Stock character

A stock character is a fictional character that relies heavily on cultural types or stereotypes for its personality, manner of speech, and other characteristics. Stock characters are instantly recognizable to members of a given culture.

Stock characters in the western tradition originate from the theatres of ancient Greece and Rome.

Stock characters

• The Damsel in Distress: the young, beautiful, virginal woman who must be rescued from some cruel fate by the Hero, à la Penelope Pitstop.
• The Dark Lord: a villain with an entourage of henchpersons, usually bent on conquest of the world or universe.
• The femme fatale, La belle dame sans merci, the Black Widow, the beautiful, but evil woman who leads the hero to his doom.
• The Fop: The fop is a highly fashionable aristocrat. He is typically overdressed and his speech is characterized by over-use or misuse of popular phrases (often French phrases) or various forms of hypercorrection. The fop is never intelligent and always talkative. (The Hero sometimes poses as a fop to allay his enemies' suspicions: Zorro hid behind the image of the Fop, Don Diego. The Scarlet Pimpernel hid behind the persona of Sir Percy Blakeney.)
• The Fool: The fool is a clown or joker who speaks in riddles and puns. Often, the fool is intelligent and witty and reveals key truths about the characters he fools with (Shakespeare's fools, such as the ones in Twelfth Night and King Lear, are well-known examples).
• The Henchman: a major villain's frequently incompetent stooge. (Heroes have sidekicks; villains have henchmen.)
• The Mad Scientist: The insane man of science, who either accidentally or intentionally "meddles with the forces of nature" and causes the trouble which the hero must correct.
• The Outlaw: sometimes a cold-blooded desperado, but also often a gallant highwayman or a dashing thief after the manner of Robin Hood.
• The Rake or Cad: The Rake is a man who seduces a young woman and impregnates her before leaving, often to her social or financial ruin. Often portrayed as a heavy drinker or gambler. Also known as a rake-hell. See: Hogarth's "A Rake's Progress".
• The Avenger: The Avenger is a hot-blooded young man who has had a loved one (ideally a fiancée) cruelly murdered and/or raped and seeks his revenge outside the law. (Laertes in Hamlet and Hamlet himself are examples of Avengers.) - Also commonly applies to situations such as son of a Rake
• The Sidekick: the Hero's helper, Sancho Panza in Don Quixote, Dr. Watson in Sherlock Holmes. The Sidekick is often a figure of fun, but is trustworthy and sometimes shows surprising resourcefulness and bravery. In whodunnits and secondary literature on detective fiction in general, the Sidekick is often referred to as the Watson – slightly dumber than the average reader, time and again overlooking decisive clues, occasionally drawing the wrong conclusions (such as Capt. Hastings, a friend of Hercule Poirot's).
• The Wise Old Man: a Merlin or Yoda figure, who trains and advises the Hero; often portrayed as a wizard and/or hermit.
• The absent-minded professor: an academic with important information, but whose focus on his learning leads him to ignore his surroundings. (Based in part on Isaac Newton?)
• The Tart with a Heart: Outwardly tough and hard, she hides a heart of gold under her hard-bitten exterior. The modern interpretation of this character is often "The Stripper (or Hooker) with a Heart of Gold".
• The Town Drunk: who serves as a figure of fun, serves as a moral example, or is used as a plot device to disrupt public gatherings.

Related topics

• antihero
• archetype
• antagonist
• blackface
• Commedia dell'arte
• hero
• Heroines in literature
• Igor
• MacGuffin
• melodrama
• plot device
• stereotype
• Passion play
• villain