Character(from the Greek character - trait, feature) - the image of a person in a literary work, which combines the general, repetitive and individual, unique. The author's view of the world and man is revealed through character.The principles and techniques for creating character differ depending on tragic, satirical and other ways of depicting life, on the literary type of work and genre.

It is necessary to distinguish literary character from character in life. When creating a character, a writer can also reflect the traits of a real, historical person. But he inevitably uses fiction, “invents” the prototype, even if his hero is a historical figure.

Artistic character - this is an image of a person presented in a literary work with sufficient completeness, in the unity of the general and the individual, the objective and the subjective; the totality of external and internal, individuality and personality of the hero, described in detail by the author, and therefore allowing readers to perceive the character as a living person; an artistic description of a person and his life in the context of his personality.

Artistic character - at the same time both an image of a person and an author’s thought, an idea of ​​him.

Artistic character is the “engine” of the plot, and the principles of its construction are closely related to the genre and composition of the entire work. Literary character includes not only the artistic embodiment of the personal qualities of the heroes, but also the specific author’s manner of constructing it. It is the evolution of character that determines the plot itself and its construction.

The following types of literary characters are distinguished: tragic, satirical, romantic, heroic and sentimental. Examples, for example, of a heroic character in literature are Ostap and Taras Bulba in “Taras Bulba” and Kalashnikov in “The Song about the Merchant Kalashnikov...”.

Turning to the analysis of ways to create character is subordinated to comprehending the idea of ​​a work of art, the essence of the writer’s attitude to life.

Basic ways to create character:

1.The most significant technique for illuminating a character from the outside is author's characteristics and mutual characteristics.

In mutual characterizations, the hero is shown through the perception of other characters, as if from different angles. The result of this is a fairly complete coverage of the character, highlighting its various sides.

2.Portrait characteristics (gestures, facial expressions, appearance, intonation).

By literary portrait we mean a description of the hero’s appearance: physical, natural and, in particular, age properties (facial features and figures, hair color), as well as everything in a person’s appearance that is formed by the social environment, cultural tradition, individual initiative (clothing and jewelry , hair and cosmetics). We note that a portrait can also capture body movements and poses characteristic of a character, gestures and facial expressions, facial and eye expressions. The portrait, thus, creates a stable, stable set of features of the “outer man”. A literary portrait illustrates those aspects of the hero’s nature that seem most important to the author.

Preference is always given to portraits that reveal the complexity and diversity of the characters’ appearances. Here, depiction of appearance is often combined with the writer’s penetration into the hero’s soul and with psychological analysis.

The hero's portrait can be given at the moment of the character's first appearance, i.e. expositionally, may be repeated several times throughout the entire work (leitmotif device).

3.Speech The character also acts as a means of typification, reveals the character and helps to understand the author’s attitude towards the character.

4.Interior, i.e. everyday surroundings of the hero. The interior is an image of the conditions in which the character lives and acts. The interior as a means of characterizing a character was practically not used in the literature of classicism and romanticism. However, realist writers realized how much a thing can tell about its owner. You can highlight the interior, which influences the development of the action and the actions of the characters. With its help, a certain atmosphere is created as a whole.

The interior can characterize the social status of a person: wealth - poverty, aristocracy - philistinism, education - philistinism. Helps reveal character traits: independence - desire to imitate; presence of taste - bad taste; practicality - mismanagement. Can reveal the sphere of interests and views: Westernism - Slavophilism; love of reading - indifference to it; type of activity – inactivity. The interior can be presented in detail and as expressive details.

5.Actions and deeds characters also contribute to the creation of their image.

Observing the actions of the heroes, we note that the literary trends existing in a certain era also dictate unique behavioral forms. Thus, in the era of sentimentalism, loyalty to the laws of one’s own heart is proclaimed, melancholic sighs and copious tears are generated.

6.Scenery- a description, a picture of nature, part of the real environment in which the action takes place. The landscape can emphasize or convey the mental state of the characters: in this case, the internal state of a person is likened to or contrasted with the life of nature. Depending on the subject of the image, the landscape can be rural, urban, industrial, sea, river, historical (pictures of the ancient past), fantastic (the appearance of the future world), astral (the supposed, conceivable heavenly). Can be described by both the hero and the author. We highlight a lyrical landscape that is not directly related to the development of the plot. It expresses the author's feelings.

In various works we find the functions of landscape. We note that it may be necessary for the development of the action, may accompany the development of external events, play a role in the spiritual life of the characters, and play a role in its characterization.

7.Artistic detail. In the texts of works of art we find expressive detail that carries a significant semantic and emotional load. An artistic detail can reproduce the details of the setting, appearance, landscape, portrait, interior, but in any case it is used to visually represent and characterize the characters and their habitat. Details may reflect a broad generalization; some details may acquire symbolic meaning.

8.Psychologism is an artistic expression of keen interest in changes in consciousness, in all kinds of shifts in a person’s inner life, in the deep layers of his personality. Mastering self-awareness and the “dialectics of the soul” is one of the remarkable discoveries in the field of literary creativity.

Inner speech is the most effective method of character self-disclosure. This technique is one of the most important, since the author gives preference to depicting the inner life of a person, and plot collisions are relegated to the background. One of the types of inner speech is "inner monologue" . The reader “looks” into the hero’s inner world, using it to reveal the character’s feelings and thoughts. When the author gives his hero a certain character, psychological characteristics, he thus sets the development of the action. “Inner monologue” and “stream of consciousness” can be expressed through non-direct speech. This is also one of the ways of transmitting inner speech.

You can depict the inner life of a hero in various ways. These are descriptions of his impressions of the environment, and compact designations of what is going on in the hero’s soul, and characteristics of his experiences, and internal monologues of characters, and images of dreams that reveal his subconscious - what is hidden in the depths of the psyche and unknown to him. Inner speech is a form of realization of self-awareness; a means of verbal self-disclosure of the hero; statements or monologues uttered by a character “to himself” and addressed to himself. May be a response to something seen or heard.

A striking example of illuminating a character “from the inside”, through diaries, is a novel by M.Yu. Lermontov "Hero of Our Time". The image of Pechorin is revealed in the novel from different sides, but the leading compositional principle of the novel is the principle of concentrated deepening into the world of the hero’s emotional experiences. A characteristic feature of Pechorin is reflective consciousness, which is a consequence of the gap between the desired and the actual. This reflection is most deeply visible in Pechorin’s diary. Pechorin comprehends and condemns his actions. Pechorin's journal provides an opportunity to see his personality from the inside.

“I smile now... but then I had a different feeling...” What term refers to the depiction of a person’s inner, spiritual life in a work of art?

I sailed from Hamburg to London on a small steamer. There were two of us passengers: myself and a small monkey, a female of the Uistiti breed, which a Hamburg merchant sent as a gift to his English companion.

She was tied with a thin chain to one of the benches on the deck and darted and squeaked pitifully, like a bird.

Every time I passed by, she extended her black, cold hand to me - and looked at me with her sad, almost human eyes. I took her hand and she stopped squeaking and thrashing around.

It was completely calm. The sea stretched out all around like a motionless lead-colored tablecloth. It seemed small; a thick fog lay on it, covering the very ends of the masts, and blinded and tired the eye with its soft darkness. The sun hung like a dull red spot in this darkness; and before evening she would all light up and turn red in a mysterious and strange way.

Long straight folds, similar to the folds of heavy silk fabrics, ran one after another from the bow of the steamer and, ever widening, wrinkled and widened, finally smoothed out, swayed, and disappeared. Whipped foam swirled under the monotonously stomping wheels; turning milky white and hissing faintly, it broke into serpentine streams - and there it merged and disappeared, too, swallowed up by the darkness.

A small bell at the stern tinkled incessantly and plaintively, no worse than the squeak of a monkey.

From time to time a seal surfaced and, having tumbled steeply, went under the barely disturbed surface.

And the captain, a silent man with a tanned, gloomy face, smoked a short pipe and angrily spat into the frozen sea.

He answered all my questions with a curt grunt; involuntarily I had to turn to my only companion - the monkey.

I sat down next to her; She stopped squeaking and again extended her hand to me.

The motionless fog enveloped both of us with a soporific dampness; and immersed in the same, unconscious thought, we stayed next to each other, like family.

I smile now... but then I had a different feeling.

We are all children of the same mother - and I was pleased that the poor animal calmed down so trustingly and leaned against me as if it were my own.

(I. S. Turgenev. “Sea Voyage”)

Indicate the literary movement, the principles of which are embodied in the works of I. S. Turgenev.

Explanation.

Creativity of I.S. Turgenev dates back to the second half of the 19th century, when such a literary movement as realism reached its peak.

Realism is a literary movement characterized by a truthful depiction of life; realism involves the depiction of “typical heroes in typical circumstances” (F. Engels).

Answer: realism.

Answer: realism

“The sea stretched out all around like a motionless tablecloth of lead color...” What term refers to the description of nature in a work of art?

Explanation.

The description of nature in a work of art is a landscape.

Answer: landscape.

Answer: landscape

What is the name of the means of characterizing a character based on a description of his appearance (“a silent man with a tanned, gloomy face”)?

Explanation.

A portrait in literature is one of the means of artistic characterization of a hero.

Answer: portrait.

Answer: portrait

Establish a correspondence between the characters of Turgenev’s other prose works and their names. For each position in the first column, select the corresponding position from the second column. Write your answer in numbers in the table.

Write down the numbers in your answer, arranging them in the order corresponding to the letters:

A	B	IN

Explanation.

Let's establish correspondences:

A) Gerasim - “Mumu”: the main character of the story;

B) Pavlusha - “Bezhin Meadow”: one of the boys whom the narrator met in the forest;

C) Arkady - “Fathers and Sons”: Bazarov’s friend.

Answer: 431.

Answer: 431

What is the name of a significant detail in a literary text (“Incessantly and plaintively... the small bell at the stern was ringing”)?

Explanation.

A detail or artistic detail is a detail that specifies a particular image.

Answer: detail or artistic detail.

Answer: detail|artistic detail

Indicate a technique based on the figurative correlation of objects and phenomena (“The sun hung like a dull red spot”).

Explanation.

Comparison is a figurative expression built on the comparison of two objects, concepts or states that have a common feature, due to which the artistic meaning of the first object is enhanced. Most often, comparison is added through conjunctions.

Answer: comparison.

Answer: comparison

What philosophical issues does Turgenev address in his prose poem “Sea Voyage”?

Explanation.

Reflections on the greatness and eternity of nature (space) and the frailty of life are one of the cross-cutting themes of the prose poems by I.S. Turgenev. It also sounds in the poem “Sea Voyage.”

The heroes of "Sea Voyage" are two passengers: a man and a small monkey tied to one of the benches on the deck. In the infinity of the sea, in complete solitude, they felt kinship and joy when meeting each other, some kind of calm: “immersed in the same unconscious thought, we were next to each other, like relatives.” Man and animal are united by a common essence - the will to live, which becomes painful due to the constant debilitating fear of the unknown of the future. A person helps a defenseless creature overcome fear, and this makes him stronger.

What works of Russian literature reveal the theme of man’s humane attitude towards living nature and in what ways can these works be compared with “Sea Voyage” by I. S. Turgenev?

Explanation.

The heroes of "Sea Voyage" are two passengers: a man and a small monkey tied to one of the benches on the deck. “...immersed in the same unconscious thought, we stayed next to each other, like family.” A person helps a defenseless creature overcome fear, and from this he himself becomes stronger.

The theme of man's humane attitude towards living nature is heard in the works of Viktor Astafiev. The stories of “The King of Fish” are about poachers violating the bans on hunting and fishing. The image of the king fish symbolizes nature itself. A man enters into the fight against a sturgeon of enormous size. The fight ends in favor of nature. Having lost his conscience, a man suffers defeat, and the magical king fish swims to the bottom of the Yenisei.

In Chingiz Aitmatov’s novel “The Scaffold,” the conflict between nature and “dark forces” is sharpened to the limit, and wolves find themselves in the camp of the good heroes. The name of the she-wolf, who loses one litter after another due to the fault of people, is Akbara, which means “great,” and her eyes are characterized by the same words as the eyes of Jesus, the legend of whom Aitmatov made an integral part of the novel. A huge she-wolf is not a threat to humans. She is defenseless against rushing trucks, helicopters, and rifles.

Nature is helpless, it needs our protection. Russian writers call for this.

Explanation.

The depiction of a person’s inner, mental life in a work of art is called psychologism.

Answer: psychologism.

Answer: psychologism

Psychologism of the work
1. Naming technique. Title of the work. Talking names of heroes
2. Acceptance of characteristics. Direct author's characterization, self-characterization of the hero, characterization by other characters
3. Method of description. Portrait.
4. Characteristics of the hero through his actions, deeds, demeanor, thoughts.
5. Speech features of the characters
6. Portrayal of the hero in the character system
7. Technique for using artistic details
8. Reception of images of nature (landscape) and the environment (interior)

The worst reproach an author can receive from a reader is that his characters are cardboard. This means: the author did not bother (or did not care enough) about creating the character’s inner world, which is why he turned out flat = one-dimensional.

To be fair, it should be noted that in some cases the hero does not need versatility. For example, in purely genre works - loveburger, detective, action - the villain must only be a villain (cruelly sparkling eyes, gnashing teeth and hatching dark plans), and virtue must triumph in everything - both in the appearance of the heroine, and in her thoughts, and in habits.
But if the author is planning a serious thing, wants to hook the reader not only on an eventual, but also on an emotional level, it is impossible to do without elaborating the hero’s inner world.

This article describes the basic techniques that will allow you to transfer a hero from cardboard to a 3D model.

First, a little about PSYCHOLOGISM as a set of means used in a literary work to depict the inner world of a character, his thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

Methods of depicting a character’s inner world can be divided into images “from the outside” and images “from the inside.”
The image “from the inside” is carried out through internal monologue, memories, imagination, psychological introspection, dialogue with oneself, diaries, letters, dreams. In this case, first-person narration provides enormous opportunities.

The image “from the outside” is a description of the hero’s inner world not directly, but through external symptoms of a psychological state. The world surrounding a person shapes and reflects a person’s mood, influencing a person’s actions and thoughts. These are details of everyday life, housing, clothing, and the surrounding nature. Facial expressions, gestures, speech to the listener, gait - all these are external manifestations of the hero’s inner life. A method of psychological analysis “from the outside” can be a portrait, a detail, a landscape, etc.

And now, actually, the techniques.

1. NAMING RECEPTION

Perhaps the simplest (meaning, the most obvious, lying on the surface) technique is NAMING.

NAME OF THE WORK

The title of the work itself may indicate the characteristics of the characters.
A classic example is “Hero of Our Time.”

The Hero of Our Time, my dear sirs, is certainly a portrait, but not of one person: it is a portrait made up of the vices of our entire generation, in their full development. You will tell me again that a person cannot be so bad, but I will tell you that if you believed in the possibility of the existence of all tragic and romantic villains, why don’t you believe in the reality of Pechorin? (Lermontov. Hero of our time)

SPEAKING NAMES OF HEROES

The technique can be used, as they say, head-on - as, for example, in classic Russian comedies. So, Fonvizin had Pravdin, Skotinin, Starodum. Griboedov has Molchalin, Skalozub.
The same technique can be used more cunningly - through associations and allusions.

For example, let’s take Gogol’s “The Overcoat”. The main character's name was Akaki Akakievich Bashmachkin. Let us remember how the author describes the history of the origin of the hero’s name.

Akaki Akakievich was born against the night, if memory serves, on March 23rd. The deceased mother, an official and a very good woman, arranged to properly baptize the child. Mother was still lying on the bed opposite the door, and on her right hand stood her godfather, a most excellent man, Ivan Ivanovich Eroshkin, who served as the head of the Senate, and the godfather, the wife of a quarterly officer, a woman of rare virtues, Arina Semyonovna Belobryushkova. The mother in labor was given the choice of any of the three, which one she wanted to choose: Mokkia, Sossia, or name the child in the name of the martyr Khozdazat. “No,” thought the deceased, “the names are all the same.” To please her, they turned the calendar in a different place; Three names came out again: Triphilius, Dula and Varakhasiy. “This is a punishment,” said the old woman, “what are all the names; I really have never heard of such ones. Let it be Varadat or Varukh, or else Triphilius and Varakhasiy.” They turned the page again and out came: Pavsikakhy and Vakhtisy. “Well, I already see,” said the old woman, “that, apparently, this is his fate. If so, let him be better called, like his father. The father was Akaki, so let the son be Akaki.” (Gogol. Overcoat)

This is what is called the top layer. Let's dig deeper.
The name “Akaky” translated from Greek means “not bad”, “humble”. Initially, Gogol gave him the surname “Tishkevich” - as if he doubled the characteristic feature of his hero. Then he changed his last name to “Bashmakevich” - apparently in order to awaken sentimental feelings. And when the story was finished, the hero already bore the surname Bashmachkin.
The combination of first and last name acquired a clear parody sound. Why was this necessary? And this was precisely the means of creating the character’s inner world. “Akaky Akakievich Bashmachnikov” - here the homeliness (absurdity?) of the hero is emphasized and - most importantly - in Gogol’s (= signature) style it becomes a sign of future tragic events.

Another example from the classics.
"Tatyana!...Dear Tatiana." For Pushkin's contemporaries, this name was associated with the appearance of a peasant woman.
Pushkin writes: “For the first time, with such a name, We willfully consecrate the tender pages of a novel.” By calling the heroine simple, the author thereby emphasizes the main characteristic feature - the naturalness of her nature - remember, “Tatiana, Russian in soul...”?

But in “Mazepa” Pushkin changes the name of the historical heroine. In fact, Kochubey’s daughter’s name was Matryona (from Latin “venerable”). But the simple Matryona clearly reduced the pathos, so there was a replacement with the more sonorous Maria.

Playing with the names of the characters is a very promising technique that can even be developed into a separate storyline.

Pelevin. Generation "P"

Take, for example, the very name “Babylen”, which was awarded to Tatarsky by his father, who united in his soul the faith in communism and the ideals of the sixties. It was composed of the words “Vasily Aksenov” and “Vladimir Ilyich Lenin”. Tatarsky’s father, apparently, could easily imagine a faithful Leninist, gratefully comprehending over Aksenov’s free page that Marxism originally stood for free love, or a jazz-obsessed esthete, whom a particularly drawn-out saxophone roulade would suddenly make him understand that communism would win. But this was not only Tatarsky’s father - this was the entire Soviet generation of the fifties and sixties, which gave the world an amateur song and ended up in the black void of space as the first satellite - a four-tailed spermatozoon of a future that never came.
Tatarsky was very shy about his name, introducing himself whenever possible as Vova. Then he began to lie to his friends that his father called him that because he was fond of Eastern mysticism and had in mind the ancient city of Babylon, the secret doctrine of which he, Babylen, would inherit. And my father created the fusion of Aksenov with Lenin because he was a follower of Manichaeism and natural philosophy and considered himself obliged to balance the light principle with the dark one. Despite this brilliant development, at the age of eighteen Tatarsky happily lost his first passport, and received a second one for Vladimir.
After that, his life developed in the most ordinary way.
<…>
“Vladimir Tatarsky,” said Tatarsky, standing up and shaking his plump, limp hand.
“You are not Vladimir, but Vavilen,” said Azadovsky. - I know about it. Only I’m not Leonid. My dad was an asshole too. Do you know what he called me? Legion. I probably didn’t even know what this word meant. At first I was grieving too. But then I found out what was written about me in the Bible, and I calmed down.
<…>
Farseykin shrugged:
- The Great Goddess is tired of the misalliance.
- How do you know?
- At a sacred fortune telling in Atlanta, the oracle predicted that Ishtar would have a new husband in our country. We had problems with Azadovsky for a long time, but for a long time we could not understand who this new guy was. All that was said about him was that he was a man with the name of the city. We thought and thought and searched, and then suddenly they brought your personal file from the first department. By all accounts, it turns out that this is you.
- I???
Instead of answering, Farseikin made a sign to Sasha Blo and Malyuta. They approached Azadovsky’s body, took him by the legs and dragged him from the altar room to the locker room.
- I? - repeated Tatarsky. - But why me?
- Don't know. Ask yourself that. For some reason the goddess did not choose me. What would it sound like - a person who left a name...
- Who left his name?
- In general, I am from the Volga Germans. It’s just that when I graduated from university, an assignment from television came to a chock - a correspondent in Washington. And I was a Komsomol secretary, that is, first in line for America. So they changed my name at Lubyanka. However, it doesn't matter.

And another example of how, with the help of the hero’s name, the author emphasizes his character (and at the same time the idea of ​​the work)

K. M. Stanyukovich. Serge Ptichkin.
The hero of the story with all his might, without hesitation in choosing his means, tries to get to the top and make a career.

When the boy's previous vague dreams began to take a more realistic form, the young man began to be even more irritated by his last name.
And he often thought:
“Father should have been called Ptichkin! And how did the mother, a girl from an old noble family, decide to marry a man with the surname Ptichkin? What the hell is this name! Well, at least Korshunov, Yastrebov, Sorokin, Voronov, Vorobyov... even Ptitsyn, and then suddenly... Ptichkin! And when he dreamed of a future glorious career, these dreams were poisoned by the memory that he was... Mr. Ptichkin.
Even if he rendered some extraordinary services to the fatherland... like Bismarck... he would still never be made a count or prince.
“Prince Ptichkin... This is impossible!” – the young man repeated with anger at his last name.
True, he liked to explain on occasion (which he soon did with the Batishchevs) that the Ptichkin family was a very old noble family and that one of the ancestors, the Swedish knight Magnus, was nicknamed “Bird” for his extraordinary horse riding, back at the beginning of the 15th century moved from Sweden to Russia and, having married the Tatar princess Zuleika, laid the foundation for the Ptichkin family. But all these heraldic explanations, composed in addition in the fifth grade of the gymnasium, when they were studying Russian history, did little to console the noble descendant of the Swedish knight Bird.

In the end, the hero achieves what he wants - a prominent position, a million-dollar fortune, but...

In general, Serge Ptichkin is happy. He has a lovely apartment, carriages with rubber tires, excellent horses, a foolish wife in love, a very prominent career ahead...
There is only one thing that still torments him, and that is his last name.
- Ptichkin... Ptichkin! - he sometimes repeats with anger in his luxurious office. - And you had to be born with such a stupid surname!

2. RECEPTION – CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HERO

SELF-CHARACTERISTICS OF A HERO

I was twenty-five years old then,” N.N. began, things of a long time ago, as you can see. I had just broken free and went abroad, not in order to “finish my education,” as they used to say then, but I simply wanted to look at God’s world. I was healthy, young, cheerful, I had no money transferred, worries had not yet begun - I lived without looking back, did what I wanted, prospered, in a word. It never occurred to me then that man is not a plant and cannot flourish for long. Youth eats gilded gingerbread, and thinks that this is their daily bread; and the time will come - and you’ll ask for some bread. But there is no need to talk about this.
I traveled without any purpose, without a plan; I stopped wherever I liked, and immediately went further as soon as I felt a desire to see new faces - namely, faces. I was occupied exclusively by people; I hated curious monuments, wonderful collections, the very sight of a footman aroused in me a feeling of melancholy and anger; I almost went crazy in Dresden's Grüne Gelb. Nature had an extraordinary effect on me, but I did not like its so-called beauties, extraordinary mountains, cliffs, waterfalls; I didn’t like her to get involved with me, to disturb me. But faces, living human faces - people’s speech, their movements, laughter - that’s what I couldn’t do without. In the crowd I always felt especially at ease and joyful; I had fun going where others went, screaming when others screamed, and at the same time I loved watching those others scream. It amused me to watch people... but I didn’t even watch them - I looked at them with some kind of joyful and insatiable curiosity. (Turgenev. Asya)

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HERO BY OTHER CHARACTERS

I tried to explain to Captain Bruno why all this surprised me, and he was silent for a minute or two.
“It’s not surprising,” he said at last, “that I was kind to Strickland, because we, although we perhaps did not suspect it, had common aspirations.”
- What, pray tell, could there be a common desire for such different people as you and Strickland? - I asked, smiling.
- Beauty.
“The concept is quite broad,” I muttered.
- You know that people obsessed with love become blind and deaf to everything in the world except their love. They are no more their own, like slaves chained to benches on a galley. Strickland was possessed by a passion that tyrannized him no less than love.
- How strange that you say that! - I exclaimed. “I have long thought that Strickland was possessed by a demon.”
- His passion was to create beauty. She gave him no peace. She was driven from country to country. The demon in him was merciless - and Strickland became an eternal wanderer, tormented by divine nostalgia. There are people who thirst for the truth so passionately that they are ready to shake the foundations of the world just to achieve it. Strickland was like that, only truth was replaced by beauty. I felt only deep compassion for him.
- And this is also strange. A man whom Strickland had brutally insulted once told me that he felt deep pity for him. - I was silent for a bit. “Have you really found an explanation for a man who always seemed incomprehensible to me?” How did you come up with this idea?
He turned to me with a smile.
“Didn’t I tell you that I, in my own way, was an artist?” I was consumed by the same desire as Strickland. But for him the means of expression was painting, and for me life itself. (Maugham. Moon and penny)

3. RECEPTION – DESCRIPTION OF THE HERO (PORTRAIT)

A literary portrait is an artistic depiction of a character’s appearance: face, figure, clothing, demeanor, etc.

Portraits of characters can be detailed, detailed, or fragmentary, incomplete; can be presented immediately in the exposition or when the character is first introduced into the plot, or gradually, with the unfolding of the plot using expressive details.

Types of portraits:

Naturalistic (portrait copied from a real person)

Many subsequently said that Chekhov had blue eyes. This is a mistake, but a mistake strangely common to everyone who knew him. His eyes were dark, almost brown, and the rim of his right eye was much more colored, which gave A.P.’s gaze, with some turns of his head, an expression of absent-mindedness. The upper eyelids hung somewhat over the eyes, which is so often observed in artists, hunters, sailors - in a word, in people with concentrated vision. Thanks to his pince-nez and his manner of looking through the bottom of his glasses, raising his head slightly upward, the face of A.P. often seemed harsh. But you had to see Chekhov in other moments (alas, so rare in recent years), when he was overcome by joy and when, with a quick movement of his hand, throwing off his pince-nez and rocking back and forth in his chair, he burst into a sweet, sincere and deep laugh. Then his eyes became semicircular and radiant, with kind wrinkles at the outer corners, and his whole body then resembled that well-known youthful portrait, where he is depicted almost beardless, with a smiling, short-sighted and naive look, somewhat from under his brows. And so - amazingly - every time I look at this photograph, I cannot get rid of the thought that Chekhov’s eyes were really blue. (Kuprin. In memory of Chekhov)

Psychological (through the hero’s appearance, the hero’s inner world and character are revealed)

Idealizing or grotesque (spectacular and vivid, replete with metaphors, comparisons, epithets)

In general, for all authors, the appearance of the characters has always been fundamental to understanding their character. Depending on traditions, features of the literary movement, norms of the corresponding genre, individual style, authors present portrait descriptions of characters in different ways, paying more or less attention to their appearance.
However, there are authors for whom appearance is the starting point for creating images - as, for example, for Dickens.

With amazing farsightedness, he distinguished small external signs; his gaze, without missing anything, captured, like a good camera lens, movements and gestures in a hundredth of a second. Nothing escaped him... He reflected the object not in its natural proportions, like an ordinary mirror, but like a concave mirror, exaggerating its characteristic features. Dickens always emphasizes the idiosyncratic characteristics of his characters - not limiting himself to an objective image, he exaggerates and creates caricatures. He strengthens them and elevates them into a symbol. The portly Pickwick personifies spiritual gentleness, the skinny Jingle - callousness, the evil one turns into Satan, the good one - into perfection incarnate. His psychology begins with the visible, he characterizes a person through purely external manifestations, of course through the most insignificant and subtle, visible only to the keen eye of the writer... He notices the smallest, completely material manifestations of spiritual life and through them, with the help of his wonderful caricature optics, visually reveals the whole character. (c) Stefan Zweig.

4. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HERO THROUGH HIS ACTIONS, DEEDS, BEHAVIOR, THOUGHTS

The main means of creating character is the PICTURE OF THE CHARACTER'S ACTIONS.
The comparison of the character’s internal experiences and his actions works well here. A classic example is Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment.

5. As a separate technique for recreating the inner world of a character, one can highlight his SPEECH FEATURES.

Socrates has a good saying: “Speak so that I can see you.”
The speech of a Persian characterizes him in the best possible way, reveals his inclinations and preferences.

6. Also, as a separate technique, one can highlight the PICTURE OF THE HERO IN THE SYSTEM OF CHARACTERS.

The hero does not hang in a vacuum - he is surrounded by other Persians (supporters, opponents, neutrals). Reflected in their remarks, assessments, actions, etc., the hero acquires additional dimensionality. In principle, this technique is similar to No. 4 and No. 2 (characterization of the hero by other characters).
By comparing with other characters (and contrasting them!), the author has the opportunity to immerse the reader even deeper into the inner world of his hero.

8. HOW TO USE ART DETAILS

Let me remind you that an artistic detail is a detail that the author has endowed with a special semantic and emotional load.
The inner world of the hero as a whole and/or at a specific moment can be shown with the help of everyday details that may correspond or, conversely, sharply contradict the psychological state of the hero.

Thus, everyday life can absorb the hero - a series of landowners in “Dead Souls” or the same “Jumping Girl” by Chekhov.
Olga Ivanovna “in the living room she hung all the walls entirely with her own and other people’s sketches, framed and unframed, and near the piano and furniture she arranged a beautiful crowd of Chinese umbrellas, easels, colorful rags, daggers, busts, photographs”; in the dining room she “pasted the walls with popular prints , hung up bast shoes and sickles, put scythes and rakes in the corner, and it turned out to be a dining room in Russian taste.” In the bedroom, “to make it look like a cave, she draped the ceiling and walls with dark cloth, hung a Venetian lantern over the beds, and placed a figure with a halberd at the door.”

Note the deliberately long chain of details. The goal is not to depict the picture\ background\ circumstances of the heroine’s life, but to immediately show the prevailing traits of her character - vanity, pettiness, imaginary aristocracy. No wonder Chekhov “finishes off” the heroine, describing how, due to a lack of money and a desire to show off, Olga Ivanovna and her dressmaker show miracles of ingenuity - “From an old repainted dress, from worthless pieces of tulle, lace, plush and silk, they simply came out miracles, something charming, not a dress, but a dream.”

But in Bulgakov’s “The White Guard” the details of everyday life take on a completely different meaning. Things in the world of heroes are spiritualized, become symbols of the eternal - “The watch, fortunately, is completely immortal, the Saardam carpenter is immortal, and the Dutch tile, like a wise rock, is life-giving and hot in the most difficult times” (c)

“The main thing is to find the detail... it will illuminate the characters for you, from them you will go, and both the plot and thoughts will grow. From details to characters. From characters to generalizations and ideas” (c) M. Gorky in a letter to A. Afinogenov.

9. RECEPTION OF DEPRESENTATION OF THE ENVIRONMENT IN THE CHARACTER’S LIFE

The image of nature (landscape) and the environment (interior) are indirect characteristics of the character’s inner world and character.

Above there was only the sky and the cloud in its center, looking like a slightly smiling flat face with closed eyes. And below for a long time there was nothing but fog, and when it finally cleared, Marina was so tired that she could barely stay in the air. From above, not many traces of civilization were visible: several concrete piers, boardwalks over the beach, boarding house buildings and houses on distant slopes. Still visible was the antenna bowl looking up at the top of the hill and a trailer standing next to it, one of those trailers that are called by the rich word “cabin.” The trailer and the antenna were closest to the sky from which Marina was slowly descending, and she saw that the antenna was rusty and old, the door of the trailer was boarded up crosswise, and the glass in its window was broken. There was an air of sadness from all this, but the wind carried Marina past, and she immediately forgot about what she had seen. Having spread her translucent wings, she made a farewell circle in the air, took one last look at the endless blue above her head and began to choose a place to land.
<…>
The first object she encountered in her new world turned out to be a large plywood board, where the unfulfilled Soviet future and its beautiful inhabitants were drawn. Marina stared for a minute at their faded Nordic faces, above which hung cheesecakes that looked like cheesecakes from “The Book.” about tasty and healthy food" space stations, and then turned her gaze to the poster covering half the stand, handwritten on whatman paper with a wide poster pen:
<…>
The last clumps of fog were shaking in the bushes behind the poster, but the sky overhead was already clear, and the sun was shining with all its might. At the end of the embankment there was a bridge over a sewage stream flowing into the sea, and behind it there was a stall from which music could be heard - exactly the kind that should be playing on a summer morning over the beach. To the right of Marina, on a bench in front of the shower pavilion, an old man with a mane of yellowish-gray hair was dozing, and a few meters to the left, near a scale that looked like a small white gallows, a woman in a medical gown was waiting for clients.
<…>
The world around was beautiful. But what exactly this beauty consisted of was difficult to say: in the objects that made up the world - in trees, benches, clouds, passers-by - there seemed to be nothing special, but everything together formed a clear promise of happiness, an honest word that gave life for some unknown reason. Marina heard a question inside her, expressed not in words, but in some other way, but which undoubtedly meant:
“What do you want, Marina?”
And Marina, after thinking, answered something cunning, also inexpressible in words, but she put all the stubborn hope of her young body into this answer.
“These are the songs,” she whispered, took a deep breath of the sea-scented air and walked along the embankment towards the shining day. (Pelevin. Life of insects)

Creating the inner world of a character is a rather painstaking process. No one, not even the most luminaries, could write a good story on a whim.

A good work differs from a bad one by carefully thinking through the details, which ultimately come together into a single whole.

Try and think it over, I mean. Right now, without leaving the monitor, analyze the thing you are writing at the moment.

Follow the steps in this article.

Did you connect the description of the hero’s appearance with his character?

Were the readers allowed to see the hero through the eyes of the supporting characters?

Were they given the floor to evaluate the actions/character traits of the heroes?

What function do descriptions serve in your text? (only allow the reader to navigate the area or harmonize/contrast with the emotional state of the hero)

Something like this))

© Copyright: Copyright Competition -K2, 2014
Certificate of publication No. 214060102041

The forest, piercingly brunette, outlined the water, behind it the water rose like an oblique greenish sheet. Pantelei Prokofievich fingered the handles of the scoop with stubby fingers.

- Turn it into the water! Hold it, otherwise it will cut with a saw!

- I suppose!

A large yellow-red carp rose to the surface, foamed the water and, bending its blunt forehead, again plunged into the depths.

- It’s pressing, my hand is already numb... No, wait!

- Hold it, Grishka!

- I’ll hold it!

- Look under the longboat, don’t let him go!.. Look!

Taking a breath, Grigory led the carp to the longboat, which was lying on its side. The old man tried to reach out with a ladle, but the carp, straining his last strength, again went into the depths.

- Raise his head! Let the wind take a breath, it will calm down. Having led out, Grigory again pulled the exhausted carp to the longboat. Yawning with his mouth wide open, he poked his nose into the rough side and stood, shimmering with the moving orange gold of his fins.

- I fought back! - Panteley Prokofievich grunted, prying it with a ladle.

We sat for another half hour. The battle of the carp died down.

- Get out, Grishka. The last one must have been harnessed, we can’t wait.

We got together. Grigory pushed off from the shore. We've made it halfway. Gregory saw from his father’s face that he wanted to say something, but the old man silently looked at the farmstead’s courtyards scattered under the mountain.

“You, Grigory, that’s what...” he began hesitantly, fiddling with the strings of the bag lying under his feet, “I notice that you are, in no way, with Aksinya Astakhova...”

Gregory blushed deeply and turned away. The collar of the shirt, cutting into the muscular neck, burned by the sun, squeezed out a white stripe.

“Look, guy,” the old man continued harshly and angrily, “I’m going to talk to you in the wrong way.” Stepan is our neighbor, and I won’t allow you to spoil him with his woman. Here things can get really nasty, but I’ll warn you in advance: if I notice, I’ll screw it up!

Pantelei Prokofievich clenched his fingers into a knotted fist, squinting his bulging eyes, watching as the blood drained from his son’s face.

“Slanders,” Grigory muttered, as if out of water, and looked straight at his father’s bluish nose.

- Keep quiet.

- There are few things people say...

- Tsk, son of a bitch!

Grigory lay down over the oar. The longboat came in leaps and bounds. The water lurking behind the stern danced in curlicues.

Both were silent until the pier. Already approaching the shore, my father reminded:

- Don’t forget, but no, to close all the games from now on. So that I don’t take a step off the base. So that!

Grigory remained silent. Adjacent to the longboat, he asked:

- Should I give the fish to the women?

“Take it and sell it to the merchants,” the old man softened, “you’ll get some money for tobacco.”

Grigory walked behind his father, biting his lips. “Take a bite, dad, even if I’m hobbled, I’ll go away to the game,” he thought, angrily gnawing at his father’s steep back of his head with his eyes.

(M. A. Sholokhov, “Quiet Don”.)