What is Character in English Literature? Definition and explanation.

CHARACTER

Character very simply put would mean a figure in any literary piece of work.

•  Characters could be, both human as well as non - human entities such as animals or even inanimate entities - that however, have been personified by the author/ novelist.

•  The  word character also connotes a sense of morality.

•  In the seventeenth and eighteenth century England and France, the term character used to mean or  refer to a literary genre.

•  As far back as the late 4th Century and early 3 Century BC, the term characters was used and it meant a genre in which a character type, rather than a truly individual being/ character was sketched in a brief work written in prose or,verse.

• Having begun with the 4h Century BC let us now look at what other critics have to say and.at what character (s) has meant down the ages.

• A character may also be a personae in a novel/ a drama/ a poem who has been endowed with physical, moral and psychological attributes by the novelist in such a way as to ensure that we as readers come to look upon them as real.

• For a character to be good, the novelist would have to present him/ her in a very convincing, plausible and consistent manner and his/ her attitude should not appear to self- contradictory.

• If at all such self- contradictions arise then it is crucial for us to look at and analyze why this has happened or what the novelist wanted us to understand from this.

• Some novelists could make the character stand out by exaggerating his or her physical demeanor while others may depict their characters subtle.If the physical demeanor is exaggerated then the character could emerge like a cartoon or in a very incongruous manner. In which case, she or he would not be a character but a caricature. Dickens has numerous caricatures in his novels.

• There are two types of characters Flat Characters and Round Characters.