Character in fiction.
... clear. On occasion, however, not one but two characters may dominate a story, their relationship being what matters most. The major character is sometimes called a protagonist whose conflict with an antagonist may spark the story’s conflict. Supporting the major character are one or more secondary or minor characters whose function is partly to illuminate the major characters. Minor characters are often static or unchanging: they remain the same from the beginning of a work to the end. Dynamic characters, on the other hand, exhibit some kind of change – of attitude, of purpose, of behavior – as the story progresses. Characterization is the means by which writers present and reveal character. The method of characterization is narrative description explicit (aiskus) judgment. Major methods revealing character in fiction are: 1. Narrative summary without judgment; 2. Narrative description with implied or explicit judgment; 3. Surface details of dress and physical appearance; 4. Characters’ actions – what they do; 5. Characters’ speech – what they say; 6. Characters’ consciousness – what they think and feel. For example, Kay Boyle in “Astronomer’s Wife” examine the relationship among the three characters – the astronomer, his wife, and plumber – noting especially details of speech, gesture, and behavior that reveal the nature of each. A conversation with a plumber about a stopped elbow is enough to trigger an awakening in Mrs. Katherine Ames. When Mrs. Ames realized that the plumber was talking about something she understood (the stopped elbow), she realized that her marital problems were not the result of a division between the sexes; instead, she realized that some men, like the plumber, are as practical as she is, and that some other men, like her husband, scorn people like her because they are intellectually inclined. Previous to this discovery, Katherine did not realize that there were different kinds of men, and therefo...