We Will Again Be Considering the Fictional

Types of Characters in Fiction

Picking upwardly a volume is a not bad way to see new people. Although in that location's ever a main character, whom we learn the most well-nigh, he or she plays off other characters. This makes the other characters important also because, through each interaction, we learn more and more about the main grapheme. This is otherwise known as characterization.

Types of Characters in Fiction

There are 9 types of characters generally found in fiction (and movies as well). All of them take a role to play in driving the story, regardless of how big or small that role is.

Graphic symbol Types

Let'south take a wait at the types of characters in fiction. Once you're aware of the different character types, you'll find yourself noticing them more and more than. The side by side time you pick up a novel, encounter how many you tin can spot.

Protagonist

We must begin our written report with the protagonist, or chief graphic symbol. The protagonist is the central figure around whom the story revolves, similar Katniss Everdean in The Hunger Games. Throughout the story, we will watch him or her (or them) face conflict that must be resolved and make primal decisions that move the story frontwards. Protagonists are often heroic, like Katniss, but they don't have to be.

If you're writing in the commencement person and choosing to tell your story through a narrator, that will typically go your protagonist. However, that's not a hard and fast rule. Consider The Great Gatsby. In this novel, F. Scott Fitzgerald fabricated Nick the narrator, even though Gatsby was the protagonist.

Antihero

The antihero can also be the main character in a story. Typically, nosotros imagine our primary characters to be admirable. Maybe they're people we'd love to know in the "real earth." But, have you ever read a volume where the principal character was defective in sound moral judgment?

Take Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. He'south difficult non to like, fifty-fifty though he wouldn't exist considered a start-rate denizen. Or how well-nigh Lestat de Lioncourt from The Vampire Chronicles? That's i vain man (vampire). Yet, he has moments of altruism, making him difficult to hate too.

Characters like Jack and Lestat are antiheroes. Given their ability to dip in and out of deviant behavior, they can be exciting characters. There's a lot of depth to them. And as they color outside the lines, they, too, volition take to confront some type of conflict.

Adversary

Good, bad, or otherwise, about main characters will be faced with an antagonist, or villain. Often, this is the person that stands in the way of - antagonizes - whatsoever the main grapheme is trying to achieve. Antagonists will set out all kinds of roadblocks and be the source of several drama-filled scenes.

Interestingly, the antagonist doesn't have to be another person. Information technology can exist something the protagonist is facing internally, like addiction, feet, depression, or loneliness.

Can you name Gatsby's antagonist? Well, all Gatsby wanted was Daisy. But, he couldn't take her because she was married to Tom Buchanan. This makes him the guy Gatsby had to confront off against. Across that, Tom was particularly unlikeable because he was cheating on Daisy, but wouldn't permit her exist with the love of her life - Gatsby.

Foil

What would a story be without several juicy bits of drama? A foil is a character (oft the adversary) whose qualities stand in stark dissimilarity to another character (often the protagonist). This contrast provides the reader with a better agreement of each grapheme.

For example, if the protagonist is loyal, brave, and morally audio, each of those qualities will be augmented every fourth dimension we read more virtually the foil character who's disloyal, cowardly, and selfish.

In The Great Gatsby, there'southward no doubt Tom Buchanan was a foil to Gatsby. They stand in opposition to one some other. Tom came from coin, Gatsby came from poverty. Tom is a "crude and gruff" kind of guy while Gatsby is more than sensitive and quiet. However, you lot could debate the Nick Carraway is too a foil to Gatsby. Nick began every bit realistic, practical, and ethical against Gatsby'southward flashy, flighty, and dishonest ways.

For a deeper dive into human idiosyncrasies, cheque out our Character Trait Examples.

Dynamic

A dynamic grapheme is 1 who evolves or changes significantly over time. This characterization is often reserved for the primary character, given the conflict they're trying to overcome. If they come out the other side, they've typically grown or evolved in some way.

Let's remain with The Great Gatsby. Equally mentioned, F. Scott Fitzgerald did something interesting with his cosmos of the narrator, Nick Carraway. Nick's evolution throughout the novel was extreme. He was a nice, hard-working boy who just wanted to secure a role on Wall Street. So, he met Gatsby and everything inverse. By the cease of the novel, Nick was totally disillusioned, sick of everything Wall Street stood for, and disgusted by his rich friends.

Static

In contrast to a dynamic character, a static grapheme does not change over fourth dimension. Possibly this is someone like the primary character's begetter or mentor. They might be consistently wise, or abrasive, or enlightening. This label is often reserved for peripheral characters.

Daisy's friend Jordan Bakery in The Not bad Gatsby could be considered a static character. She didn't change much throughout the course of the novel. She had her own career as a pro golfer and sort of stood on the periphery of the novel. Sure, she was at that place for all the dramatic moments, a foil to Daisy, simply she remained unchanged.

Round

Have you ever encountered a character with a difficult mother or spouse? Yous can't tell whether they honey or hate them. If and then, you lot could consider that "difficult person" a round character.

This is someone with a complex personality. They're neither overtly kind nor innately vicious. They may act inconsistently, rather than follow a smooth arc. Somewhere deep downwardly, they're about likely conflicted and, to the main graphic symbol and the readers, perhaps fifty-fifty a little contradictory.

In The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, you'll meet a circular character in Boris. Information technology would be easy to label him a bad person, given his propensity for stealing. Nonetheless, he'due south more than that. He'due south also loyal to the main character, Theodore. So, while he may be self-serving, he's also capable of friendship and kind acts. All these facets make him a very round character.

To help yous develop your own round characters, check out our Examples of Personality Traits.

Flat

A flat character is the contrary of the circular character. These characters may be overtly kind or inanely cruel - and it shows. When you call back of a flat character, you'll immediately perceive 1 characteristic and that will, essentially, define who they are. In dissimilarity to the circuitous nuance of a round grapheme, a apartment character is uncomplicated and obvious.

In Village, Hamlet's mother, Queen Gertrude, is an example of a flat graphic symbol. She's opinionless and, worse, a picayune clueless. She doesn't see that Claudius used her to seize the throne. In fact, near of the characters, particularly Claudius and Polonius, use her as a pawn and she is completely unaware.

Stock

Stock characters, also known every bit archetypes, are the ones that get repeated time and time again. They're clichéd or stereotypical. For example, how many times accept nosotros met the kindly gray-haired grandmother, the nerdy kid with glasses, the less-attractive all-time friend, or the absent-minded professor?

Other instances include the seductive femme fatale such as Poison Ivy, or the buttoned-up school teacher similar Professor McGonagall. These expected traits make them more of a apartment character than a circular character as these characters are oftentimes one-dimensional and don't develop.

Meet New People on the Folio

If yous read a piddling every day, you're bound to meet someone new each time. Possibly you'll await upwards to them, every bit in a brave and intelligent protagonist. Or, maybe you'll despise everything about the antagonist considering he reminds you of your ungracious and demeaning brother. Either way, fiction takes us out of our everyday lives and plunges the states into the depths of someone else'south saga. Take fun coming together new people along the way.

While you're there, watch them conquer the elements of a plot, from the introduction to the ascent action, right through to the conclusion.

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Source: https://examples.yourdictionary.com/types-of-characters-in-fiction.html