We are writing a book: about characters, images and heroes. The system of characters in a literary work

Who it literary character? We devote our article to this issue. In it, we will tell you where this name came from, what literary characters and images are, and how to describe them in literature lessons at your own request or the teacher’s request.

Also from our article you will learn 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"?

Came to us from ancient latin(persona, personnage). The meaning is "personality", "person", "person".

So, a literary character is a protagonist. It is mainly about prose genres, since the images in poetry are usually called "lyrical hero".

Without actors it is impossible to write a story or a poem, a novel or a short story. Otherwise, it will be a meaningless set, if not of words, then perhaps of events. The heroes are people and animals, mythological and fantastic creatures, inanimate objects, for example, Andersen's steadfast tin soldier, historical figures and even entire nations.

Classification of literary heroes

They can confuse with their number any connoisseur of literature. It's especially hard for middle school students. And especially those who prefer to play their favorite game instead of doing homework. How to classify heroes if this is required by a teacher or, even worse, an examiner?

The most win-win option: classify the characters according to their importance in the work. On this basis, literary heroes are divided into main and secondary. Without the protagonist, the work and its plot will be a collection of words. But with the loss of secondary characters, we will lose a certain branch of the storyline or the expressiveness of events. But in general, the work will not suffer.

The second classification option is more limited and will not suit all works, but fairy tales and fantastic genres. This is the division of heroes into positive and negative. For example, in the fairy tale about Cinderella, poor Cinderella herself - positive hero, it causes pleasant emotions, you sympathize with her. But the sisters and the evil stepmother are clearly heroes of a completely different warehouse.

Character characteristic. How to write?

Heroes of literary works sometimes (especially in a literature lesson at school) need a detailed description. But how to write it? The option "there once was such a hero. He is from a fairy tale about this and that" is clearly not suitable if the assessment 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 character you will be talking about. You can also add here why you want to describe it.
• The place of the hero in the story (novel, story, etc.). Here you can write whether he is main or secondary, positive or negative, a person or a mythical or historical person.
• Appearance. It will not be superfluous 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.

Notable literary characters

Although the very concept literary hero may seem completely unfamiliar to you, but if you tell you the name of the hero, you will most likely remember a lot. Especially it concerns famous characters literature, such as Robinson Crusoe, Don Quixote, Sherlock Holmes or Robin Hood, Assol or Cinderella, Alice or Pippi Longstocking.

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 narrow-mindedness and lack of education. Therefore, if you have no time to read the work itself, ask someone to tell you about these heroes.

The concept of image in literature

Along with the character, you can often hear the concept of "image". What's this? The same as the 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 character an image, but nature can appear in the same image in a work. And then the topic of the examination sheet can be "the image of nature in the story ...". How to be in that 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 hot," "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 considered 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 " eternal image"? This concept names a hero once created by an author or folklore. But he was so "characteristic" and special that years and epochs later other authors write their characters from him, perhaps giving them other names, but the essence of this is not These heroes include the fighter against Don Quixote, the hero-lover Don Juan, and many others.

Unfortunately, modern fantasy characters do not become eternal, despite the love of fans. Why? What's better than this funny Don Quixote of Spider-Man, for example? It is difficult to explain it in two words. Only 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 movie becomes so close and loved that we try to imitate him, to be like him. This happens for a reason, and it is not in vain that the choice falls on this particular character. Often the favorite character becomes an image that already somewhat resembles us. Perhaps the similarity is in character, or experienced by both the hero and you. Or this character is in a situation similar to yours, and you understand and sympathize with him. In any case, it's not bad. The main thing is that you imitate only 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.

Character(from lat. persona - person, face, mask) - type of artistic image, the subject of action, experience, statements in the work. In the same sense in modern literary criticism, phrases are used literary hero character(predominantly in drama, where the list of faces traditionally follows the title of the play).

In this synonymous series, the word character- the most neutral, its etymology (persona - the mask worn by the actor in ancient theater) is hardly perceptible.

hero(from the Greek heros - a demigod, a deified person) in some contexts it is embarrassing to call someone who is devoid of heroic traits (“It is impossible for a hero to be petty and insignificant,” Boileau wrote about the tragedy), and an inactive character (Podkolesin or Oblomov ).

The concept of a character (hero, character) is the most important in the analysis epic and dramatic works where the characters that form a certain system and plot (system of events) form the basis objective world.

AT epic the narrator (narrator) can also be a hero if he participates in the plot (Grinev in A.S. Pushkin’s The Captain’s Daughter, Makar Devushkin and Varenka Dobroselova in F.M. Dostoevsky’s novel Poor People).

AT lyrics recreating, first of all, inner world person, the characters (if any) are depicted in fragments, and most importantly - in inseparable connection with the experiences of a lyrical subject (for example, a peasant girl “eagerly” looking at the road in the poem “Troika” by N.A. Nekrasov, an imaginary interlocutor in M. Tsvetaeva’s poem “An Attempt of Jealousy”). Illusion own life characters in lyrics (compared to epic and drama) sharply weakens Chernets LV Introduction to literary criticism. M., 2006. S. 197.

Most often, a literary character is a person. The degree of specificity of his image can be different and depends on many reasons: on the place in the system of characters (for example, in Pushkin's " stationmaster” around the main character, Samson Vyrin, episodic faces are replaced, in particular, in the finale a “crooked boy” appears, as if replacing his St. Petersburg grandchildren), from the type and genre of the work, etc.

But most of all, the principles of the image, the very direction of detailing are determined by the intention of the work, creative method writer: about the minor character of a realistic story (for example, about Gagin in "Ace" by I. S. Turgenev), biographically, socially, more can be reported than about the main character of a modernist novel.

Along with people, animals, plants, things, natural elements, fantastic creatures, robots, etc. can act and talk in a work of art (“Blue Bird” by M. Maeterlinck, “Mowgli” by R. Kipling, “Amphibian Man” by A. Belyaev, "War with Salamanders" by K. Chapek, "Solaris" by St. Lem, "Master and Margarita" by M. Bulgakov) Chernets L. V. Introduction to literary criticism. M., 2006. S. 198.

The variety of types of character leads directly to the question of the subject of artistic knowledge: non-human characters act as carriers of moral, i.e. human, qualities; the existence of collective heroes reveals the interest of writers in the general in different persons, in social psychology.

No matter how broadly one interprets the subject of knowledge in fiction, its center is " human beings, those. primarily social” Burov AI Aesthetic essence of art. M., 1956. S. 59 .. In relation to the epic and drama, these are characters (from gr. charakter - a sign, distinguishing feature), i.e. socially significant features that are manifested with sufficient clarity in the behavior and mentality of people; the highest degree of specificity is type (from Gr. typos - imprint, imprint). (Often the words character and type are used interchangeably.)

Creating a literary hero, the writer usually endows him with one or another character: one-sided or many-sided, integral or contradictory, static or developing, commanding respect or contempt, etc.

The writer conveys his understanding, assessment of the characters to the reader, conjecturing and implementing prototypes, creating fictional personalities. “Character” and “character” are not identical concepts, which was noted by Aristotle: “The character will have a character if<…>in speech or action will find any direction of the will, whatever it may be ... ”Aristotle. On the art of poetry. M., 1957. S. 87.

Thus, the character appears, on the one hand, as a character, on the other, as artistic image, embodying given character with varying degrees of aesthetic perfection.

If the characters in a work are usually easy to count, then the understanding of the characters embodied in them and the corresponding grouping of persons is an act of interpretation, analysis. The number of characters and characters in the work usually does not match: there are much more characters.

There are persons who have no character, who perform only a plot role (for example, in “Poor Lisa” N.M. Karamzin is the heroine’s friend who informed her mother about the death of her daughter).

There are twins, variants of the same type (six princesses Tugoukhovsky in "Woe from Wit" by A.S. Griboyedov, Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky in "The Government Inspector" by N.V. Gogol, Berkutov and Glafira, who make up a contrasting pair in relation to Kupavina and Lynyaev, in comedy "Wolves and Sheep" by A.N. Ostrovsky) Chernets L.V. Introduction to literary criticism. M., 2006. S. 200..

In accordance with their status in the structure of the work, the character and character have different evaluation criteria. Unlike characters that evoke an ethically colored attitude towards themselves, characters are evaluated primarily from an aesthetic point of view, i.e. depending on how brightly, fully and concentratedly they embody the characters.

Various components and details of the objective world act as means of revealing the character in the work: the plot, speech characteristics, portrait, costume, interior, etc. At the same time, the perception of a character as a character does not necessarily need a detailed structure of the image.

Out-of-stage heroes are distinguished by special economy of means of depiction (for example, in Chekhov's play "Three Sisters" - Protopopov, who has a "romance" with Natasha; in the story "Chameleon" - the general and his brother, lovers of dogs of different breeds). The originality of the character category lies in its final, integral function in relation to all means of representation.

The character sphere of literature is made up not only of isolated individuals, but also collective heroes (their prototype is the choir in ancient drama). Interest in the problems of nationality, social psychology stimulated in literature XIX-XX centuries development of this aspect of the image (the crowd in the "Cathedral Notre Dame of Paris» V. Hugo, bazaar in the "Belly of Paris" by E. Zola, working settlement in M. Gorky's novel "Mother", "old women", "neighbors", "guests", "drunkards" in L. Andreev's play "The Life of a Man" etc.) Chernets L. V. Introduction to literary criticism. M., 2006. S. 202..

Most works have off-stage characters expanding its space-time framework and enlarging the situation (“The Misanthrope” by Molière, “Woe from Wit” by Griboyedov). This concept is applied not only to drama, but also to the epic, where the analogue of the scene can be considered a direct (i.e., given not in the retelling of some hero) image of faces. So, in the story of A.P. Chekhov's "Chameleon" non-stage persons include the general and his brother - lovers of dogs of different breeds. There are works where the off-stage hero is the main one.

Such is M. Bulgakov's play "Alexander Pushkin" ( Last days), the action of which takes place after the death of the poet. According to the memoirs of E.S. Bulgakova, V.V. Veresaev at first “was stunned that M.A. decided to write a play without Pushkin (otherwise it would be vulgar), but after thinking it over, he agreed. The expectation of a hero or heroine who never appears can be symbolic (Godo in S. Beckett's play "Waiting for Godot", Tanchor in V. Rasputin's story "Deadline").

Another kind of character borrowed, those. taken from the works of other writers and usually bearing the same name. Such heroes are natural if the plot is borrowed (Phaedra and Hippolytus in the tragedies "Hippolytus" by Euripides, "Phaedra" by Seneca, "Phaedra" by Racine). But a hero known to the reader (and unknown people are not addressed in such cases) can be introduced into a new ensemble of characters, into a new plot (the play “Don Quixote in England” by G. Fielding, Molchalin in the Saltykov-Shchedrin cycle “In the Environment of Moderation and Accuracy” , Chichikov, Nozdrev and other heroes of Dead Souls in Bulgakov's Adventures of Chichikov).

In modern popular literature, the genre is widespread remake, where this technique is played out in every possible way. In such cases, the borrowing of a character, on the one hand, exposes the conventionality of art, on the other hand, contributes to the semiotic richness of the image and its laconism: after all, the names of "alien" heroes, as a rule, have long become common nouns, the author does not need to characterize them somehow.

So, in "Eugene Onegin" on Tatiana's name day come "Skotinins, a gray-haired couple, / With children of all ages, counting / From thirty to two years", as well as "My cousin, Buyanov, / In fluff, in a cap with a visor / (As you, of course, know him) "Chernets L. V. Introduction to literary criticism. M., 2006. S. 201.. The lines from Tatyana's letter become clear: "Imagine: I'm here alone, / No one understands me ...". Her loneliness is loneliness romantic heroine, which helps to understand the revived heroes of "Undergrowth" and the mischievous poem "Dangerous Neighbor" (literary "father" of Buyanov - V.L. Pushkin).

There are other types of characters as well. For example, enter double, whose phantom existence is spawned duality the hero's consciousness (a tradition deeply rooted in mythology and religion): such are the main character's companion in The Tale of Savva Grudtsyn, the shadow in A. Shamisso's The Adventures of Peter Schlemil, Ivan Karamazov's devil in Dostoevsky, the black monk in short story of the same name A.P. Chekhov. No less conditional ancient motif transformation, metamorphoses of the hero (“The Invisible Man” by G. Wells, “The Bedbug” by Mayakovsky, “ dog's heart» Bulgakov, «A Clockwork Orange» by E. Burgess).

Let's move on to more familiar material. When analyzing epic and dramatic works much attention has to be paid to the composition of the system of characters, that is, the actors of the work (we emphasize that the analysis is not of the characters themselves, but of their mutual connections and relationships, that is, the composition). For the convenience of approaching this analysis, it is customary to distinguish between the main characters (who are in the center of the plot, have independent characters and are directly related to all levels the content of the work), secondary (also quite actively involved in the plot, having their own character, but which receive less authorial attention; in some cases, their function is to help reveal the images of the main characters) and episodic (appearing in one or two episodes of the plot, often not having their own character and those standing on the periphery of the author's attention; their main function is to give impetus to the plot action at the right time or to set off certain features of the main and secondary characters). It would seem that a very simple and convenient division, but meanwhile in practice it often causes bewilderment and some confusion. The fact is that the category of a character (main, secondary or episodic) can be determined by two different parameters. The first is the degree of participation in the plot and, accordingly, the amount of text that this character is given. The second is the degree of importance of this character for revealing the sides of the artistic content. It is easy to analyze in cases where these parameters coincide: for example, in Turgenev's novel "Fathers and Sons" Bazarov - main character in both respects, Pavel Petrovich, Nikolai Petrovich, Arkady, Odintsova are secondary characters in all respects, and Sitnikov or Kukshina are episodic. But it often happens that the parameters of the character do not match; most often in the event that a person who is secondary or episodic from the point of view of the plot bears a large content load. So, for example, an obviously secondary (and if we take his need for the development of the plot, it’s completely episodic) character in the novel What Is To Be Done? Rakhmetov turns out to be the most important, the main one from the point of view of the embodiment of the author's ideal (“salt of the salt of the earth”), which Chernyshevsky even specifically stipulates when talking with the “astute reader” that Rakhmetov did not appear on the pages of the novel in order to take part in the plot, but in order to satisfy the main requirement of artistry - the proportionality of the composition: after all, if the reader is not shown at least a glimpse of the author's ideal, " special person”, then he will be mistaken in assessing such heroes of the novel as Kirsanov, Lopukhov, Vera Pavlovna. Another example comes from Pushkin's The Captain's Daughter. It would seem that it is impossible to imagine a more episodic image than Empress Catherine: it seems that she exists only in order to bring the rather complicated story of the main characters to a happy denouement. But for the problematics and the idea of ​​the story, this image is of paramount importance, because without it the most important idea of ​​the story, the idea of ​​mercy, would not have received a semantic and compositional completion. Just as Pugachev at one time, in spite of all circumstances, pardons Grinev, so Ekaterina pardons him, although the circumstances of the case seem to point against him. Just as Grinev meets Pugachev as a person with a person, and only later he turns into an autocrat, so Masha meets with Catherine, not suspecting that the empress is in front of her, also like a person with a person. And if this image had not been in the system of the characters of the story, the composition would not have been closed, and consequently, the idea of ​​the human connection of all people, without distinction of estates and positions, would not have sounded artistically convincing, the idea that “doing alms” is one of the best manifestations human spirit but the solid foundation of human community is not cruelty and violence, but kindness and mercy.
In some art systems we meet with such an organization of the system of characters that the question of their division into main, secondary and episodic loses all substantive meaning, although in a number of cases there are differences between individual characters in terms of plot and volume of text. No wonder Gogol wrote about his comedy The Inspector General that “every hero is here; the course and course of the play produces a shock to the whole machine: not a single wheel should remain as rusty and out of business. Continuing the comparison of the wheels in the car with the characters in the play, Gogol notes that some characters can only formally prevail over others: “And in the car, some wheels move more noticeably and more strongly, they can only be called the main ones.”
The same principle in the composition of the system of characters is sustained by Gogol in the poem " Dead Souls”, meanwhile, do we notice all the people created by the writer in the analysis? In the orbit of our attention, first of all, Chichikov is the “main” character (the word “main” involuntarily has to be put in quotation marks, because, as it gradually turns out, he is no more important than all the others). Further, landowners, sometimes officials, and - if time permits - one or two images from among Plyushkin's "souls" fall into our field of vision. And this is unusually small compared to the crowd of people that inhabits the space Gogol's poem. The number of people in the poem is simply amazing, they are at every step, and before we get to know Chichikov, we have already seen “two Russian peasants”, without a name and external signs, who do not play any role in the plot, do not characterize Chichikov in any way and in general seems to be of no use. And then we will meet a great many such figures - they appear, flash and disappear without a trace: Uncle Minyay and Uncle Mityai, Nozdryov’s “son-in-law” Mizhuev, boys begging Chichikov at the gates of the hotel, and especially one of them, “big hunter to stand on the heel”, and the staff captain Kisses, and a certain assessor Drobyazhkin, and Fetinya, “an expert in fluffing feather beds”, “some lieutenant who came from Ryazan, a big, apparently, hunter for boots, because he has already ordered four pairs and constantly trying on the fifth ... "There is no way to list all or at least a significant part. And the most interesting thing in Gogol's system of "episodic" characters is that each of them is unforgettably individual, and yet none of them has any functions that are usual for this type of characters; they do not give impetus to the plot action and do not help to characterize the main characters. In addition, let's pay attention to the detail, the detail in the depiction of these characters, which is clearly excessive for a "passing", peripheral hero. By giving your characters a peculiar manner of behavior, a special speech person, a characteristic feature of a portrait, etc. Gogol creates a vivid and memorable image - let us recall at least the peasants who talked about Manilovka and Zamanilovka, Ivan Antonovich Kuvshinnoye snout, the wife of Sobakevich, the daughter of an old clerk, whose face "has been threshing peas at night", the late husband of Korobochka, who loved that someone I scratched his heels at night, but without this I couldn’t fall asleep in any way ...
In the composition of Gogol's poem, episodic characters differ from the main ones only quantitatively, not qualitatively: in terms of the volume of the image, but not in terms of the degree of the author's interest in them, so that some Sysoy Pafnutevich or a completely nameless mistress of a roadside tavern turn out to be no less interesting for the author than Chichikov or Plyushkin. And this already creates a special setting, a special meaningful meaning of the composition: before us are no longer images of individual people, but something broader and more significant - the image of the population, people, nation; peace, finally.
Almost the same composition of the system of characters is observed in Chekhov's plays, and here the matter is even more complicated: the main and secondary characters cannot be distinguished even by the degree of participation in the plot and the volume of the image. And here, the following composition has a close, but somewhat different than Gogol's meaningful meaning: Chekhov needs to show a certain set ordinary people, ordinary consciousness, among which there are no outstanding, outstanding heroes, on the images of which a play can be built, but for the most part they are nevertheless interesting and significant. For this, it is necessary to show a lot of equal characters, without singling out the main and secondary ones from them; only in this way is something in common revealed in them, namely, the drama of a life that has not taken place, a life that has passed or is passing in vain, without meaning and even without pleasure, inherent in everyday consciousness.
Quite complex compositional and semantic relationships can arise between the characters of the work. The simplest and most common case is the opposition of two images to each other. According to this principle of contrast, for example, the system of characters in Pushkin's Little Tragedies is built: Mozart - Salieri, Don Juan - Commander, Baron - his son, priest - Walsingham. A few more difficult case, when one character is opposed to all others, as, for example, in Griboedov's comedy "Woe from Wit", where even quantitative ratios are important: it was not for nothing that Griboyedov wrote that in his comedy "twenty-five fools for one smart person". Much less often than opposition, the technique of a kind of “duality” is used, when the characters are compositionally united by similarity; Bobchinsky and Dobchinsky in Gogol can serve as a classic example.
Often, the compositional grouping of characters is carried out in accordance with the themes and problems that these characters embody. So, in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, the main compositional grouping of characters is according to the thematic principle stated at the beginning of the novel: “Everything happy families similar to each other, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. Different families in the novel develop this theme in different ways. In the same way, in Turgenev's Fathers and Sons, in addition to the obvious opposition of Bazarov to almost all other characters, which is realized in the plot, there is another, more hidden and not embodied in the plot compositional principle, namely, the comparison of the similarity of two groups of characters: on the one hand, these are Arkady and Nikolai Petrovich, on the other, Bazarov and his parents. In both cases, these characters embody the same problem - the problem of the relationship between generations. And Turgenev shows that, whatever the individual people, the problem remains essentially the same: it is an ardent love for children, for whom, in fact, older generation and lives, this inevitable misunderstanding, the desire of children to prove their “adulthood” and superiority, dramatic internal conflicts as a result of this, and yet, in the end, the inevitable spiritual unity of generations.
The complex compositional relationships of the characters are especially interesting and useful to analyze when they do not receive expression in the plot: then hidden at first glance, but very significant compositional connections are established between the images, and besides, you begin to better understand the harmonic integrity in the construction of the work. What, let's say, is common between Napoleon and Helen; Kutuzov and Natasha? At first glance - nothing, these are characters from different storylines novel. But the fact of the matter is that different, it would seem, absolutely separate lines are connected by strong compositional bonds, in particular, in the field of the character system. And from this point of view, all the characters of the novel are divided into two groups: some live a natural life and embody the moral principles of love and spiritual self-improvement dear to Tolstoy; the life of others is unnatural, subordinate decoys, is fundamentally immoral and embodies the idea of ​​separating people, deeply hated by Tolstoy. In this consideration, Natasha and Kutuzov, and Nikolai, and Marya Volkonskaya, and Pierre turn out to be interconnected, who at the same time are opposed to Napoleon, Helen, Anatole, Bergam, and others.
Even more complex and non-obvious compositional connections between the characters are established in Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment. The character system is organized around the protagonist Raskolnikov; the rest of the characters are in complex relationships with him, and not only in the plot; and it is in extra-plot connections that the richness of the composition of the novel is revealed. First of all, Raskolnikov is compositionally connected with Sonya. In its own way life position they are opposed in the first place. But not only. They also have something in common, primarily in pain for a person and in suffering, which is why Sonya Raskolnikova understands so easily and immediately. In addition, as Raskolnikov himself emphasizes, they are both criminals, both murderers, only Sonya killed herself, and Raskolnikov killed the other. Here the comparison ends and the opposition begins again: for Dostoevsky, these two “murders” are not at all equivalent, moreover, they have a fundamentally opposite worldview meaning. And yet, both criminals, who are united by the gospel motif of sacrifice for humanity, the cross, redemption, it was not by chance that Dostoevsky emphasized the strange neighborhood of "a murderer and a harlot who came together to read an eternal book." So, Sonya is both the antipode and a kind of double of Raskolnikov. The rest of the characters are also organized around Raskolnikov along the same lines; it is, as it were, repeatedly reflected in its counterparts, but reflected with distortions, or incompletely. So, Razumikhin approaches Raskolnikov with his rationality and confidence that life can be arranged without God, relying only on oneself, but he is sharply opposed to him, since he does not accept the idea of ​​"blood according to conscience." Porfiry Petrovich is the antipode of Raskolnikov, but there is something Raskolnikov in him, because he understands the main character faster and better than anyone. Luzhin takes the practical part of Raskolnikov's theory of the right to crime, but completely emasculates all sublime meaning from it. In the "new currents" he sees only a justification for his boundless egoism, believing that the new morality gives him the sanction to try only for his own benefit, not stopping at any moral prohibitions. Luzhin reflects Raskolnikov's philosophy in a distorted mirror of cynicism, and Raskolnikov himself looks with disgust at Luzhin and his theory - thus, we have another double, another twin antipode. Svidrigailov, as is typical of an ironist, brings Raskolnikov's ideas to their logical conclusion, advising him to stop thinking about the welfare of mankind, about questions of "man and citizen". But, like everyone penetrated, Svidrigailov does not accept Raskolnikov's theory personally for himself, being skeptical of any philosophy. And Svidrigailov disgusts Raskolnikov; they again turn out to be mismatched twins, antipodal twins. Such a composition of the system of characters is caused by the need to raise and solve complex moral and philosophical questions, to consider the theory of the protagonist and its implementation in practice in a variety of applications and aspects. The composition here, therefore, works to reveal the problem.

When discussing books, the words “image”, “character”, “hero” flash everywhere, but few people know how they differ from each other. It seems that the hero is like a character, everything is one. Is it one? And what are the differences? And what role do they all play in the story?

Let's figure it out.

Images in the book

An image is a sketch that has several key, iconic features that the author focuses on. The image is the "skeleton" of the future hero, the starting point for creating both his character and the role in the plot.

The concept of an image is applicable not only to a person, but also to a city, and to the whole world, and to the author-narrator.

Character - the second stage of the image

A character is an image, complete with details and details. In other words, the protagonist of the work. Depending on the role that the characters play in the story, they can be divided into:

• episodic,
• secondary
• and main ones.

All of them can be both active and passive.

episodic characters, as a rule, are necessary for the entourage and do not play big role in history, briefly appearing and quickly disappearing from sight. So, goblins who are ready to worship a hitman will be episodic characters.

Minor characters, unlike episodic ones, appear more often and not only for entourage. Often secondary characters are relatives of the protagonist or his old friends, who now and then appear on the horizon with news and greetings.

In our example minor character can become one of the magicians who identified the messiah in the victim and from time to time appears nearby to save him or teach life.

Main characters- these are the images on which the whole story is tied, these are the main characters on whose actions the works are built. This is, in fact, our brave fellow. 🙂 But he is also a hero. But more on that later.

Literary course "Creating a hero"

Suitable for those who start writing a book, and for those who want to refine and "revive" an already finished character.

In 14 days you will receive all the necessary theory and step-by-step practical tasks. At the end of the course, you will have full story hero. You will learn his motives and come up with bright plot twists that will show the development of the character of the hero in the best possible way.

Passive characters- these are images that do not have a role in the story and do not affect the main character in any way. They quietly exist on their own and do not interfere with the main events. In the language of games, these are bots. Passive characters are often created for the setting or atmosphere of the world.

For example, a certain girl is believed next to a hitman. She is, firstly, a representative of an unfamiliar world, and therefore a bearer of foreign customs and traditions; secondly, it simply decorates the work, for it is good and sharp on the tongue; and thirdly, it does not let the reader get bored, annoying the hitman with stupid questions about his former world and hinting at love. If he does not respond to love, then she is a passive character. If her actions change the vector of development of the plot and / or the main character, then the girl becomes an active character.

Active, respectively, with all their might participate in history. Thanks to their actions, the plot changes, intrigue appears and develops. Active characters are action and deeds, surprises, changes, surprises for the reader.

Moreover, the active character does not have to be the main one. It can also be episodic. However, when he appears - even if he appears in history three or four times - events will change dramatically.

Active episodic character in our “exemplary” story, there will be a certain magician who every week supplies the hitman with new tasks to save the world. And if in the end this magician also turns out to be the main villain, because of which world problems began, then you definitely cannot refuse him activity. Even if all the episodes with his participation fit on three sheets.

Focal character - who is it and why?

Focal characters are most often spoken of only in relation to an episode, scene, or chapter. What kind of "beast" is this?

Everything is very simple: focal character is a character through whose eyes the reader observes the events. In other words, the one who is important for the reader's experience - whose thoughts, guesses, feelings we follow with pleasure.

There can be one focal character - the main one, for the whole story. Most often in such cases, the story is completely shown through the eyes of the protagonist. Or maybe - a few focal characters per story - a new one in every scene, in every chapter. As you might guess, in this case, the focal character is not always the main one. But through his eyes the reader always looks at the piece overall picture, important for the development of the whole plot.

The hero is the head of everything

The hero is the main character main character, whose role is most noticeable and weighty, whose actions are most important. It is on the hero, as a rule, that both the intrigue and the idea of ​​​​the work are tied, it is around the hero that the plot of the story is built.

How to identify a hero? The main burden falls on his shoulders. And he, as a rule, is given the most, in comparison with the main characters, time - both for action and for self-realization. But its most important feature is . If there is no development, if the main character of the story remains the same both at the beginning of the book and at the end, then, alas, it falls short of the hero. Remains an ordinary character, only the main one.

If a fellow from a brave, fearless and ironic warrior by the end of the story evolves into the same brave, but who has learned to think and sympathize with the general, then he will be a real full-fledged main character.

If it remains the same - not in terms of environment and status, but in character, it will be the main character.

Images, characters and heroes are one of the key elements of the story. And how figurative, colorful and interesting your story will be depends largely on the work on the characters.

Of course, images, and heroes, and characters are usually everywhere - even in a fairy tale about hares, even in your reflections on the meaning of life. And for full-fledged work with them, it is very important to understand what role they play, what semantic load they carry, what do you want to tell with their help?

The meaningful role of heroes and characters, their accentuated participation will give your story clarity, clarity and consistency.

If you want to fully understand how to work with images, characters and heroes, watch the VIDEOLECTION of the School of Inspiration. In it, we analyze the following questions in detail:

- where to start creating the hero of the book;

- how to give it individuality;

- how to make a character so that the reader falls in love with him.

The full lecture program can be viewed at the link above.

Well thought out characters make the story truly believable.

Character system. A character (literary hero) is the protagonist of a plot work of art.

the organization of characters in a literary and artistic work appears as a system of characters.

The character system should be considered from two points of view:

1. As a system of relationships between characters (struggle, clashes, etc.) - that is, from the point of view of the content of the work;

2. As an embodiment of the principle of composition and a means of characterizing the characters - that is, as the position of the author.

like any system, the character sphere is characterized through its constituent elements (characters) and structure (a relatively stable method = the law of the connection of elements).

character sphere elements

the main ones are in the center of the plot, have independent characters and are directly related to all levels of the content of the work,

secondary - also quite actively participating in the plot, having their own character, but which receive less authorial attention; in some cases, their function is to help reveal the images of the main characters,

episodic - appearing in one or two episodes of the plot, often not having their own character and standing on the periphery of the author's attention; their main function is to give an impetus to the plot action at the right time or to set off certain features of the main and secondary characters).

in addition, there are also so-called. off-stage characters in question, but they do not participate in the action (for example, in A. S. Griboyedov’s “Woe from Wit” this is Princess Marya Alekseevna, whose opinions everyone is so afraid of, or Famusov’s uncle, a certain Maxim Petrovich).

for example, Defoe's novel "Robinson Crusoe" seems to be about the life of one person. However, the novel is densely populated. Robinson's memories and dreams are filled with different faces (=off-stage characters): the father who warned his son against the sea; dead companions, with whose fate he often compares his own; the basket-maker, whose work he observed as a child; the desired comrade is "a living person with whom I could talk." The role of non-stage characters, as if casually mentioned, is very important: after all, Robinson on his island is both alone and not alone, since he personifies the total human experience, hard work and enterprise of his contemporaries and compatriots.

What are the criteria for determining the category of characters?

there are two of them. It:

- the degree of participation in the plot and, accordingly, the amount of text that this character is given;

- the degree of importance of this character for revealing the sides of the artistic content.

most often these parameters coincide. So, in the "fathers and sons" of Bazars - the main character in both respects, Pavel Petrovich, Nikolai Petrovich, Arkady, Odintsova - the characters are secondary in all respects, and Sitnikov or Kukshin are episodic.

example - " Captain's daughter» Pushkin.

“It would seem that it is impossible to imagine a more episodic image than the Empress Catherine: it seems that she exists only in order to bring the rather confusing story of the main characters to a happy denouement. But for the problematics and the idea of ​​the story, this image is of paramount importance, because without it the most important idea of ​​the story, the idea of ​​mercy, would not have received a semantic and compositional completion. Just as Pugachev in his time, in spite of all circumstances, pardons Grinev, so Ekaterina pardons him, although the circumstances of the case seem to point against him. Just as Grinev meets Pugachev like a person with a person, and only later does he turn into an autocrat, so Masha meets with Catherine, not suspecting that the Empress is in front of her - also like a person with a person. And had it not been for this image in the system of characters in the story, the composition would not have been closed, and consequently, the idea of ​​the human connection of all people, without distinction of estates and positions, would not have sounded artistically convincing, the idea that “doing alms” is one of the best manifestations of human spirit, but a solid foundation of human community - not cruelty and violence, but kindness and mercy "

and it also happens that the question of dividing characters into categories generally loses all meaningful meaning.

for example, in the composition dead souls» episodic characters differ from the main ones only quantitatively, not qualitatively: in terms of the volume of the image, but not in terms of the degree of the author's interest in them.

The number of characters in the poem literally rolls over. Uncle Minyay and Uncle Mityai, the son-in-law of Nozdrev Mizhuev, the boys begging Chichikov at the gates of the hotel, and especially one of them, “a great hunter to stand on the heels”, and the staff captain of kisses, and a certain assessor Drobyazhin, and fetinya, a master of whipping featherbeds, some lieutenant who came from Ryazan, a big, apparently, hunter for boots, because he had already ordered four pairs and was constantly trying on the fifth, and further, further, further.

these figures do not give impetus to the plot action and in no way characterize Messrs. Chichikov. Moreover, the detailing of these figures is clearly excessive - let us recall the men who talked about manilovka and lure, Ivan Antonovich's pitcher snout, Sobakevich's wife, the daughter of an old clerk, whose face was threshing peas at night, the late husband of the box, who loved that someone sometimes I scratched his heels at night, but without this I couldn’t fall asleep at all.

however, this is not an excess and certainly not the author's inability to build a plot. It is, on the contrary, thin compositional technique, with the help of which Gogol created a special installation. He showed not just images of individual people, but something broader and more significant - the image of the population, the people, the nation. Peace, finally.

almost the same composition of the system of characters is observed in Chekhov's plays, and the matter is even more complicated: the main and secondary characters cannot be distinguished even by the degree of participation in the plot and the volume of the image. With the help of this system, the Czechs show “a certain multitude of ordinary people, ordinary consciousness, among which there are no outstanding, outstanding heroes, on whose images one can build a play, but for the most part they are nonetheless interesting and significant. For this, it is necessary to show a lot of equal characters, without singling out the main and secondary ones from them; only in this way is something in common revealed in them, namely, the drama of a failed life, inherent in everyday consciousness, a life that has passed or is passing in vain, without meaning and even without pleasure "(c)

character sphere structure

how many characters are needed and enough?

while working on the “Three Sisters”, Chekhov ironically said to himself: “I am not writing a play, but some kind of confusion. There are many characters - it is possible that I will go astray and quit writing. And at the end he recalled: “it was terribly difficult to write“ three sisters ”. After all, there are three heroines, each should be on her own model, and all three are the general's daughters!

as in the classic, where “red natives and natives (positive and innumerable hordes)” are introduced into the play “citizen Jules Verne”. (Bulgakov. Crimson Island).

so the number of characters.

to form a system of characters, at least two subjects are needed.

as an option - there may be a bifurcation of the hero - Semyon Semenovich with glasses and without glasses (harms, "cases").

The maximum number of characters is not limited.

according to some estimates, there are about 600 characters in Tolstoy's "War and Peace", and about 2,000 in Balzac's "human comedy". (For comparison, the population of a medieval Western European city was 1-3 thousand inhabitants).

the numbers are impressive.

and immediately the question is - can you create a work with a similar number of characters? No, stuffing characters into a story is easy. But then you have to manage them - so that your thing does not look like a telephone directory.

characters must interact with each other.

some succeed. For example, King's multi-personal things - "necessary things" (needful things), "armageddon" (another translation is "opposition" the stand), "under the dome" (under the dome)

or the classic example is Homer, the Odyssey. Philologists have established more than 1,700 connections between 342 characters in the poem. There is a connection between the characters if, according to the plot, they meet, talk to each other, quote each other's words to a third character, or it is clear from the text that they are familiar. The structure of the Odyssey surprisingly resembles a social network - such as Facebook or Twitter. Is history repeating itself?

so, the system of characters is the interconnections and relations between the Persians, that is, the concept related to the composition of the work.

The most important property of the character system is hierarchy.

We have already talked about this here:

in most cases, the character is at the point of intersection of the three rays.

the first is friends, associates (friendly relations).

the second - enemies, ill-wishers (hostile relations).

third - other strangers (neutral relations)

these three rays (and the people in them) create a strict hierarchical structure http://proza.ru/2013/12/17/1652

we continue the conversation.

“The plot in its formation is, first of all, the creation of a system of characters. An important stage is the establishment of the central figure and then the establishment of the remaining characters, who are located around this figure on a descending ladder ”(GA Shengeli)

There are two types of connection between characters - according to the plot (thesis-antithesis) and according to the ratio of characters.

the simplest and most common case is the opposition of two images to each other.

Mozart and Salieri, Grinev and Shvabrin, Oblomov and Stolz, kibalchish boy and bad boy.

a slightly more complicated case when one character is opposed to all others, as, for example, in Griboedov’s comedy “Woe from Wit”, where even quantitative ratios are important: it was not for nothing that Griboedov wrote that in his comedy “twenty-five fools per one smart person.”

“The characters are grouped in the work. The simplest case is the division of all actors into two camps: friends and enemies of the protagonist. In more complex works, there may be several such groups, and each of these groups is connected by various relationships with other persons ”(Tomashevsky B.V. poetics)

Thus, in Anna Karenina, the main compositional grouping of characters is according to the thematic principle stated at the beginning of the novel: “all happy families are alike, each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Different families in the novel develop this theme in different ways.

in “fathers and sons”, in addition to the obvious and realized in the plot opposition of Bazarov to all other characters, another, more hidden and not embodied in the plot, compositional principle is realized, namely, the comparison of the similarity of two groups of characters: on the one hand, this is Arkady and Nikolai Petrovich, on the other hand, Bazarov and his parents. “In both cases, these characters embody the same problem - the problem of the relationship between generations. Turgenev shows that, no matter what the individual people may be, the problem remains essentially the same: it is an ardent love for children, for whom, in fact, the older generation lives, this is an inevitable misunderstanding, the desire of children to prove their “adulthood” and superiority, dramatic internal conflicts as a result of this, and yet, in the end, the inevitable spiritual unity of generations "(c)

there are also more complex compositional connections between characters.

an example is "crime and punishment".

“the system of characters is organized around the main character Raskolnikov; the rest of the characters are in complex relationships with him, and not only in the plot; and it is in extra-plot connections that the richness of the composition of the novel is revealed.

First of all, Raskolnikov is compositionally connected with Sonya. In their life position, they are primarily opposed. But not only. They also have something in common, primarily in pain for a person and in suffering, which is why Sonya Raskolnikov understands so easily and immediately. In addition, as the schismatics himself emphasizes, they are both criminals, both murderers, only the dormouse killed herself, and the other schismatics. Here the comparison ends and the opposition begins again: for Dostoevsky, these two “murders” are not at all equivalent, moreover, they have a fundamentally opposite worldview meaning. And yet, both criminals, who are united by the gospel motif of sacrifice for humanity, the cross, redemption, it was not by chance that Dostoevsky emphasized the strange neighborhood of “a murderer and a harlot who came together to read an eternal book.” So, Sonya is both the antipode and a kind of double of Raskolnikov.

the rest of the characters are also organized around Raskolnikov on the same principle; it is, as it were, repeatedly reflected in its counterparts, but reflected with distortions, or incompletely.

Thus, Razumikhin approaches Raskolnikov with his rationality and confidence that life can be arranged without God, relying only on oneself, but he is sharply opposed to him, since he does not accept the idea of ​​"blood according to conscience."

Porfiry Petrovich is the antipode of Raskolnikov, but there is something Raskolnikov in him, because he understands the main character faster and better than anyone.

Luzhin takes the practical part of Raskolnikov's theory of the right to crime, but completely emasculates all sublime meaning from it. In the "new currents" he sees only a justification for his boundless egoism, believing that the new morality gives him the sanction to try only for his own benefit, not stopping at any moral prohibitions. Luzhin reflects Raskolnikov's philosophy in a distorted mirror of cynicism, and Raskolnikov himself looks with disgust at Luzhin and his theory - thus, we have another double, another twin-antipode.

Svidrigailov, as is typical of an ironist, brings Raskolnikov's ideas to their logical conclusion, advising him to stop thinking about the welfare of mankind, about questions of "man and citizen". But, as everyone penetrated, Svidrigailov does not accept the theory of Raskolnikov personally for himself, being skeptical of any philosophy. And Svidrigailov disgusts Raskolnikov; they again turn out to be mismatched twins, antipodal twins.

such a composition of the system of characters is caused by the need to raise and solve complex moral and philosophical questions, to consider the theory of the protagonist and its implementation in practice in a variety of applications and aspects. The composition here, therefore, works to reveal the problematics ”(c) l.v. black man. Character system.