Who is a literary character? We devote our article to this issue. In it we will tell you where this name came from, what kind of literary characters and images are and how to describe them in literature lessons at will or demand of a teacher.
Also from our article you will find out what an “eternal” image is and what images are called eternal.
Literary hero or character. Who is it?
Often we hear the concept of "literary character." But what it is about, few can explain. And even schoolchildren who have recently returned from a literature lesson often find it difficult to answer a question. What is this mysterious word "character"?
This concept came to us from ancient Latin (persona, personnage). The meaning is “personality”, “person”, “face”.
So, a literary character is the protagonist of a literary work. It is mainly a matter of prosaic genres, since the images in poetry are usually called the "lyrical hero."
It is impossible to write a story or poem, a novel or a story without characters. Otherwise, it will be a meaningless set of, if not words, then, perhaps, events. The heroes of the literary genres are people and animals, mythological and fantastic creatures, inanimate objects, for example, the staunch tin soldier of Andersen, historical figures and even entire nations.
Classification of literary heroes
Literary heroes can confuse any literary connoisseur with their quantity. And high school students are especially hard. And especially those who prefer to play their favorite game instead of completing homework. How to classify the heroes, if required by the teacher or, even worse, the examiner?
The most win-win option: classify the heroes according to their importance in the work. According to this criterion, literary heroes are divided into main and secondary. Without the main character, the work and its plot will be a collection of words. But with the loss of secondary characters, we lose a certain branch of the storyline or expressiveness of events. But in general, the work will not suffer.
The second classification option is more limited and not suitable for all works, but for fairy tales and fantastic genres. This is the division of the heroes into positive and negative. For example, in the tale of Cinderella, poor Cinderella herself is a positive hero, she evokes pleasant emotions, you sympathize with her. But the sisters and the evil stepmother are clearly the heroes of a completely different warehouse.
Characteristic character. How to write?
Heroes of literary works sometimes (especially in the literature lesson at school) need a detailed characterization. But how to write it? The option "lived-there was such a hero. It is from a fairy tale about that and that" is clearly not suitable if the rating is important. We will share with you a win-win option for writing the characteristics of a literary (and any other) hero. We offer you a plan with brief explanations of what and how to write.
- Introduction. Name the work and the hero that you will talk about. Here you can add why exactly you want to describe it.
- The hero’s place in the story (novel, novel, etc.). Here you can write whether he is main or minor, positive or negative, a person or a mythical character, a fictional or historical person.
- Appearance. It will not be out of place to describe the appearance, it is possible with quotes, which will show you as an attentive reader, and even add volume to your characterization.
- Character. Everything is clear here.
- Actions and their characteristics in your opinion.
- Conclusions.
That's all. Save this plan for yourself, and it will come in handy more than once.
Famous literary characters
Although the very concept of a literary hero may seem completely unfamiliar to you, but if you tell you the name of the hero, you will probably remember a lot. This is especially true of famous characters in literature, for example, such as Robinson Crusoe, Don Quixote, Sherlock Holmes or Robin Hood, Assol or Cinderella, Alice or Peppy Long Stocking.
Such heroes are called famous literary characters. These names are familiar to children and adults from many countries and even continents. Not knowing them is a sign of nearness and lack of education. Therefore, if you have no time to read the work itself, ask someone to tell about these heroes.
The concept of image in literature
Along with the character you can often hear the concept of "image". What is it? Same as a hero or not? The answer will be both positive and negative, because a literary character may well be in a literary way, but the image itself does not have to be a character.
Often we call this or that hero an image, but nature can appear in the same way in a work. And then the theme of the examination sheet can be "the image of nature in the story ...". What to do in this case? The answer is in the question itself: if we are talking about nature, you need to characterize its place in the work. Start with a description, add character elements such as "the sky was frowning," "the sun was mercilessly burning," "the night frightened with its darkness," and the characterization is ready. Well, if you need a characterization of the image of the hero, then how to write it, see the plan and tips above.
What are the images?
Our next question. Here we highlight several classifications. Above, we examined one - the images of heroes, that is, people / animals / mythical creatures and images of nature, images of peoples and states.
Also, images can be so-called "eternal". What is an "eternal image"? This concept calls the hero created once by an author or folklore. But he was so "characteristic" and special that after a year and an era other authors write their characters from him, possibly giving them other names, but without changing the essence of it. Such heroes include Don Quixote, a fighter with windmills , Don Juan, a lover hero, and many others.
Unfortunately, modern fantasy characters do not become eternal, despite the love of fans. Why? The better this funny Don Quixote of Spider-Man, for example? It is difficult to explain this in a nutshell. Just reading the book will give you the answer.
The concept of "proximity" of the hero, or My favorite character
Sometimes the hero of a work or a movie becomes so close and beloved that we try to imitate him, to be like him. This happens for a reason, and it is not for nothing that the choice falls on this particular character. Often the favorite character becomes an image that already reminds us of something the most. Perhaps the similarity is in character, or experienced by both the hero and you. Or this character is in a situation like yours, and you understand and sympathize with him. In any case, this is not bad. The main thing is that you only imitate worthy heroes. And there are plenty of them in the literature. We wish you to meet only with good heroes and imitate only the positive traits of their character.