fiction, Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books, ISBN978-1-58297-992-2
• 'Literature'. World Book Encyclopedia. Chicago: World Book. 2015. ISBN978-0-7166-0115-9.
• Hamand, Maggie (2009), Creative Writing for Dummies (uk ed.), Chicester: Wiley, ISBN978-0-470-74291-4
• Harrison, Martin (1998), The Language of Theatre. London: Routledge. ISBN0-87830-087-2.
• Kress, Nancy (2005), Write Great Fiction: Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint, Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books, ISBN1-58297-316-4
• Lamb, Nancy (2008), The Art and Craft of Storytelling: A Comprehensive Guide to Classic Writing Techniques, Cincinnati: Writer's Digest Books, ISBN978-1-58297-559-7

External links[edit]

• Outline on Literary Elements at the Wayback Machine (archived November 11, 2007) by Dr. Marilyn H. Stauffer of the University of South Florida
• Lecture about Fiction by Professor Waters of the Western Kentucky University, especially the accompanying PowerPoint presentation
• Character and characterisation in The UVic Writer's Guide (from the University of Victoria)

Flat Character Definition

What is a flat character? Here’s a quick and simple definition:

Chapter 1 focuses on Plate Tectonics, looking at the Earth's layers, Earth's evolution, and plate movement. Lessons included in this chapter: #1 The Earth's Layers #2 Pangea to Present #3 How Earth's Plates Move. Resources for Teachers can be found under the Chapter #1 Copymaster. Plate tectonics Tectonic plates are pieces of the rocky outer layer of the Earth known as the crust. These plates are constantly moving, and volcanoes and earthquakes are found at plate. Tectonics plates theory. Plate tectonics. Scroll down to access units of work. All content copyright geographypods unless otherwise stated. Photos used under Creative Commons from Nathan Callahan, peterhartree. Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.

A character is said to be 'flat' if it is one-dimensional or lacking in complexity. Typically, flat characters can be easily and accurately described using a single word (like 'bully') or one short sentence (like 'A naive and idealistic schoolteacher with a fragile heart of gold'). The important thing about flat characters is that they never transcend or break with the formula that defines them.

Some additional key details about flat characters:

• The opposite of a flat character is a round character, or a complex and lifelike character with a multi-faceted personality and background.
• Minor characters are often flat characters simply because they aren't as important to the story as the main characters (so readers don't need to know a lot about them). But any character in a story can be flat, including main characters.
• Just because a character is flat doesn't necessarily mean that they are dull or poorly-written. It just means that they are one-dimensional.

More Characters In Avengers Game

Flat Character Pronunciaton

Here's how to pronounce flat character: flatkar-ik-ter

The Origin Story of Flat Characters

The word 'flat' was first used to describe fictional characters by E.M. Forster in his 1927 book The Aspects of the Novel. In his original definition of the term, Forster focused on the idea that flat characters are defined by a single idea or quality (like “overbearing mother” or “villain”) from which they fail to deviate in any meaningful way. In other words, Forster wrote, flat characters lack the ability to surprise readers, or to do so in a convincing manner. Because a lack of complexity is the hallmark of a flat character, it's common for readers to have very little information about a flat character's background or the motivations behind their actions.

Flat Characters Aren't Always Badly Done

While Forster believed that most novels need at least one complex and fully-realized character in order to elicit a reader’s sympathy and engagement, he also believed that there were many good reasons to include flat characters in a story. In particular, he noted the value of a flat character’s memorability and intelligibility to readers. Put differently: although readers don't tend to relate to flat characters very easily because they're not lifelike or complex, readers do understand flat characters very easily, because they usually follow familiar formulas. For this reason, Forster wrote, flat characters “are best when they are comic,' whereas 'a serious or tragic flat character is apt to be a bore.”

Forster uses the example of Mrs. Micawber from Charles Dickens' David Copperfield to illustrate how a flat character can serve an important function in a story without making the entire story seem to be 'flat,' unconvincing, or lacking in complexity:

Mrs. Micawber comes from a well-to-do family that disapproves of her husband, who is kindhearted but financially unstable. She constantly avers that she will 'never leave Micawber!' She is a flat character because she is only defined by her devotion to her husband, but she still plays an important role in a narrative that focuses on the plight of the working class.

Today, people sometimes mistakenly believe the the term 'flat character' is only ever used to critique a character who they think is poorly-written. While it certainly is a problem to have a character come across as flat if they were intended to be round, the term “flat character” is not necessarily a criticism, as the example of Mrs. Micawber shows.

Flat Character vs. Round Character

In order to get a strong understanding of what makes a character flat, it's helpful to study the term's opposite: the round character. Rather than being one-dimensional like a flat character, a round character is multi-dimensional. Here's the most important information about round characters:

More Characters Mod Sonic Mania

• A character is said to be 'round' if they are lifelike or complex. Round characters typically have fully fleshed-out and multi-faceted personalities, backgrounds, desires, and motivations.
• It would be difficult to describe a round character using a couple of adjective or a single sentence. Like real people, they tend to have complicated lives and histories, and sometimes their desires can even feel contradictory.
• Just because a character is round doesn't necessarily mean that they are interesting, likable, or well-written. It just means that they are multi-dimensional.
• Protagonists are often round characters simply because readers know a lot about them, but any character in a story can be round.

In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the narrator and protagonist, Scout, is a round character. The reader is able to understand how Scout thinks (she's confident and intelligent) and what she feels (she worries about the morality of mankind), which can be attributed to her backstory (her father, Atticus, is respected for his wisdom, which he imparts to his daughter). Scout is a complicated and unusual girl, whose personality cannot accurately be conveyed in one sentence or phrase. It takes an entire novel to begin to understand her.

Flat Character vs. Static Character

It's a common mistake to use the term 'static character' as a synonym for 'flat character,' but these terms actually refer to different aspects of the character and should not be confused. Here's a run-down of the basic difference:

• 'Static' refers to whether a character changes: A static character is one that does not undergo substantial changes in terms of their beliefs and personality as a result of plot developments in a story. Both flat and round characters can be static.
• 'Flat' refers to a character's complexity: A flat character can be described as one-dimensional and can be summarized in one short sentence or phrase, often using common character types. Flat characters might possess one or two strong characteristics, but they will still fall short of the complexity that defines a round character. Stating that a character is flat has nothing to do with whether or not they have changed over the course of the story.

While flat characters generally are also static, this is not always true. A flat character might change over the course of the story in some way and therefore qualify as a “dynamic character' (for instance, the 'bully' may discover Buddhism and change his ways) but this doesn't necessarily make the character any more complex or lifelike—they might just shift from one sort of flat to another sort of flat.

More Characters In Westernoldo Game

Flat Character Examples

Flat characters are common throughout literature, particularly among the more minor characters. Here are a number of examples.

Flat Character in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the protagonist, Huck, finds himself in a moral dilemma. After he has run away from the home of Widow Douglas and her sister, Miss Watson, Huck runs into Jim, whom he knew as Widow Douglas and Miss Watson’s slave. Jim has also escaped. Huck initially has misgivings, since he was taught that it’s a crime to help a runaway slave, but he also empathizes with Jim and develops an emotional connection to him, which makes him question what he has been taught. Huck and Jim are the focus of the novel, and are both round characters, as they both face internal and external conflicts which reveal their complex personalities and backstories in detail.

Miss Watson and Widow Douglas, on the other hand, can be described much more simply: they are strict women. Widow Douglas believes it’s her Christian duty to reform Huck, and Miss Watson is a tough, old spinster—and that’s about all there is to say about the two women. They never become more complicated, or do anything to disrupt this conception of them. Moreover, the reader is not given any clues as to how the women became who they are or why they act the way they do. Rather, they serve as a simple foil to Huck's more open-minded, humanist attitude toward Jim. In other words, their primary function is to help create the various situations that reveal the complexity of the main characters.

More Characters Slay The Spire

Flat Character in Bram Stoker's Dracula

The story of Dracula is about a wealthy nobleman named Count Dracula who is in fact a diabolical vampire. When a solicitor named Jonathan Harker visits Dracula's castle, he is struck by Dracula's gracious manners, but soon comes to realize that he is being held prisoner. Harker observes many strange behaviors in the castle: Dracula scales the wall like a lizard and, Harker believes, can turn into a bat. As the story progresses, Harker's fiancé and her friend become involved as Dracula 'infects' both of them by sucking their blood and infecting them so that they become vampires. The plot is complex, but Dracula's character and motivations are not complex: all he wants to do is suck blood, and convert others into bloodsucking vampires. Because he is motivated by such simple desires, which are never complicated by new background information or any of the many conflicts that arise, Dracula is a flat character.

Flat Character in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God

Being A Person Of Character

Janie’s life story is the primary focus of Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God. Janie is a fair-skinned black woman who has returned to Eatonville, Florida, after having left with a man she fell in love with, Tea Cake. She meets her old friend, Pheoby Watson, who stood up for Janie when others in the town gossiped about her love life, and Janie begins to tell Pheoby what her life was like before departing and what became of her once she left—and this story comprises most of the novel. Janie’s life has been shaped by the pervasive racism and sexism she has encountered, and the bulk of her story centers on men she has loved and trusted who abused her.

Pheoby’s presence in the story is crucial, because she serves as an audience for Janie's retelling of her life story, which she otherwise might not have told. Furthermore, the format of this book (Janie as narrator and protagonist) mirrors one of the book's main themes (Janie’s ability to find her own voice at the end of the story). In other words, Hurston seeks to show how Janie has suffered, but has also become empowered. Pheoby is critical to this story and its central themes, yet readers know almost nothing about her. Phoeby is an honest woman who trusts her friend, but that’s about all that Hurston reveals, which makes Phoeby a flat character. Pheoby's role in the story is to help advance the plot, and to allow readers to focus on Janie’s story.

Why do Writers Use Flat Characters?

There are several reasons why a writer might choose to include a flat character in their story. Here are a few of the most common ones:

• Flat characters can be necessary to move a story along. Having too much information about minor characters can detract attention from the protagonist and the story's primary themes and conflicts.
• In stories that are allegorical or instructive, flat characters might be used as a part of symbolism. In other words, a writer might use a flat character like a 'bully' as a stand-in for the idea of negativity or violence more generally—which wouldn't be possible if the bully felt too nuanced and real as a character.
• Flat characters are particularly common in genre fiction (such as science fiction, horror, and crime), where character development isn't emphasized and stories are generally very plot-driven. These stories are populated with flat characters so the reader can focus on the plot rather than character development.
• A flat character can be used to parody cultural stereotypes, and thus their flatness and the audience's ability to clearly recognize what cultural group they represent, can be used for comedy or political commentary.

While flat characters are often important parts of stories, it is also important to note that authors can also inadvertently create flat characters who feel too simple for the roles they are given in the story. In this circumstance, when a character is flat but the story seems to demand that they be more than flat, then the creation of the flat character was a mistake on the part of the author rather than a purposeful choice.

Other Helpful Flat Character Resources

• Dictionary Definition for Flat Character: A basic definition of the term.
• The Wikipedia Page for Character: This is an entry on characters more generally, but one very brief section in it compares round and flat characters.
• Flat and round Character on YouTube: This short video compares round and flat characters.