Characterisation or characterization is the process of conveying information Information, in its most restricted technical sense, is an ordered sequence of symbols. As a concept, however, information has many meanings. Moreover, the concept of information is closely related to notions of constraint, communication, control, form, instruction, knowledge, meaning, mental stimulus, pattern, perception, and representation about characters A character is the representation of a person in a narrative or dramatic work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr (χαρακτήρ), the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of "a part played by an in narrative A narrative is a made up story that is created in a constructive format that describes a sequence of fictional or non-fictional events or dramatic Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do" (Classical Greek: δράω, drao). The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a works of art The arts is a broad subdivision of culture, composed of many creative endeavors and disciplines. It is a broader term than "art," which as a description of a field usually means only the visual arts. The arts encompasses visual arts, literature and the performing arts - music, drama, dance and film, among others. This list is by no means or everyday conversation A conversation is communication between two or more people. Conversations are the ideal form of communication in some respects, since they allow people with different views on a topic to learn from each other. A speech, on the other hand, is an oral presentation by one person directed at a group. For a successful conversation, the partners must.^{[citation needed]} Characters may be presented by means of description, through their actions, speech, or thoughts.

Character development

A well-developed character is one that has been thoroughly characterised, with many traits shown in the narrative A narrative is a made up story that is created in a constructive format that describes a sequence of fictional or non-fictional events. A well developed character acts according to past instances provided by its visible traits unless more information about the character is provided. The better the audience knows the character, the better the character development. Thorough characterisation makes characters well-rounded and complex. This allows for a sense of realism Realism in the visual arts and literature refers to the general attempt to depict subjects "in accordance with secular empirical rules," as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation. As such, the approach inherently implies a belief that such reality is ontologically. As an example, according to F.R. Leavis, Leo Tolstoy Leo Tolstoy, or Count Lyev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (Russian: Лeв Никола́евич Толсто́й​ , Russian pronunciation: [lʲev nʲɪkɐˈlaɪvʲɪtɕ tɐlˈstoj]; September 9 [O.S. August 28] 1828 – November 20 [O.S. November 7] 1910), was a Russian writer widely regarded as the greatest of novelists. His masterpieces War and Peace was the creator of some of the most complex and psychologically believable characters in fiction.^{[citation needed]} In contrast, an underdeveloped character is considered flat or stereotypical A stereotype is a commonly held public belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings. Stereotypes are standardized and simplified conceptions of groups based on some prior assumptions.

Character development is also very important in character-driven literature, where stories focus not on events, but on individual personalities. Classic examples include War and Peace War and Peace , a Russian novel by Leo Tolstoy, is considered one of the greatest works of fiction. It is regarded, along with Anna Karenina (1873–1877), as Tolstoy's finest literary achievement or David Copperfield David Copperfield or The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery is a novel by Charles Dickens, first published as a novel in 1850. Like all except five of his works, it originally appeared in serial form (published in monthly installments) a year earlier. Many elements. In a tragedy Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western civilization. That tradition has been, the central character generally remains fixed with whatever character flaw (hamartia Hamartia is a term developed by Aristotle in his work Poetics. The term can simply be seen as a character’s flaw or error. The word hamartia is rooted in the notion of missing the mark (hamartanein) and covers a broad spectrum that includes accident and mistake, as well as wrongdoing, error, or sin. In Nicomachean Ethics, hamartia is described) seals his fate; in a comedy Comedy as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse generally intended to amuse, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in Ancient Greece. In the Athenian democracy, the public opinion of voters was the central characters typically undergo some kind of epiphany An epiphany is the sudden realization or comprehension of the (larger) essence or meaning of something. The term is used in either a philosophical or literal sense to signify that the claimant has "found the last piece of the puzzle and now sees the whole picture," or has new information or experience, often insignificant by itself, that (sudden realisation) whereupon they adjust their prior beliefs and practices and avert a tragic fate. Historically, stories and plays focusing on characters became common as part of the 19th-century Romantic movement, and character-driven literature rapidly supplanted more plot A literature term, a plot is all the events in a story particularly rendered toward the achievement of some particular artistic or emotional effect or general theme. An intricate, complicated plot is known as an imbroglio, but even the simplest statements of plot can have multiple inferences, such as with songs the ballad tradition.[citation-driven literature that typically utilises easily identifiable archetypes An archetype is an original model of a person, ideal example, or a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated; a symbol universally recognized by all. In psychology, an archetype is a model of a person, personality, or behavior rather than proper character development.

Characterisation in drama

In performance an actor An actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity. The ancient Greek word for an "actor," ὑποκριτής (hypokrites), means literally "one who interprets"; in this sense, an actor is one who interprets a dramatic character has less time to characterise and so can risk the character coming across as underdeveloped. The great realists Realism in the visual arts and literature refers to the general attempt to depict subjects "in accordance with secular empirical rules," as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation. As such, the approach inherently implies a belief that such reality is ontologically of dramaturgy Dramaturgy is the art of dramatic composition and the representation of the main elements of drama on the stage. Some dramatists combine writing and dramaturgy when creating a drama. Others work with a specialist, called a dramaturg, to adapt a work for the stage have relied heavily on implicit characterisation which occupy the main body of their character driven plays. Examples of these playwrights A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or drama. These works are usually written to be performed in front of a live audience by actors. They may also be closet dramas or literary works written using dramatic forms but not meant for performance are Henrik Ibsen Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the godfather" of modern drama and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre. His plays were considered scandalous to many of his era, when Victorian values of family life and propriety largely held sway in Europe, August Strindberg Johan August Strindberg ( pronounced ; 22 January 1849 – 14 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, and essayist. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg's career spanned four decades, during which time wrote over 60 plays and more than 30 works of fiction, autobiography, history, cultural analysis, and Anton Chekhov Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was a Russian short-story writer, playwright and physician, considered to be one of the greatest short-story writers in the history of world literature. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Chekhov practised as a doctor throughout most of. Such psychological epics as The Seagull The Seagull is the first of what are generally considered to be the four major plays by the Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov. The Seagull was written in 1895 and first produced in 1896. It dramatises the romantic and artistic conflicts between four characters: the ingenue Nina, the fading actress Irina Arkadina, her son the symbolist playwright indirectly characterise the protagonists A protagonist is the main character (the central or primary personal figure) of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, video game, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to share the most empathy. In the theatre of Ancient Greece, three actors played all of the main dramatic so that the audience An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature , theatre, music or academics in any medium. Audience members participate in different ways in different kinds of art; some events invite overt audience participation and others allowing only modest clapping and criticism and reception is drawn into their inner turmoils as they are slowly revealed over the three hours of time spent with the characters. The actors An actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity. The ancient Greek word for an "actor," ὑποκριτής (hypokrites), means literally "one who interprets"; in this sense, an actor is one who interprets a dramatic character taking on these roles A role or a social role is a set of connected behaviors, rights and obligations as conceptualized by actors in a social situation. It is an expected or free or continuously changing behavior and may have a given individual social status or social position. It is vital to both functionalist and interactionist understandings of society. Social role must also characterise over a long period of time, to the point that there seems to be no direct statement of who the character A character is the representation of a person in a narrative or dramatic work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr (χαρακτήρ), the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of "a part played by an is at any point, this realism Realism in the visual arts and literature refers to the general attempt to depict subjects "in accordance with secular empirical rules," as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation. As such, the approach inherently implies a belief that such reality is ontologically in acting Acting is the work of an actor or actress, which is a person in theatre, television, film, or any other storytelling medium who tells the story by portraying a character and, usually, speaking or singing the written text or play. Most early sources in the West that examine the art of acting discuss it as part of rhetoric requires the actor to characterise from their own persona A persona, in the word's everyday usage, is a social role or a character played by an actor. This is an Italian word that derives from the Latin for a kind of mask made to resonate with the voice of the actor as a starting point. The audience therefore does not recognise a realistic characterisation immediately.

However the playwright A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or drama. These works are usually written to be performed in front of a live audience by actors. They may also be closet dramas or literary works written using dramatic forms but not meant for performance and actor also have the choice of indirect characterisation in a similar vein to the writer in literature. The presentation of a character for a sociological Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—that uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop and refine a body of knowledge about human social activity, often with the goal of applying such knowledge to the pursuit of social welfare. Subject matter discussion only has to be as real as the discussion requires. In this way a character can be used as an iconic International standards have been developed to harmonize icons and symbols. These can be seen particularly in international airports and for roadside signs to assist travellers. Icons are also becoming standardised for consumer electronics and automobile controls reference by a playwright A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or drama. These works are usually written to be performed in front of a live audience by actors. They may also be closet dramas or literary works written using dramatic forms but not meant for performance to suggest location, an epoch In the fields of chronology and periodization, an epoch means an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular era. The "epoch" then serves as a reference point from which time is measured. Time measurement units are counted from the epoch so that the date and time of events can be specified unambiguously in history, or even draw in a political debate. The inclusion of a stock character A stock character is a stereotype. Stock characters rely heavily on cultural types or names for their personality, manner of speech, and other characteristics. In their most general form, stock characters are related to literary archetypes, but they are often more narrowly defined. Stock characters are a key component of genre fiction, providing, or in literary terms an archetypal An archetype is an original model of a person, ideal example, or a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated; a symbol universally recognized by all. In psychology, an archetype is a model of a person, personality, or behavior character, by a playwright A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or drama. These works are usually written to be performed in front of a live audience by actors. They may also be closet dramas or literary works written using dramatic forms but not meant for performance can risk drawing overly simplistic pictures of people and smack of stereotyping A stereotype is a commonly held public belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings. Stereotypes are standardized and simplified conceptions of groups based on some prior assumptions. However, the degree of success in direct characterisation in order to swiftly get to the action varies from play to play, and often according to the use the character is put to. In explicitly characterising a certain character the actor makes a similar gamble. The choice of what aspects of a character are demonstrated by the actor to directly characterise is a political choice and makes a statement as to the ethics and agenda of the actor and mime MIME's use, however, has grown beyond describing the content of e-mail to describing content type in general, including for the web especially, and in epic theatre Epic theatre was a theatrical movement arising in the early to mid-20th century from the theories and practice of a number of theatre practitioners, including Erwin Piscator, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Vsevolod Meyerhold and, most famously, Bertolt Brecht. Although many of the concepts and practices involved in Brechtian epic theatre had been around for.

Character features

Weaknesses

Weakesses in a character, like vices, imperfections or flaws, make him appear more human causing the audience to identify with her/him.^[1]

See also

• Character (arts) A character is the representation of a person in a narrative or dramatic work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr (χαρακτήρ), the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of "a part played by an
• Character creation
• Character traits

Notes and references

1. ^ Elizabeth English Creating Character and Characterization in Screenplays

External links

• Outline on Literary Elements by Dr. Marilyn H. Stauffer of the University of South Florida The University of South Florida, also known as USF, is a member institution of the State University System of Florida, and is a public research university located in Tampa, Florida, USA, with an autonomous campus in St. Petersburg, and branch centers in Sarasota and Lakeland. The main campus is located in North Tampa, near the City of Temple
• Lecture about Fiction by Professor Waters of the Western Kentucky University, especially the accompanying PowerPoint presentation
• Character and characterisation in The UVic Writer's Guide (from the University of Victoria The University of Victoria is the second oldest degree granting university in British Columbia. This medium-sized university is located in Greater Victoria, British Columbia, Canada (northeast of Victoria) with an enrollment figure of more than 19,000 students. The campus is famous for its prestige, beautiful gardens and mild climate. It attracts)
• Drama Theory
• 15 Days to Stronger Characters
• Characterisation thesaurus for writers

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