![]() ![]() Personification as a characterization device is distinct from personification that functions as imagery (“The wind howled. Curious that women are so often dehumanized this way, transformed into abstractions for the admiration, objectification, or condemnation of male audiences 1. Whether these figures have agency (and are therefore characters) or whether they serve as symbols varies from text to text. Nonhuman characters who effectively function with agency in prose fiction may be said to be ‘personified’ or ‘humanized.’ Abstract forces or ideas may also be personified, such as Lady Liberty, Lady Justice ( lustitia in Latin), or Wisdom’s characterization as a woman in Proverbs 8:1 – 9:12. Two related devices are relevant here: personification and dehumanization. the White Rabbit in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland - Figure 4.1 - or the robots in I, Robot). Characters are most often human beings, but they can also be nonhuman animals or other entities who behave like humans (e.g. ![]() Thebans in Oedipus Rex, or the group of neighborhood boys in The Virgin Suicides). Ivan Karamazov in The Brothers Karamazov, Werther in The Sorrows of Young Werther, or Henry Jekyll in Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde), but there are some special cases where we find collective or choral characters (e.g. Characters are most often individuals (e.g. But what are characters? Why are they so necessary for narrative? What kinds of characters do we find in fiction stories? How are they characterized and represented? These are some of the questions that will occupy us in this last chapter dedicated to the formal elements of story.Ī character is any entity in the story that has agency, that is, who is able to act in the environments of the storyworld. The arrangement of characters in the story is called characterization. To have a story, there must also be characters. The worlds of prose fiction are not only made of events arranged into plots and environments arranged into settings. ![]()
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