【正文】 P, ‖ and the mot ivat ion of a character i n a st or y—one of t he answers to t he questi on ―why‖—is of fundamental impor tance. I. What is Charact er? Closely r elat ed wi th t he story is t he char acter. Henry James sai d, “What is character but he det ermi nati on of incident ? What is i ncident but he il ustration of character?‖ (The Art of Ficti on‖) When we read a novel, we read about our felow beings, and that i s one of t he moti ves in readi ng at al l. The “felow beings” in t he novel is termed charact er s. By “felow beings” is meant not only “human bei ngs” but also “other beings,” such as ani mal s. Geor ge Or wel l uses ani mal s t o represent human bei ngs in his novel Animal Farm. Lewis Car rol cr eates many lovel y animals in his Ali ce’s Advent ures i n Wonderland that appeal to bot h chil dr en and adults. Orwel does not i nt end to convince the reader t hat animals can speak human language or t hat he i s a t ranslator between animals and humans. No sensibl e reader, aft er readi ng Orwel l‘s Animal Farm, would go to the pigst y to look for a t al ki ng boar . This proves the agr ed on ficti onalit y of char acters in novels. So broadl y, a character is an invented personal it y to resembl e but never t o equal a real person in l ife. I t is not di f icul t o see that characters in novels r esemble people in r eal li fe in many ways. They have names used in t he same way our s ar e used, they have hat red and l ove, and t hey have desires and f ears. Above al , t hey act the way we act or t he way we can understand ( like or di sli ke) . But we must bear in mi nd t hat the char acter s are not r eal persons, but m er el y invent ions, however i ngeni ous. Compare t he physical l ife and spir itual ife of the charact ers and ours. We have to answer the nat ure‘s cal several ti mes a day, but charact ers eldom do t hi s, even in the most realisti c or nat ur al istic novels. We have t o live our li fe hour by hour and day by day, but characters never do this. They choose to li ve some t ime more f ul ly than ot hers, and ar e able t o skip over per iods on ten mont hs or twent y year s without seming wei rd, a feat which we can never at tempt . In our li fe, our m i nds ar e a gr ay mat er even to sci enti st s. We can not know what i s going on i n other‘s mind. But in novel s, the minds of the charact ers are open or can be made open to t he reader if t he novelist so chooses. The r eader does not onl y see thei r clothes, but also see t heir mi nds. One charact er may be enemy to othe r characters, but he i s fri end to t he reader, before whom he can t hi nk aloud, t o borrow Emerson‘s words. Charact ers do not l ive, but act . When we wat ch act or s speak aloud t o themsel ves on the stage as if t hey wer e al one, we know they are act ing and they ar e di f er ent from what hey represent i n real li fe. The charact er s i n novel s exist in a si milar manner . II. Ki nds of Characters Usual y, a novel has more t han one character. They interact wit h each other and make up the story. But they are not equal y impor tant or have t he same functi on t o the novel ist. By t heir r ol es i n the novel, the characters can be gr ouped as heroes, main charact er s and minor char acters, and foil s. The charact er on whom a novel is called the hero or heroine when i t is a female character. The word ―hero‖ ori gi nal y refers t o a man, i n myt hol ogy and l egend, oft en of divine ancestry, who i s endowed with gr eat courage and st rength, celebrated for hi s hold exploit s, and f avored by t he gods. In the novel, the word “hero” is fred of such noble requi rement s and any central characters can be l abeled as heroes. Jonathan Wil d is the hero i n the novel of the same name by Henry Fielding, t hough he is a not or ious highwayman. Some critcs, annoyed by the connotation of “hero, ” prefer the word “protagonist,” which sounds neutral . The enem y or ri val of t he protagonist i s cal ed ―ant agoni st .‖ The mai n or maj or characters are those in close and dynamic rel at ion wit h the hero or heroine. Cl ose relati on does not mean good rel at ion. Pabl o in For Whom the Bel l Toll s i s const antl y finding tr ouble wit h the hero Jor dan, yet he is a main character as hi s wife Pil ar i s. Minor char acters are t hose i n remot e and st at ic r el ati on with t he her o. I t i s wrong t o think that mi nor charact er s are al uni mpor tant . I n some novel s, one or some of t he mi nor charact er s m ay ser ve a cri tical r ol e, st ructuraly or interpretati onaly. Foil characters are ones t hat hel p enhance the int ensi ty of the hero by strengtheni ng or contrast ing. They may be mai n characters or minor charact ers. I n a wor d, they ser ve as foils t o the hero or heroi ne. Cohn in The Sun Also Rises is a good example. He is one of the main charact ers. Like Jake, he i s al so ―lost ,‖ tryi ng vainly to escape t he past by courti ng women and dr inking. But during their st ay i n Spain, Cohn di splays qual it es i n cont rast to t hose cher ished by Jake, whi ch makes Jake real ize hi s own problems and fi nal y find a sol ut ion, though tempor ar il y. Cohn works mai nl y by cont rast . Wi lson i n The Great Gatsby works by present ing. Gatsby lost his l over t o Tom and Wil son lost his wife to Tom. By present ing Wil son‘s case t he noveli st intends t o point out the profound cause of Gat sby‘s tragedy. Dr. Watson i n the st ories of Sherlock Holmes serves as a foil to t he her o, r ender ing the detect ive smart er than he would other wise appear t o the reader. By the degr e of thei r devel opment , characters can be grouped as round characters and f lat charact ers. This division is proposed by Forster. Round characters are f ul ly developed while f lat charact ers ar e not . Or we can say that round charact ers gr ow whi le fl at character