Characterization

Characterization is the representation of persons (or other beings or creatures) in narrative or dramatic works of art. This representation may include direct methods like the attribution of qualities in description or commentary, and indirect (or "dramatic") methods inviting readers to infer qualities from character's actions, dialogues, or appearance. Such a personage is called a character. Character is a literary element.

The term chracterization was introduced in the 19th century. Aristotle promoted the primacy of plot over characters, that is, a plot driven narrative, urging in his Poetics that tragedy "is a representation, not of men, but of action and life." This view was reversed in the 19th century, when the primacy of the character, that is, a character-driven narrative, was affirmed first with the realist novel, and increasingly later with the influencial development of psychology.

The psychologist Carl Jung identified twelve primary "original patterns" of the human psyche. He believed that these reside in the selective subconscious of people across cultural and political boundaries. "Flat" characters may be considered so because they stick to a single archetype without deviating, whereas "complex" or "realistic" characters will combine several archetypes, with some being more dominant than the others - as people are in real life. Jung's twelve archetypes are: the Innocent, the Orphan, the Hero, the Caregiver, the Explorer, the Rebel, the Lover, the Creator, the Jester, the Sage, the Magician, and the Ruler.

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