Whats It Called When Character Types Used Over and Over Again

Types of Characters in Fiction

Picking up a book is a great way to run across new people. Although there'due south always a main character, whom we learn the most nigh, he or she plays off other characters. This makes the other characters important too because, through each interaction, nosotros learn more than and more about the master character. This is otherwise known as characterization.

Types of Characters in Fiction

There are nine types of characters generally found in fiction (and movies too). All of them have a role to play in driving the story, regardless of how large or small that role is.

Character Types

Permit's have a look at the types of characters in fiction. Once you're aware of the different character types, you lot'll find yourself noticing them more and more. The next time you lot pick up a novel, come across how many you lot can spot.

Protagonist

We must begin our report with the protagonist, or main character. The protagonist is the central figure around whom the story revolves, like Katniss Everdean in The Hunger Games. Throughout the story, we volition watch him or her (or them) face up conflict that must be resolved and brand cardinal decisions that movement the story forward. Protagonists are often heroic, like Katniss, but they don't have to be.

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

Antihero

The antihero can besides exist the primary graphic symbol in a story. Typically, we imagine our master characters to be admirable. Perhaps they're people we'd honey to know in the "real world." But, have yous always read a book where the main character was lacking in sound moral judgment?

Take Jack Sparrow from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. He'southward hard not to like, fifty-fifty though he wouldn't be considered a first-charge per unit citizen. Or how about Lestat de Lioncourt from The Vampire Chronicles? That's one vain homo (vampire). Yet, he has moments of altruism, making him difficult to hate besides.

Characters similar Jack and Lestat are antiheroes. Given their ability to dip in and out of deviant beliefs, they tin can be exciting characters. There's a lot of depth to them. And equally they colour outside the lines, they, besides, volition accept to face up some type of conflict.

Adversary

Practiced, bad, or otherwise, most principal characters will be faced with an antagonist, or villain. Often, this is the person that stands in the way of - antagonizes - any the primary character is trying to achieve. Antagonists will set up out all kinds of roadblocks and be the source of several drama-filled scenes.

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

Tin can you name Gatsby's antagonist? Well, all Gatsby wanted was Daisy. But, he couldn't accept her considering she was married to Tom Buchanan. This makes him the guy Gatsby had to face off against. Beyond that, Tom was particularly unlikeable because he was cheating on Daisy, merely wouldn't allow her be with the honey of her life - Gatsby.

Foil

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

For example, if the protagonist is loyal, brave, and morally sound, each of those qualities will exist augmented every time we read more almost the foil character who's disloyal, cowardly, and selfish.

In The Bully Gatsby, there's no doubtfulness Tom Buchanan was a foil to Gatsby. They stand up in opposition to one another. Tom came from coin, Gatsby came from poverty. Tom is a "rough and gruff" kind of guy while Gatsby is more sensitive and quiet. However, you could argue the Nick Carraway is also a foil to Gatsby. Nick began equally realistic, applied, and upstanding against Gatsby's flashy, flighty, and quack means.

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

Dynamic

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

Let's remain with The Neat Gatsby. Equally mentioned, F. Scott Fitzgerald did something interesting with his creation of the narrator, Nick Carraway. Nick's development throughout the novel was extreme. He was a nice, hard-working male child who just wanted to secure a function on Wall Street. And so, he met Gatsby and everything changed. Past the stop 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 grapheme, a static character does not change over time. Perhaps this is someone like the main character's father or mentor. They might be consistently wise, or annoying, or enlightening. This label is ofttimes reserved for peripheral characters.

Daisy's friend Hashemite kingdom of jordan Baker in The Great Gatsby could be considered a static graphic symbol. She didn't alter much throughout the form 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 there for all the dramatic moments, a foil to Daisy, but she remained unchanged.

Circular

Take you ever encountered a character with a difficult mother or spouse? You can't tell whether they love or hate them. If so, you could consider that "difficult person" a round character.

This is someone with a complex personality. They're neither overtly kind nor innately savage. They may act inconsistently, rather than follow a polish arc. Somewhere deep down, they're most likely conflicted and, to the chief character and the readers, perhaps even a little contradictory.

In The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, you'll run across a round grapheme in Boris. It would be easy to characterization him a bad person, given his propensity for stealing. However, he's more that. He's besides loyal to the principal graphic symbol, Theodore. So, while he may be self-serving, he's also capable of friendship and kind acts. All these facets brand him a very round character.

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

Flat

A flat character is the opposite of the round graphic symbol. These characters may be overtly kind or inanely cruel - and information technology shows. When you remember of a flat character, you lot'll immediately perceive one characteristic and that will, essentially, ascertain who they are. In dissimilarity to the complex dash of a round character, a flat graphic symbol is simple and obvious.

In Hamlet, Hamlet'due south mother, Queen Gertrude, is an example of a flat character. She'due south opinionless and, worse, a little clueless. She doesn't see that Claudius used her to seize the throne. In fact, most of the characters, particularly Claudius and Polonius, use her as a pawn and she is completely unaware.

Stock

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

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

Encounter New People on the Page

If you read a little every day, you're bound to meet someone new each time. Maybe y'all'll await up to them, as in a brave and intelligent protagonist. Or, maybe you'll despise everything well-nigh the antagonist because he reminds you of your ungracious and demeaning blood brother. Either way, fiction takes united states out of our everyday lives and plunges the states into the depths of someone else'southward saga. Take fun coming together new people forth the way.

While you're there, watch them conquer the elements of a plot, from the introduction to the rising action, correct through to the decision.

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