In 

fiction, a character (sometimes known as a fictional character) is a person or other being in

a narrative (such as a novel, play, television series, film, or video game).[1][2][3] The character may be
entirely fictional or based on a real-life person, in which case the distinction of a "fictional" versus
"real" character may be made.[2] Derived from the ancient Greek word χαρακτήρ, the English word
dates from the Restoration,[4] although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in
1749.[5][6] From this, the sense of "a part played by an actor" developed.[6] (Before this development,
the term dramatis personae, naturalized in English from Latin and meaning "masks of the drama,"
encapsulated the notion of characters from the literal aspect of masks.) Character, particularly when
enacted by an actor in the theatre or cinema, involves "the illusion of being a human person".[7] In
literature, characters guide readers through their stories, helping them to understand plots and
ponder themes.[8] Since the end of the 18th century, the phrase "in character" has been used to
describe an effective impersonation by an actor.[6] Since the 19th century, the art of creating
characters, as practiced by actors or writers, has been called characterisation.[6]
A character who stands as a representative of a particular class or group of people is known as a
type.[9] Types include both stock characters and those that are more fully individualised.[9] The
characters in Henrik Ibsen's Hedda Gabler (1891) and August Strindberg's Miss Julie (1888), for
example, are representative of specific positions in the social relations of class and gender, such
that the conflicts between the characters reveal ideological conflicts.[10]
The study of a character requires an analysis of its relations with all of the other characters in the
work.[11] The individual status of a character is defined through the network of oppositions
(proairetic, pragmatic, linguistic, proxemic) that it forms with the other characters.[12] The relation
between characters and the action of the story shifts historically, often miming shifts in society and
its ideas about human individuality, self-determination, and the social order.[13]