Boss

He controls everything, demands obedience and respect. The end justifies the means for him. An example is Don Corleone from “ Godfather"M. Puzo.

Bad guy

Smart and charismatic. In the past, misfortune has happened to him and this has seriously affected him. Society blames Bad Guy for all mortal sins, but he never justifies himself and does not let anyone into his heart. The bad guy becomes a man early, constantly rebelling, but his rebellion is a means of self-defense. At heart, he is kind and somewhat sentimental. Example: Rhett Butler from “ Gone with the wind"M. Mitchell.

Best friend

Stable, peaceful, always ready to help. He is often torn between debt and by their own desires... Example: Christopher Robin in AA Milne's Winnie the Pooh.

Charming woman

He is creative, witty, constantly manipulating people. He can find the key to any heart and knows how to please the crowd. The charming woman is an actor, he constantly plays in his own theater. Example: Ostap Bender in "12 chairs" by I. Ilf and E. Petrov.

Lost soul

Lives on past mistakes. Vulnerable, insightful, he sees right through people. He is lonely and unsociable and often does not fit into any society. Example: Eddie from “It's Me, Eddie” by E. Limonov.

Professor

All immersed in work. He's an expert - often weird. His credo: logic and knowledge. Example: Sherlock Holmes from the stories of A. Conan Doyle.

Seeker of adventures

Can't sit in one place. He is fearless, resourceful and selfish. His curiosity is insatiable, he hates theory and always wants to get to the bottom of the truth - even if it is fraught with danger. He inspires others and solves problems on his own. Example: James Bond of Ian Fleming's Casino Royale.

Warrior

Noble, principled and stern. He knows no mercy in the pursuit of justice. Money and power have for him secondary importance... He is honest and persistent. He takes revenge on enemies or saves beauties. Example: Edmond Dantes from The Count of Monte Cristo by A. Dumas.

Female characters

The boss

Requires attention and respect. She is harsh, adventurous and arrogant. Example: Princess Sophia from "Peter I" by A. Tolstoy.

Temptress

She is smart and beautiful, knows how to attract the attention of men. She is cynical and often manipulates people. Appreciates friends for what they can give her. Uses her attractiveness as a weapon. Always plays a role. Example: Lolita from the novel of the same name by V. Nabokov.

Brave girl

Whole nature, sincere, kind and friendly. She has a great sense of humor, you can rely on her. At the same time, she is skeptical and does not know how to value herself at all. Everyone loves her. V difficult situations she will always lend a helping hand. Brave and resilient. Example: Natasha Rostova from "War and Peace" by L. Tolstoy.

Reckless

This lady is eccentric, talkative and impulsive. She tends to exaggerate, is easily distracted and believes any lie. No discipline. She is indifferent to traditions. Everyone wants to try it for themselves and often makes decisions based on emotions. Example: Alice from Alice in Wonderland by L. Carroll.

White and fluffy

Naive, touching, a pure soul... She is easy to convince and easily offended. She is passive and constantly needs a prince on a white horse. Often falls in love with the wrong person, defends himself only in desperate situations. He understands everyone and accepts everyone. Example: Cinderella from eponymous tale C. Perrault.

Librarian

Clever, bookish. Persistent, serious, you can rely on her. She is uncommunicative and tries to hide her feelings from others. Perfectionist. He considers himself ugly and does not even try to seduce anyone. Lives in his own world, loves to study. Often serious passions boil in her soul. Example: Miss Marple from Agatha Christie's detectives.

Crusader

Fights for a just cause. Brave, decisive, stubborn. He quickly loses his temper. She is passionate about business and often forgets about loved ones. She will not go on a date if a protest march is scheduled for the same day. Her goal is always more important than personal experiences. Example: Iskra's mother from the novel "Tomorrow Was the War" by B. Vasiliev.

The comforter

Can handle any task. She will comfort, kiss and advise. She has iron nerves, but she cannot stand loneliness. She needs to be needed. Feels best with family and close friends. Easy to compromise. Often he suffers undeservedly. Altruist, idealist and everyday sage. Example: Pelageya Nilovna from the novel "Mother" by M. Gorky.

Pure and mixed archetypes

The archetype can be pure, but it can be mixed, with some kind of dominant. For example, Oksana from “The Night Before Christmas” by N. Gogol is the boss and the seductress.

It happens that the hero gradually changes his archetype: Natasha Rostova begins as a brave girl, and ends up as a comforter.

When reading works of art, we first of all pay attention to its main actors... All of them have clear characteristics in the theory of literature. We will find out which ones from this article.

The word "image" in Russian literary criticism has several meanings.

First, all art is figurative, i.e. reality is recreated by the artist with the help of images. In the image, the general, the generic is revealed through the individual, is transformed. In this sense, we can say: the image of the Motherland, the image of nature, the image of a person, i.e. the image in the artistic form of the Motherland, nature, man.

Secondly, at the linguistic level of the work, the image is identical to the concept of "trope". In this case it comes about metaphor, comparison, hyperbole, etc., i.e. about figurative means of poetic language. If we imagine the figurative structure of the work, then the first figurative layer is the images-details. From them, a second figurative layer grows, consisting of actions, events, moods, i.e. all that is dynamically deployed in time. The third layer is the images of characters and circumstances, heroes who find themselves in conflicts. The images of the third layer add up holistic image fate and peace, i.e. the concept of being.

The image of the hero is an artistic generalization of human properties, character traits in the individual appearance of the hero. The hero can arouse admiration or repulse, perform deeds, act. The image is art category... You cannot, for example, say: "I despise the image of Molchalin." You can despise the type of silent, but his image as an artistic phenomenon evokes admiration for the skill of Griboyedov. Sometimes, instead of the concept of "image", the concept of "character" is used.

The concept of "character" is broader than the concept of "image". A character is any character in a work. You can't say "lyric hero" instead of " lyric character". The lyrical hero is the image of the hero in lyric work, experiences, feelings, whose thoughts reflect the author's perception of the world. This is the artistic "double" of the author-poet, which has its own inner world, its own destiny. The lyrical hero is not autobiographical character, although it reflects personal experiences, the attitude to different aspects of the "life of the author himself. The lyrical hero is embodied spiritual world the author and his contemporaries. The lyrical hero of A.S. Pushkin is a harmonious, spiritually rich person who believes in love, friendship, and is optimistic in his outlook on life. Another lyrical hero of M. Yu. Lermontov. This is the "son of suffering", disappointed in reality, lonely, romantically striving for will and freedom and tragically not finding them. Characters, like heroes, can be major and minor, but when applied to episodic characters, only the term "character" is used.

Character is often understood as minor person, not influencing events, and the literary hero is a multifaceted character, important for expressing the idea of ​​the work. You can come across the judgment that the hero is only that character who carries positive principles and is an exponent author's ideal(Chatsky, Tatiana Larina, Bolkonsky, Katerina). Assertion that negative satirical characters(Plyushkin, Judushka Golovlev, Kabanikha) are not heroes, it is not true. Two concepts are mixed here - the hero as a character and heroic as a way of human behavior.

The satirical hero of the work is the protagonist, the character against whom the edge of satire is directed. Naturally, such a hero is hardly capable of heroic deeds, i.e. is not a hero in the behavioral sense of the word. V creative process the creation of images of heroes in "some of them embody the most characteristic features for a given time and environment. Such an image is called a literary type.

The literary type is a generalized image of human individuality, the most possible, characteristic of a certain social environment in certain time... Regularities are reflected in the literary type social development... It combines two sides: the individual (singular) and the general. Typical (and this is important to remember) does not mean average; type always concentrates in itself all the brightest, characteristic of whole group people - social, national, age, etc. Types of positive heroes have been created in literature (Tatiana Larina, Chatsky), " extra people"(Eugene Onegin, Pechorin), Turgenev girls. In aesthetically perfect works, each type is a character.

Character is a human individuality, formed from certain spiritual, moral, mental traits. This is the unity of emotional reaction, temperament, will and the type of behavior determined by the socio-historical situation and time (epoch). Character consists of diverse traits and qualities, but this is not an accidental combination of them. Each character has a main, dominant feature, which gives a living unity to the whole variety of qualities and properties. The character in a work can be static, already formed and manifested in actions. But most often the character is served in change, in development, evolution. A pattern is manifested in the development of character. The logic of character development sometimes contradicts the author's intention (even A. Pushkin complained to Pushchin that Tatyana got married without his "knowledge"). Obeying this logic, the author is not always able to turn the fate of the hero the way he wants.

A character easily turns into a hero if he gets an individual, personal dimension or character. According to Aristotle, character is related to the manifestation of the direction of "will, whatever it may be."

V modern literary criticism character is the unique personality of a character; his internal appearance; that is, everything that makes a person a person, that distinguishes him from other people. In other words, the character is the same actor who plays behind the mask - the character. The character is based on the inner "I" of a person, his self. The character shows the image of the soul with all its searches and mistakes, hopes and disappointments. It denotes the versatility of human individuality; reveals her moral and spiritual potential.

The character can be simple or complex. The simple character is solid and static. He endows the hero with an unshakable set of values; makes it either positive or negative. Positive and negative characters usually divide the character system of the work into two warring factions. For example: patriots and aggressors in the tragedy of Aeschylus ("Persians"); Russians and foreigners (Englishmen) in the story of N.S. Leskov "Levsha"; “Last” and “multitudes” in the story by A.G. Malyshkina "The Fall of Dyr".

Simple characters are traditionally combined in pairs, most often on the basis of opposition (Shvabrin - Grinev in "The Captain's Daughter" by AS Pushkin, Javert - Bishop Myriel in "Les Miserables" by V. Hugo). Opposition sharpens the merits of positive heroes and belittles the merits of negative heroes. It does not arise only on an ethical basis. It is also formed by philosophical oppositions (such is the opposition of Joseph Knecht and Plinio Designori in the novel by G. Hesse "The Glass Bead Game).

A complex character manifests itself in an incessant search, internal evolution. It expresses the diversity mental life personality. He opens as the lightest, high aspirations human soul, and its darkest, basest impulses. In a complex character, on the one hand, the prerequisites for human degradation are laid (“Ionych” by AP Chekhov); on the other hand, the possibility of his future transformation and salvation. Complex character is very difficult to define in the dyad "positive" and "negative". As a rule, it stands between these terms, or, more precisely, above them. It condenses the paradox, the contradictory nature of life; concentrates all the most mysterious and strange that constitutes the secret of man. Such are the heroes of F.M. Dostoevsky R. Musil, A. Strindberg and others.

The structure of the literary hero

The literary hero is a complex, multifaceted person. He can live in several dimensions at once: objective, subjective, divine, demonic, book (Master MA Bulgakov). However, in his relations with society, nature, other people (everything that is opposite to his personality), the literary hero is always binaric. He gets two forms: internal and external. He goes in two ways: introverting and extroverting. In the aspect of introversion, the hero is “thinking in advance” (let's use the eloquent terminology of CG Jung) Prometheus. He lives in a world of feelings, dreams, dreams. In the aspect of extra-version, the literary hero is "acting and then pondering" Epitemeus. He lives in real world for the sake of its active development.

His portrait, profession, age, history (or past) "works" to create the appearance of the hero. The portrait gives the hero a face and figure; teaches him a complex distinctive features(fatness, thinness in the story of AP Chekhov "Fat and Thin") and vivid, recognizable habits (a characteristic wound in the neck of partisan Levinson from AI Fadeev's novel "The Defeat").

Very often, a portrait becomes a means of psychologizing and testifies to some character traits. As, for example, in famous portrait Pechorin, given through the eyes of a narrator, a certain itinerant officer: “He (Pechorin - PK) was of average height; slim thin camp his and broad shoulders proved a strong build, capable of enduring all the hardships of nomadic life<…>... His gait was casual and lazy, but I noticed that he did not wave his arms - a sure sign of secrecy. "

The profession, vocation, age, history of the hero pedal the process of socialization. The profession and vocation give the hero the right to socially useful activities. Age determines the potential for certain actions. The story of his past, parents, country and place where he lives, gives the hero a sensually tangible realism, historical concreteness.

The inner appearance of the hero is made up of his worldview, ethical beliefs, thoughts, affections, faith, statements and actions. The worldview and ethical convictions endow the hero with the necessary ontological and value orientations; give meaning to its existence. Attachments and thoughts outline the manifold life of the soul. Faith (or lack thereof) determines the presence of the hero in the spiritual field, his relationship to God and the Church (in the literature of Christian countries). Actions and statements indicate the results of the interaction of the soul and spirit.

Very important role in the image internal appearance the hero is played by his consciousness and self-consciousness. The hero can not only reason, love, but also be aware of emotions, analyze his own activity, that is, reflect. Artistic reflection allows the writer to reveal the hero's personal self-esteem; characterize his attitude towards himself.

The individuality of the literary hero is especially vividly reflected in his name. The hero's existence in a literary work begins with the choice of a name. The name solidifies him inner life, mental processes are formed. The name gives the key to a person's character, crystallizes certain personality traits.

So, for example, the name "Erast", derived from the word "eros", hints in the story of N.M. Karamzin on the sensitivity, passion and immorality of Liza's chosen one. The name "Marina" in the famous Tsvetaeva poem recreates the variability and inconstancy of the lyrical heroine, who is like "sea foam". But the beautiful name "Assol" invented by A. Green reflects the musicality and inner harmony of Longren's daughter.

As part of philosophy (by Father Pavel Florensky) "names are the essence of the category of cognition of personality." The names are not just named, but actually declare the spiritual and physical essence of a person. They form special models of personal being, which become common for each bearer of a certain name. Names predetermine mental qualities, actions and even the fate of a person. So, conventionally, all Annas have something in common and typical in grace; all the Sophias are in wisdom; all Anastasias are in resurrection.

In literature, the name of the hero is also the spiritual norm of personal being; stable type of life, deeply generalizing reality. The name correlates its external, sound-letter design with the internal, deep meaning; predetermines the actions and character of the hero, unfolds his being. The hero is revealed in close connection with the general idea and image of his name. Such is the "poor", unhappy Liza, Natasha Rostova, Masha Mironova. Every personal name here is special literary type, a universal way of life, peculiar only to this particular name. For example, the path

Liza is the path of a quiet, touching rebellion against moral norms, against God (although Elizabeth is a "worshiper of God"). Natalia's path is the path of simple natural attractions that are beautiful in their naturalness. The path of Mary is the path of the "golden mean": the path of the serving lady, combining both majesty and humility.

In other words, the name transforms the "life" of the literary hero, determines the way the latter moves in the sea of ​​life.

A vivid illustration of the philosophy of P.A. Florensky presents the plot of the story by A.N. Nekrasov "The Adventures of Captain Vrungel". The yacht "Pobeda" with the famous captain (Vrungel) sets off for an international regatta organized by the Enland Club. Vrungel shows strong confidence in victory and really comes to the finish line first. But the victory comes at a high price. The new name (the first two letters fall off at the beginning of the voyage and turn the yacht into "Trouble") gives the ship the status of doomed. "Trouble" goes to victory through the ebb and flow, fires and icebergs. She is delayed by regatta regulations, customs police, crocodiles and sperm whales. It is being attacked by the NATO fleet and organized crime. And that's all thanks to the middle name.

Lilia Chernets

Doctor of Philology,
Moskovsky State University named after M.V. Lomonosov,

Faculty of Philology, Department of Literary Theory, Professor

Literary characters

V artistic world epic, dramatic, lyroepic works always have a system of characters - subjects of action, the relationship of which is followed by the reader. In epic and lyric epics, the narrator can also be a character if he participates in the plot (Nikolenka Irteniev in "Childhood", "Adolescence" and "Youth" by Leo Tolstoy; Arkady Dolgoruky in the novel "Teenager" by FM Dostoevsky); in such cases, the narration is usually in the first person, and the narrator is usually called the narrator.

The synonyms of the character in modern literary criticism are the literary hero, the protagonist (mainly in the drama). In this series, the word character is the most neutral semantically. Its etymology (French personnage, from Latin persona - person, face, mask) reminds of the conventions of art - of acting masks in an ancient theater, while a hero (from Greek herds - demigod, deified person) is called real person, who showed courage, accomplished a feat. This is the direct, basic meaning of this word. V fiction for a long time the main hero was called positive character... The inertia of this understanding of the word prompted W. Thackeray to give his novel Vanity Fair (1848) the subtitle: A Novel Without a Hero.

A character is a type of artistic image, and the principles of the image can be different. The leading type of character in literature is, of course, a man, a human individual (from Latin: individuum - indivisible, individual). The widest opportunities for creating a detailed image of a person are provided by epic genus, where the narrator's speech easily absorbs a lot of descriptive and psychological details. The place of the hero in the character system is significant. Minor and episodic persons are often represented by few features, used as compositional "braces". So, in the story of A.S. Pushkin " Stationmaster»Around the main character, Samson Vyrin, episodic faces change: a doctor who confirmed Minsky's illness; the driver who was driving Minsky and Dunya and showed that “Dunya cried all the way, although it seemed she was on her way to hunt”; a military lackey of Minsky in St. Petersburg, etc. In the finale appears "a ragged boy, red-haired and crooked" - one of those with whom the caretaker "fiddled" shortly before his death, never having learned that his grandchildren were growing up in St. Petersburg. This character, shading Vyrin's loneliness, performs at the same time a compositional function: informs the narrator about the arrival of the "beautiful lady" at the station. This is how readers will learn about Dunya's fate and her late tears at her father's grave.

However, other types of character are used in the literature, including fantastic images, in which the conventionality of art, the "right" of the writer to fiction is manifested. Along with people, anthropomorphic characters, such as animals, can act and talk in a work. As a rule, the introduction of animal characters is a sign of one-sided typification. In the fable, moral qualities, mainly vices, are clearly distributed between the characters: the fox is cunning, the wolf is greedy, the donkey is stubborn, stupid, etc. Unlike the myth, where the natural and the cultural have not yet been differentiated (Zeus, for example, could turn into a bull, a swan), “in a fable, animals appear as creatures different from humans ...<...>begin to duplicate human behavior, replacing it as a kind of conditional and, most importantly, generalizing, typing code "1. On the basis of fables and other traditions, an animal epic is created, where more complex characters are presented. These include the protagonist of "The Novel of the Fox" - a rogue, inexhaustible in mischief, causing indignation and admiration at the same time.

Plants, things, robots, etc. can also be anthropomorphic characters. (a, "Until the Third Cocks" by VM Shukshin, "Solaris" by St. Lem).

Characters in literary criticism are considered not only separate subjects (individuals), but also collective images(their archetype is the chorus in the ancient drama). The image is, as it were, "assembled" from many persons, often nameless, represented by one feature, one replica; this is how crowd scenes are created. Here is a fragment from the story of N.V. Gogol's "Taras Bulba", which describes a crowded area in the Zaporozhye Sich. Taras and his sons have a picturesque spectacle: “The travelers left for a vast square, where the glad usually gathered. On a large overturned barrel sat a shirtless Zaporozhets; he held it in his hands and slowly sewed up the holes in it. A whole crowd of musicians again blocked their way, in the middle of which a young Zaporozhets danced, twisting his hat with a devil and throwing up his hands. He shouted only: “Play lively, musicians! Do not regret, Thomas, burners for Orthodox Christians! " And Thomas, with a black eye, measured a huge mug without counting to each pestering person. Near the young Zaporozhets, four old ones worked rather shallowly with their feet, threw themselves, like a whirlwind, to the side, and almost on the head of the musicians, and suddenly, dropping down, they rushed squatting and beat hard and hard with their silver horseshoes the densely killed earth. The ground hummed dully throughout the entire area, and hopaks and paths-ki, knocked out by the ringing horseshoes of boots, echoed in the air in the distance. But one of all cried out more lively and flew after the others in a dance. Chuprina was fluttering in the wind, her strong chest was all open; a warm winter jacket was put on in his sleeves, and sweat poured from him like a bucket. “Yes, take off at least the casing! - Taras said at last. - You see how it soars! " - "Not allowed!" - shouted the Zaporozhets. "From what?" - "Not allowed; I have such a disposition: whatever I throw off, I drink it. " And for a long time there was no hat on the young man, no belt on his caftan, no embroidered scarf; everything went where it should. The crowd grew<...»>(chapter II).
The element of unrestrained fun, dashing dance captures everyone who comes to the square, the Cossacks are united in the jubilation that gripped them.

Along with the characters directly depicted in the work (for example, participating in stage action in the drama), it is possible to single out non-stage characters that expand the space-time frames of the image and enlarge the situation (“The Misanthrope” by J.-B. Moliere, “Woe from Wit” by AS Griboyedov, “Chairs” by E. Ionesco). The influence of such characters on the behavior of persons acting on the stage can be very great. In the "Cherry Orchard" A.P. Chekhov's mental fatigue and Ranevskaya's helplessness are largely explained by the death of Grisha's son "in this river", as well as letters coming from Paris. At first she tears them up, but at the end of the play she decides to return to her beloved, who, according to Petya Trofimov, “robbed” her. At the same time, he understands that he is going “to the bottom”: “This is a stone on my neck, I am going to the bottom with it, but I love this stone and cannot live without it” (file 3).

O off-stage characters one can speak in relation not only to the drama, but also to the epic, where the analogue of the scene is the direct (that is, not given in the retelling of some hero) image of faces. So, in the story of A.P. Chekhov's "Vanka" on the stage of the work is a nine-year-old boy who was apprenticed to the Moscow shoemaker Alyakhin and who wrote a letter to his grandfather, Konstantin Makarych, on the night before Christmas (as he thought about it and wrote on the envelope). All other persons, including Vanka's grandfather, are off-stage.

Another type of literary hero is a borrowed character, i.e. taken from the works of other writers and usually bearing the same name. Such heroes are natural if the plot scheme is preserved, as in the tragedy of J. Racine "Phaedra", created on the basis of the tragedies of Euripides "Hippolytus" and "Phaedrus" by Seneca; or as in "The Stone Guest" by A.S. Pushkin (the plot scheme of this "little tragedy" goes back to the plays " Seville mischievous, or Stone guest"Spanish playwright Tirso de Molina," Don Juan, or the Stone Guest "by J.-B. Moliere. At the same time, in the named tragedies of Racine and Pushkin, the characters, recognizable by name and plot role, differ significantly in character from the heroes of the same name in previous plays.

But the hero known to the reader (and to the unknown in similar cases do not apply) can be introduced into a new ensemble of characters, in new plot... Borrowing a character in such cases, on the one hand, exposes the conventionality of art, on the other, contributes to the semiotic richness of the image and its laconicism: after all, the names of “alien” characters have become common nouns, the author does not need to characterize them somehow.
Of the Russian classics, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin ("In the midst of moderation and accuracy", "Letters to my aunt", "Modern idyll", etc.). “... To take a literary hero, a literary type of the past and show him in the life of the current days - this is Shchedrin's favorite trick. His heroes in the 70s and 80s are the descendants of Khlestakov, Molchalin, Mitrofan Prostakov, who filled their whole life with special force after 81 " (Gorky M. History of Russian Literature. - M., 1939. - S. 273.). The freedom with which Shchedrin treats famous literary characters is striking. “Conjecturing” the biographies of the heroes, the satirist comes up with the most unexpected occupations and positions for them, but taking into account the conjuncture of the post-reform time. In Letters to Auntie, Nozdryov publishes and edits the newspaper Slop, where Repetilov maintains the chronicle section; in The Lords of the Molchalin (cycle "In the midst of moderation and accuracy"), Molchalin recalls the ten-year directorship in the department of "State Mysteries" of none other than Chatsky, who in Griboyedov's play was "sick of being served" (the satirist did not believe in the endurance of noble liberalism ). The writer sets new, unpredictable family ties: in the "Gentlemen of the Molchalins" it turns out that Rudin is Repetilov's nephew, and Sofya Famusova did marry Chatsky, but after his death, due to a legally illiterate will, she was forced to sue Zagoretsky, the "grand-nephew" of the deceased. In the same work, new faces with an eloquent pedigree appear: lawyers Balalaikin, the bastard son of Repetilov (from Steshka the gypsy) and Podkovyrnik-Klesh, the bastard son of Chichikov (from Korobochka). Behind all this play of imagination is obvious the verdict that Shchedrin makes to his modernity, where the field of comic heroes Griboyedov and Gogol has greatly expanded. As one of the characters noted, “It's amazing how quickly people are growing these days! Well, what was Nozdryov when Gogol introduced us to him, and look how he ... suddenly grew up !! " (“Letters to Auntie.” Letter 12).

In works depicting the split consciousness of the hero, his phantom double (from the Greek fantasma - a ghost) may appear, in which he - with horror or joy - recognizes his bodily and / or spiritual likeness. Such are, for example, Golyadkin Jr. in Dostoevsky's story "The Double", the Black Monk in the story of the same name by Chekhov (this monk, who flatters Kovrin, referring him to the "chosen of God", sees only a mentally ill the main character). Close to this technique is a very ancient plot motif of the transformation (metamorphosis) of the character, which sharply violates the "lifelike" image: "The Invisible Man" by H. Wells, "The Bedbug" by V.V. Mayakovsky, " dog's heart"M.A. Bulgakov.
The distinguished varieties of the character, or stable ways of depicting, of course, do not exhaust artistic practice.

A character is usually endowed with a certain character (from the Greek character - an imprint, a brand, an outline, distinctive feature). Character and character are not identical concepts, which was noted by Aristotle: "The actor will have character if ... in speech or action he finds any direction of will, whatever it may be ..." 3. The hero's performance of this or that plot-compositional function does not yet make him a character. So, it is not always possible to find a certain character in the "messengers" ancient tragedies, whose task is to fulfill the assignment, to convey the news, but not to evaluate it.

By character we mean socially significant traits, manifested with sufficient clarity in the behavior and mood of the hero; the totality of these traits forms his personality, distinguishes him from other heroes. The character can be one-sided or multilateral, whole or contradictory, static or developing, arousing respect or contempt, etc. As noted above, there is a correlation between image techniques and characters. Their one-sidedness is evident in the animal fables. The dominant trait in the character's behavior is often indicated by "speaking" names. This tradition dates back to Greco-Roman antiquity, where such names, together with a mask (Yarkho V.N. According to the surviving list of masks used in antique comedy, “there were forty-four of them, among them nine masks for the roles of old people, eleven for young people, seven - for slaves, fourteen - for women "(Yarkho V.N. Menander. At the origins of European comedy. - M., 2004. - P. 111)), which the actor wore, created a very specific horizon in the mind of the viewer expectations.

In comic genres, this technique has proved to be very stable. For example, already according to the list of characters, the correlation of characters and conflict in the comedy of V.V. Kapnista "Yabeda" (1798): Pryamikov and Dobrov are opposed by Pravolov (that is, catching the right), members Civil Chamber Krivosudov, Atuev, Bulbulkin, secretary Kokhtin, prosecutor Khvataiko.

For a long time in literature, the character of the protagonist and the techniques of his portrayal were determined by the genre. V high genres classicism heroes should be noble and moral qualities, and by origin, but at the same time maintain their individuality. The character was thought to be static. As N. Boileau instructed:

The hero, in whom everything is petty, is good only for the novel.
May he be courageous, noble,
But still, without weaknesses, he is not nice to anyone:
The hot-tempered, impetuous Achilles is dear to us;
He cries from resentment - not a superfluous detail,
So that we believe in its plausibility;
Agamemnon's temper is arrogant, proud;
Aeneas is pious and firm in the faith of his ancestors.
Skillfully save your hero
Character traits among any events.

As you can see, the model for the theorist of French classicism is ancient literature(epic, tragedy). About the novel, Boileau speaks ironically, the heyday of this genre has not yet come.

The depiction of internal contradictions, a complex, often dual nature of man became programmatic in the era of romanticism and was inherited by realism. In R. Chateaubriand's novels "Atala" (1801) and "Rene" (1802), novels "Adolphe" by B. Constant (1816), "Eugene Onegin" (1831) by Pushkin, "Confession of the Son of the Century" by A. de Musset (1836) ), "A Hero of Our Time" (1840) by M.Yu. Lermontov, in the poem by J.G. Byron's "Don Juan" (1817-1823), the main characters are contradictory personalities, reflecting on their own character and its oddities, experiencing moral ups and downs. All of them are united by a feeling of disappointment, dissatisfaction with life. The characters of the heroes, as a rule, are shown in development, while not necessarily positive; so, M.E. Saltykov-Shchedrin in The Golovlevs Gentlemen, O. Wilde in The Portrait of Dorian Gray depict moral degradation your hero.

Leo Tolstoy reflects on the fluidity of a person's character in his novel Resurrection: “People are like rivers: the water is the same in everyone and the same everywhere, but each river is sometimes narrow, sometimes fast, sometimes wide, sometimes quiet, sometimes clean sometimes cold, sometimes cloudy, sometimes warm. So are people. Each person carries in himself the rudiments of all human properties and sometimes manifests some, sometimes others and is often completely different from himself, remaining all meanwhile one and himself. For some people, these changes are especially harsh. And Nekhlyudov belonged to such people ”(Part 1. Ch. LIX).

The title of the novel is symbolic: its main characters, Dmitry Nekhlyudov and Katyusha Maslova, after many trials, come to a moral resurrection.

In the literature focused on the embodiment of characters (and this is what the classics are), the latter are the subject of reflection, disputes between readers and critics (Bazarov assessed by M.A. Antonovich, D.I. Pisarev and N.N. Strakhov; Katerina Kabanova as interpreted N.A. Dobrolyubov, P.I. Melnikov-Pechersky, D.I. Pisarev). In the same character, critics see different characters.

Clarification of characters and the corresponding grouping of persons is not an act of describing the world of a work, but of interpreting it. The number of characters and characters in a work usually does not coincide: there are much more characters. There are persons without character who play the role of a plot spring; there are characters of the same type: Dobchinsky and Bobchinsky in Gogol's "The Inspector General"; Berkutov and Glafira, making a contrasting pair in relation to Kupavina and Lynyaev, in the comedy "Wolves and Sheep" by Ostrovsky.
The character as a character, on the one hand, and as an image, on the other, have different evaluation criteria. Unlike characters that are subject to "judgment" in the light of certain ethical ideals, images are evaluated primarily from an aesthetic point of view, that is, depending on how brightly and fully the creative concept is expressed in them. As images, Chichikov or Judushka Golovlev are excellent and in this capacity they bring aesthetic pleasure. But only in this capacity.

One more important concept, widely used in the study of the character sphere of works, is a literary type (Greek typos - blow, imprint). It is often used synonymously with character. However, it is advisable to distinguish between the meanings of these terms.

Researchers sometimes use the word "type" to refer to characters that are one-sided in nature, static, created mainly in the early stages of the development of art. So, L. Ya. Ginzburg points to "traditional formulas (roles, masks, types)" that help "pre-realistic identification of the hero" (Ginzburg L.Ya. About the literary hero. - L., 1979 - S. 75.). With this interpretation, the word type as applied to later literature, with its complex, ambiguous characters, turns out to be an insufficiently subtle instrument. But the concept of type is used in a different sense: as the basis for the typology of characters, each of which has an individual, unique character. In other words, a number of heroes should be attributed to the type: their individualization does not interfere with seeing common features, it demonstrates the variety of variants of the type, which acts as an invariant (For more details on the relationship between the concepts of "type" and "character" see: L.V. literary works: concepts and terms // Artistic anthropology: Theoretical and historical-literary aspects / ed. M.L. Remneva, O.A. Kling, A. Ya. Esalnek. - M., 2011. - S. 22-35.).

So, to the tyrants in the plays of A.N. Ostrovsky also includes the "swearing" Dikoy, who is organically incapable of justly and in a timely manner to calculate the workers ("Thunderstorm"), and Tit Titich Bruskov, to whom drunken courage is dearer than money, he is ready to pay for all his disgrace ("In someone else's feast, a hangover"), and indifferent to the daughter of Bolynov (“Our people - we will be numbered!”), for whom the main thing is to insist on our own (“For whom I command, for that and will go”), and even the child-loving Rusakov (“Don't sit in your sleigh”). And in the later plays of the playwright, one can trace the formation of the type of "business man", opposing "smart" money to "mad", outwardly courteous, but calculating and unswervingly pursuing his selfish goals: Vasilkov ("Mad Money"), Berkutov ("Wolves and Sheep" ), General Gnevyshev ("Rich Brides"), Pribytkov ("The Last Victim"), Knurov and Vozhevatov ("Dowry"). Each of these characters is an individuality, a living face, a grateful role for an actor. And yet they can be combined into one group.

This understanding of type is especially in line with aesthetic views and creativity. writers XIX century - the time of the creation of the most profound, multifaceted characters. The sign of the type is its stable nomination: an extra person ("Diary of an extra person" by I.S. Turgenev), tyrant (thanks to the article by N.A. Dobrolyubov " Dark kingdom"This word from the play" Hangover in a foreign feast "has become widely known), underground man(“Notes from the Underground” by F.M. Dostoevsky), new people (“What to do? From stories about new people” by N.G. Chernyshevsky), a repentant nobleman (this is how critic N.K. Mikhailovsky called the autopsychological heroes of L.N. Tolstoy). Introduced by the writer himself or the critic - his interpreter, these nominations were entrenched in literary tradition and apply to a whole gallery of characters. The type nomination is also the hero's own name, if it has become a household name: Faust, Don Juan, Hamlet, Lady Macbeth, Molchalin, Chichikov, Bazarov.

The long life of types in literature (its indicator is the very frequency of the corresponding nominations in different contexts) is explained by the scale, high measure of the universal in artistic discovery. Addressing the reader, the author “ Dead souls"Prompts him to think:" ... and who of you, full of Christian humility, not publicly, in silence, alone, in moments of solitary conversations with himself, will deepen this difficult request within his soul: "Is there any - Any part of Chichikov? "" (Ch. 11).
Characters, especially in the work of one writer, are often the essence of variations, the development of one type. Writers return to the type they discovered, finding new facets in it, achieving the aesthetic perfection of the image. P.V. Annenkov noted that I.S. Turgenev “for ten years was engaged in the processing of the same type - a noble but inept person, starting in 1846, when Three Portraits were painted, up to Rudin, which appeared in 1856, where the very image of such a person was found its full embodiment "(Annenkov PV Literary memoirs. - M., 1989. - S. 364.). Modern researcher defines a superfluous person as "a socio-psychological type, captured in Russian literature by the first half of the XIX v.; its main features are alienation from official Russia, from the native environment (usually noble), a sense of intellectual and moral superiority over it and at the same time - mental fatigue, deep skepticism, discord between words and deeds "(Mann Yu. V. Superfluous man / / Literary encyclopedic dictionary. - M., 1987. - S. 204.). This type includes heroes from the works of Pushkin, Lermontov, A.I. Herzen, preceding the appearance of Chulkaturin (the protagonist of Turgenev's "Diary of an Extra Man"): Onegin, Pechorin, Beltov. After "Diary ..." Turgenev creates images of Rudin, Lavretsky and others. As a result, a gallery of superfluous people appears, representing a type in development. Groups can be distinguished in it, one of them is Turgenev's heroes.

In literary criticism, there is another way of studying the character - exclusively as a participant in the plot, as a character. With regard to archaic genres of folklore, in particular to the Russian fairy tale (considered by V.Ya. Propp in his book "Morphology of a Fairy Tale", 1928), to the early stages of the development of literature, this approach is more or less motivated by material: there are no characters as such or they are less important than action.

With the formation of personality, it is the characters that become the main subject of artistic knowledge. In programs literary directions leading value has a concept of personality. Established in aesthetics and the view of the plot as the most important way of revealing the character, as a motivation for its development. “The character of a person can be revealed even in the most insignificant actions; from the point of view of a poetic assessment, the greatest deeds are those that shed the most light on the character of the person ”(G.E. Lessing, Hamburg Dramaturgy. - M .; L., 1936. - S. 38-39.). Many writers, critics, aesthetics could subscribe to these words of the great German enlightener.

"Russian language and literature for schoolchildren." - 2013. - No. 1. - S. 3-14.

Who is a 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 will or at the request of the teacher.

Also from our article you will learn what an "eternal" image is and what images are called eternal.

Literary hero or character. Who is this?

We often hear the term "literary character". But what we are talking about, few can explain. And even schoolchildren who have recently returned from a literature lesson often find it difficult to answer the question. What is this mysterious word "character"?

It came to us from ancient Latin (persona, personnage). Meaning - "personality", "person", "face".

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

It is impossible to write a story or a poem, a novel or a story without actors. Otherwise, it will be a senseless set, if not words, then, possibly, 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 any literary connoisseur with their number. And it is especially difficult for secondary school students. Especially because they prefer to play their favorite game instead of performing homework... How to classify heroes if the teacher or, even worse, the examiner requires it?

The safest option is to classify the characters according to their importance in the work. On this basis, literary heroes are divided into major and minor. Without the main character, the work and its plot will be a set 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 variant of the classification is more limited and is not suitable for all works, but for fairy tales and fantastic genres. This is the division of heroes into positive and negative. For example, in the tale of Cinderella, poor Cinderella herself - positive hero, she evokes pleasant emotions, you sympathize with her. And here are the sisters and angry stepmother- clearly heroes of a completely different warehouse.

Character characteristics. How to write?

Heroes of literary works sometimes (especially in a literature lesson at school) need a detailed description. But how do you write it? The option "there 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 safe bet writing a description 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 hero you will be talking about. Here you can also add why you want to describe it.
• The place of the hero in the story (novel, story, etc.). Here you can write whether it is major or minor, positive or negative, person or 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 of a literary hero may seem completely unfamiliar to you, if you tell you the name of a 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 ignorance. Therefore, if you have no time to read the work itself, ask someone to tell you about these characters.

The concept of the image in literature

Along with the character, you can often hear the concept of "image". What is it? The same as the hero or not? The answer will be both positive and negative, because a literary character may well be literally, but the image itself does not have to be a character.

Often we call this or that hero an image, but in the same way, nature can appear in a work. And then the theme of the examination sheet can be "the image of nature in the story ...". What should be done in this 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 burning mercilessly", "the night scared its darkness", and the characterization is ready. Well, if you need a characterization of the hero's image, 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 examined one - the images of heroes, that is, people / animals / mythical creatures and images of nature, images of peoples and states.

Also, the images can be so-called "eternal". What " eternal image"? This concept calls a hero once created by an author or folklore. But he was so" characteristic "and special that after years and epochs other authors write their characters from him, perhaps giving them other names, but the essence of this is not Such heroes include the fighter with Don Quixote, the hero-lover Don Juan and many others.

Unfortunately, modern fantasy characters do not last forever, despite the love of the fans. Why? Why is this funny Don Quixote Spider-Man better, for example? It is difficult to explain this in a nutshell. Only reading the book will give you the answer.

The concept of "closeness" 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 for nothing that the choice falls on this character. Often a favorite hero becomes an image that already reminds us in some way. Perhaps this is a similarity in character, or the experience of both the hero and you. Or this character is in a situation similar to yours, and you understand and sympathize with him. This is not a bad thing anyway. 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 positive features their character.