TYPES OF CHARACTERS

CHARACTER
• an imagined person who inhabits a story
• may also be based on real people whom the
writer uses as models
• not limited to human beings
• the first essential ingredient in any
successful story
CHARACTER
“Your idea won’t come alive,
won’t begin to become a story,
until some characters claim it as
their own; the story comes out of
their motives, their desires, their
actions, and their interactions.”
TYPES OF CHARACTERS
• Stock Characters or Stereotyped Characters
• Hero/Heroine
• Protagonist
• Antagonist
• Major or Main Character
• Foil
• Flat Characters and Round Characters
• Static and Dynamic Characters
Stock Characters or Stereotyped Characters

• characters that require less-detailed portrayal

• easily identified since we know already know
them well because of their dominant virtues and
vices

*Most writers attempt to create unique individuals

who are multifaceted just like the people we meet
--- not the stereotypes.
Hero/Heroine
• the good guy or leading character who
opposes the villain or the bad guy
• often stronger or better than most
human beings and possess godlike traits
and qualities
Protagonist
• an older and more neutral term for ‘hero’
for the leading character which does not
imply either the presence or the absence of
outstanding virtue
• the person the readers most closely identify
• Opponent = Antagonist
Major or Main Character
• also called the lead characters
• we think of them as more complex than the
*minor characters

*often plays significant roles in the way we

understood or interpret the major characters
*also pivotal in the changes that the major
characters undergo
Foil

•serves as the contrast to the

major character to highlight the
particular qualities of the latter

(Draco Malfoy in Harry Potter, Scar in Lion

King, Gaston in Beauty and the Beast)
Flat Characters and Round Characters

• mostly in short stories

• Flat characters are stock characters or
stereotypes who are somehow capable of
advancing the plot, but require the barest
outlines of descriptions

(Dory in Finding Nemo, Ginny in Harry Potter)

 Flat Characters and Round Characters

• Round characters are usually protagonists.

• They have more than just one trait.
• They are complex and at times complicated.
• They possess traits that may even seem contradictory.
• seems very real to readers just like our friends, neighbors,
family members, and colleagues

(Sansa Stark in Game of Thrones, Annalise Keating in How to

Get Away with Murder)
Static and Dynamic Characters

• Static Characters do not experience basic

character changes through the course of the
story.
• Dynamic Characters experience changes
throughout the development of the story.
• DC may undergo sudden changes but these
are usually expected based on the events of
the story.