A character is a person or being in a story, such as a book, play, or movie. Characters can be completely made up or based on real people. The word "character" comes from an ancient Greek word and was first used in English during the Restoration period. It became more commonly used after appearing in a book called Tom Jones in 1749. Over time, the word came to mean "a role played by an actor." Before this, the term dramatis personae, which means "masks of the drama" in Latin, was used to describe characters in plays. When actors perform characters in theater or movies, they create the appearance of being real people. In books, characters help readers follow the story, understand the plot, and think about important themes. Since the late 1700s, the phrase "in character" has been used to describe an actor who acts convincingly. Since the 1800s, the process of creating characters by actors or writers has been called characterization.

A character who represents a specific group or class of people is called a type. Types include both simple, repeated characters (called stock characters) and more detailed, unique characters. For example, the characters in Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler (1891) and August Strindberg’s Miss Julie (1888) show specific roles in society related to class and gender. The conflicts between these characters reflect larger disagreements about ideas and beliefs.

To study a character, you must examine how it interacts with other characters in the story. A character’s importance is determined by the relationships it forms with others, such as differences in actions, choices, communication, and physical distance. The way characters relate to each other and the story’s events often changes over time, reflecting changes in society and ideas about individuality, personal freedom, and social rules.

Creation

In fiction writing, authors create characters using different methods. Sometimes, characters are made up from the author's imagination. Other times, characters are based on real people, with certain traits of those people made more noticeable in the fictional version.

An author can base a character on a real person they know, a famous person from history or today, or even themselves. When an author uses themselves, it may be to represent a version of themselves in the story or to show their own experiences. Using a well-known person with clear traits as the base for a main character is common in allegorical stories. For example, in Animal Farm by George Orwell, pigs represent Soviet revolutionaries. Other authors, especially those writing historical fiction, create stories around real people, such as The Paris Wife, which focuses on Ernest Hemingway's life.

Authors can also create characters based on common archetypes found in many cultures, such as father figures, mother figures, or heroes. Some writers use archetypes described by Carl Jung to shape their characters. When an archetype is used, the story often follows patterns expected by the system that introduced it, like Jung's.

Authors may also use stock characters, which are simple and usually play minor or supporting roles in a story. However, some writers use stock characters as a starting point to develop more detailed and complex characters. For example, William Shakespeare used the image of a boastful soldier to create the character John Falstaff.

Some authors choose names for their characters that give clues about their personality, appearance, or role in the story. These names are called charactonyms. For example, Shakespeare named an emotional young man Mercutio, and John Steinbeck named a kind character Candy in Of Mice and Men. Mervyn Peake named a cunning villain Steerpike in Gormenghast. Charactonyms can also describe appearance, such as the giant named Gargantua by François Rabelais or the large whale named Monstro in Pinocchio (1940).

Types

In his book Aspects of the Novel, E. M. Forster described two main types of characters in stories: flat characters and round characters. Flat characters are simple and have few traits. In contrast, round characters are more detailed, with many different qualities, and they may change over time in ways that surprise readers.

In psychology, round characters can be studied using the Big Five model, which identifies five key personality traits. These traits help explain how complex characters behave and make choices.

Flat characters often include stock characters, who are very simple and lack depth. Mary Sues are another type of flat character, commonly found in fan fiction. These characters are usually perfect with no weaknesses, making them flat.

Another kind of flat character is a "walk-on," a term used by Seymour Chatman. Walk-on characters are not fully developed and are more like parts of the background or setting in a story.

Dynamic characters are those who change throughout a story, while static characters do not change. For example, Ebenezer Scrooge, the main character in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, is a dynamic character. At the start of the story, he is mean and greedy, but by the end, he becomes kind and generous.

In television, regular characters are those who appear in most episodes or a major part of the series. These characters can be main or secondary roles.

Recurring characters or supporting characters appear often but not in every episode. They may have important roles in several episodes, sometimes even being the main focus.

Guest or minor characters appear in only a few episodes or scenes. They do not need to be deeply connected to the story’s main events. Unlike regular characters, their actions do not affect the overall story. However, some guest characters may become popular and later become regular or main characters. This is called a breakout character.

Classical analysis

In the earliest surviving work of dramatic theory, Poetics (c. 335 BCE), the Classical Greek philosopher Aristotle explains that character (ethos) is one of six key parts of Athenian tragedy and one of the three things that tragedy represents. He does not mean a fictional person, but rather the qualities of the person acting in the story and responding to events. Aristotle defines character as "what reveals the decisions made by people in the story." This means that stories without clear decisions or actions may not have characters in Aristotle's sense. If a speech shows no choice or avoidance, it lacks character. Aristotle argues that plot (mythos) is more important than character. He writes:

"Plot is the most important part of tragedy because tragedy represents actions and life, not just people. Happiness and unhappiness depend on actions, not on qualities. People have certain traits, but their happiness or failure depends on what they do. Therefore, actors perform actions, and characters are included to support those actions."

Aristotle also notes that works were often judged based on the creator's status. Wealthier people created poems praising noble actions, while others wrote works criticizing less noble behavior. This led to a distinction between tragedy and comedy: tragedy, like epic poetry, focuses on serious people, while comedy focuses on less serious or lower-status individuals.

In the Tractatus coislinianus (possibly written by Aristotle), Ancient Greek comedy is described as involving three types of characters: the buffoon (bômolochus), the ironist (eirōn), and the imposter or boaster (alazṓn). These characters are central to the works of the playwright Aristophanes in Old Comedy.

By the time the Roman playwright Plautus wrote his plays two centuries later, using characters to define dramatic genres was already common. His play Amphitryon begins with a prologue in which Mercury claims the play cannot be a comedy because it includes kings and gods, so it must be a tragicomedy.