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You are here: Home / Arts / Character Types in Fiction

Character Types in Fiction

January 28, 2022 By Allison Symes Leave a Comment

Image Credit:  Images created in Book Brush using Pixabay photos. Some images direct from Pixabay.

I’m sure this topic could go on for several weeks but I thought a whistlestop tour of some of the major character types you’re likely to come across would be fun.

Categories given are deliberately broad. One lovely aspect to fiction is there is so much depth to it and, even within one category, there will be a wide range of heroes and villains, all with their own personalities. It is the author’s unique take on a character type that brings the character to life.

If you think of a spy, one name will almost certainly pop up immediately – James Bond and, yes, the Fleming books and the films dominate the market but it doesn’t stop other writers bringing out spy books. (I thought Michael Caine was great as Harry Palmer in the Len Deighton books though I will confess to only having watched the films – Funeral in Berlin and The Ipcress File).

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Heroes/Heroines

I expect these to be intelligent, able to listen to good advice (and better still take it), to be honourable, and to defy expectations. It is a classic trope that, especially in the fairytales, it is the most unlikely who turn out to be heroes.

(Also think Harry Potter and Frodo Baggins from The Lord of the Rings. Hobbits weren’t exactly renowned for their courage and ability to see something through, which is something else a hero/heroine has to be able to do. And nobody expected an orphan, who hadn’t even been aware he was a wizard, to win through against the most evil wizard ever).

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They have to be convinced of the rightness of their cause too. They need determination and grit and to have at least some awareness of their own weaknesses (if only to prevent the opposition from exploiting them).

These characters also need to recognise they’re not going to complete their mission without support.

So, as mentioned last week, they’ll have a best friend/sidekick character who will give them that necessary support. And, in any fantasy setting, the hero/heroine will need the support of magical characters whether or not they’re magical themselves.

Villains

There are two important ingredients to so many stories – one is the hero/heroine but they need something/someone to be heroic against. So in comes the villain who should never be a cardboard cut-out. They have to seem as real to the reader as the hero/heroine does.

A “good” villain will have strong and powerful reasons for being the way they are. A reader should be able to see where the villain is coming from. Nobody said you ever had to agree with someone’s life choices and that goes for fictional characters too!

There should also be a conflict of interest between the two major parties where only one of them can win through. That forces the resolution to happen by the end of the story. A “good” villain will come from a similar background to the hero so the conflict between them can’t be based on one person having a superior education.

The villain brings out the best in the hero (though that is not intentional on the villain’s part) and he/she has to be able to match the other.

It should be a “damned close run thing” to paraphrase the Duke of Wellington. The struggle between the two main types of character has to feel real for the reader to believe it so that alone means the villain can’t be stupid.

Yes, the villain and the hero/heroine will make mistakes. The villain will at some point make a fatal mistake which will bring about his/her downfall but it is something the opposition will have to look for and be ready to exploit while taking care not to be exploited themselves.

Those with the power to help or hinder

These often don’t see the point or seriousness of the hero’s quest until it is almost too late. Then they pull out all the stops to assist. Then there are those who deliberately get in the hero’s way. That can be down to their supporting the villain or they just loathe the hero and want them to fail for nefarious reasons of their own. When it comes to those helping, their assistance makes all the difference. Frodo needed both Sam as his loyal friend and Gandalf with his mysterious powers.

Minor Characters

These can be used to give extra support to the hero. They can also be used by the villain to be a pain in the neck to the hero. Dolores Umbridge is a minor character in the Harry Potter canon but she is a wonderfully created and loathsome character. Not as evil as Voldemort, nobody is (not even Bellatrix Lestrange who is the closest to achieving that), but Dolores is evil in her own way and causes so many problems.

Yet the fact her character is confined to one book out of the seven in the series tells you something – she’s not important enough to be in all seven (and I’m not counting where she is being referred to given this is not the same as being active). Yet her active role in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is pivotal for that book.

The wise deployment of characters adds to the depth of a series like this. In general terms, the more important a character is, the more often they will appear in the overall story (which can be over several books), and the more you will know about them. But the minor characters still have their role to play. They will often make the hero face up to what has to be done. They can be used by the villain to get at the hero. (Well, there has to be a weak point somewhere, right?).

The Narrator

Not applicable to every story of course but turns up frequently. Bertie Wooster is the narrator of the tales involving him and Jeeves (with the odd exception where Jeeves narrates and it is generally accepted that didn’t work as well). Watson narrates Sherlock Holmes’s adventures. Someone has to tell the story after all and the narrator can show the reader “personal” knowledge of the main character. Watson does this, as does Captain Arthur Hastings for Hercule Poirot. You also pick up a sense of the narrator’s character by the way they narrate the story.

And there is the unreliable narrator too where the reader finds out their guide for the story hasn’t told them everything or has lied. I think the best example I can give there without giving too much away is The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie. It was felt Christie had cheated here. She hadn’t but it was an eyeopener to me when I first read it that unreliable narrators were a “thing” in fiction.

Agatha Christie Monument – image via Pixabay

It is only fair to the reader though to indicate early on the narrator might not be all they’re cracked up to me by planting the right clues. It is then up to the reader to pick those up. Usually if you go back over a story, you will spot the clues. The narrator can tip the way the reader sees the story so wields enormous power here. And they can have more than one role of course – they themselves can be the hero or the villain and the reader finds that out later.

Conclusion

There is a good reason for having major character types in a story. They make the story work. Everyone gets behind a hero. Everyone happily boos the villain. Stories need these characters. And even the minor characters must have a good reason for being there and add something to the story.

I find it fun when reading, especially a crime book, to try to spot the minor characters that will play a pivotal role later on and who are not just “walk on” parts. If you read a lot, you get better at spotting the signs early. The fun then comes from then finding out how those minor characters play their role out and that can only be done by reading the story through. Author has done their job then – they’ve got you to keep reading! And gripping characters for me are the way to engage with readers and keep them turning the pages.

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Happy reading and writing – the two go hand in hand.

Related Posts:-

Animals in Fiction
Best Friends in Fiction
My Top Ten Terry Pratchett Characters

Read interviews with Chandler’s Ford writer Allison Symes: Part 1 and Part 2.

Read blog posts by Allison Symes published on Chandler’s Ford Today.

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Tags: am reading, am writing, author take, books, character types, creative writing, fiction, genre fiction, heroes, minor characters, stories, villains

About Allison Symes

I'm a published flash fiction and short story writer, as well as a blogger. My fiction work has appeared in anthologies from Cafelit and Bridge House Publishing.

My first flash fiction collection, From Light to Dark and Back Again, was published by Chapeltown Books in 2017.

My follow-up, Tripping the Flash Fantastic, was published by Chapeltown Books in 2020.

I adore the works of many authors but my favourites are Jane Austen, P.G. Wodehouse and Terry Pratchett.

I like to describe my fiction as fairytales with bite.

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