Characters in nineteenth-century novels depict the presence of flat characterization. It indicates that authors in this era didn’t feel enough urge to portray realistic characters. However, a paradigm shift is visible in the portrayal by twentieth-century novelists.
The nineteenth-century novels show that novelists usually didn’t prefer to portray unimportant modifications. In short, characters in these novels remain with the same velocity of importance from the beginning to the end. And no variation is evident. Also, the way of depiction shows a common trend of enacting in these novels.
During this era, writers preferred to draw static characters. Mrs. Micawber and Amelia Sedley are some of the best examples bearing this 19th-century trend. Mrs. Micawber in Charles Dickens’ famous 19th-century novel David Copperfield appears as comic relief. Here the author portrays her with an aim to provide readers some delight.
Dickens has characterized this woman character as a good-natured lady soulfully devoted to her kids. And like a static character, she repeats a catchphrase about her husband, “never will desert Mr. Micawber,” whenever she appears a little drunk. That means she is present in the novel to rerun the same thing from beginning to end. In truth, a lack of dynamism is evident in drawing characters.
The biggest concern of nineteenth-century novelists was to explore memorable characters. Yes, unique personas for delivering a moral.
On the other hand, twentieth-century novelists are more eager to produce realistic personas. That is true. These modern writers feel the urge to draw characters associated with the real world.
And to explore realistic persons in words, these authors proceed with minute psychological research. It helps them think, create, design, and develop appealing characters from within. Moreover, psychological analysis unlocks the scope to dissect the soul and mind of the ready to emerge true to life person in words. Even with this anatomizing of story characters, the modern writers come to know the truth that, in reality, man is not as simple and innocent as they appear; rather a complex one.
Most probably, the twentieth-century novelists first reveal that a man is a mixture of virtue and vice both in concept and in the real world. Also, the psychological study shows that a real human being is the manifestation of delicacy in variation. For instance, many twentieth-century novel characters sometimes emerge running fast and sometimes slow. A co-existence of clean and cloudy traits is acutely present in them. In short, variation in every moment is the veracity lurking in humans, and modern novelists display this fact.
Before the advent of the modern era, authors usually tried to portray most women characters as simple and all-time morally sound creatures. But, with the discovery of complexities in human personality, novelists prefer to observe women characters with the parameter of virtues and vices. There is less opportunity for predictions. And writers no more feel the passion for drawing fascinating dreamy personas only.
The twentieth-century novelists have made one thing clear the principal characters of the story may not always emerge as human beings with morals and reputations. Bitterness can also be a part of the personality at times. Furthermore, a strong impulse is noticeable in the novels about exploring everything within the arena of real-life facts.
