Dramatic Characters
I. OVERVIEW
A. Playwright has wide latitude in how to present a character and what to emphasize
1. By carefully emphasizing certain features of a character's personality while eliminating others,
a playwright can show the entire history of a person in two hours which would take a lifetime
to show in the real world.
B. Several major types of characters have proved effective in theater
II. TYPES OF CHARACTERS
A. Extraordinary Characters
1. Heroes and heroines from most important dramatic works of the past
a. Kings
b. Queens
c. Military officials
2. Playwrights go one step further; also show these characters at their best or worst
or some extreme of human behavior
a. Lady Macbeth is not only a noblewoman; she is one of the most ambitious noblewomen
ever depicted on stage
b. Some characters have extreme virtue; others extreme vice
c. Some characters have both
3. For many years, extraordinary characters were mostly those of high birth. In the 18th century,
ordinary people became heroes and heroines of drama--a reflection of what was occurring
in the real world.
B. Representative or Quintessential Characters
1. Replace kings and queens
2. Typical or ordinary
3. Embody an entire group
a. Willy Loman (all salesmen)
b. Nora Helmer (all oppressed women)
4. Not an extreme like worst or best
C. Stock Characters
1. Not fully rounded
2. Exemplify one particular characteristic to exclusion of everything else
3. Known by
a. Station in life
b. Sex
c. Occupation and personality (e.g. "lazy servent;" "absent-minded professor)
4. Most famous examples in commedia dell'arte
a. 16th and 17th century Italy
b. No script; just scenario
c. Characters divided into servants or ruling class
I. In every character, one particular feature or trait was stressed
II. Always wear same costume and has same propensities
5. More modern example found in melodrama
a. Hero
b. Villain
c. Heroine
6. Still more recent examples found on television
a. Married With Children
b. All in the Family
D. Characters with a Dominant Trait
1. Closely related to stock characters
2. Name often suggests personality
a. Mr. Pinchwife in The Country Wife (a man who holds onto his wife)
b. Sir Jasper Fidget
c. Mrs. Squeamish
E. Minor Characters
1. Unlike stock characters, appear only briefly
2. Purpose is to further story or support important characters
a. Servants
b. Soldiers
c. Can have higher station if appearance is brief
F. A Narrator or Chorus
1. Special type of character
2. Narrator usually speaks to audience
3. May or may not assume persona as do other characters
4. Sometimes steps from narrator into actual character
5. Ancient Greek chorus sang and danced, commented on plot and reacted to events
6. Use of chorus creates dialectic or counterpoint between outside party and characters
a. Counterpoint is a musical term denoting second melody that moves in contrast to
main melody.
b. In Our Town stage manager made universal observations creating a counteropoint
between those and simple everyday events
c. Narration in It's a Wonderful Life fulfilled same purpose
d. Bertold Brecht used narrator to shock the audience by interrupting action to make
a political statement
G. Nonhuman Characters
1. Aristophanes
a. Birds
b. Frogs
2. Ionesco
a. Rhinoceros
3. Capek
a. RUR
4. Everyman (Medieval morality play)
1. Fellowship
2. Good Deeds
3. Worldly Possession
4. Beauty
5. Almost always nonhuman character emphasizes human quality
III. USING DRAMATIC CHARACTERS EFFECTIVELY
A. Juxtaposition of Characters
1. Protagonist and antagonist (from Greek theater)
a. Protagonist: main character in play
b. Antagonist: main character's chief opponent
2. Contrasting characters
a. Through the contest between antagonist and protagonist that individual
qualities are developed
b. Another way of contrasting characters is by putting them side by side like
relatives with opposite personalities
c. Contrasting characters often serve as foils just as putting contrasting colors
next to each other emphasizes them
B. Orchestration of Characters
A. Chekhov "orchestrated" his characters
1. In a musical composition theme is played first by one section and then by another; it can
then be played in different ways; major key, then minor key.
2. Chekhov gave each character the representation of some aspect of a central theme
I. By playing "solos" "duets" etc., he carefully wove the story through various shadings.
3. Most dramatists use some variation of this technique; they arrange their characters
to produce a cumulative effect
IDENTIFY OR DEFINE
1. Extraordinary characters
2. Representative or quintessential characters
3. Commedia dell'arte
4. Stock characters
5. "Humors"
6. Major characters
7. Minor characters
8. Protagonist
9. Antagonist
10. Nonhuman characters
11. Narrator
12. Chorus
13. Counterpoint
14. Dialectic
15. Orchestration of characters