Abstract: | This article is concerned with the dramatic character, an aesthetically constructed reality. It is generally agreed that the term is a complex one. It has taken on connotations of key words from other discourses, chiefly the philosophical and psychological/ psychoanalytical ones. Consequently, this article refers to such terms as personality, identity, self, character as a personal programme for converting wishes into deeds, all of them valid components of a working anatomy of dramatic character. It also runs over fine distinctions – character-actant, character-actor, character-role – which clearly reveal the deep structure of the text, the main conflicts of the play, and character classifications – mono vs. multidimensional characters, types and individuals - which bring to the fore the main features of the protagonists. Finally, there are suggested other means of character delineation: the meaning and connotations of the names, the use of objects and accessories with a symbolic value. |