You can guess that all the main andsecondary heroes of literary works are not invented by the author, but are written off from real people. If all the characters of the authors were pure fiction, then it is unlikely that the works themselves would be interesting to the reader. A fictional hero is ideal, and it's not interesting.
The concept of a prototype
Every character in a literary workthere is a double in real life. It can be a writer who created a masterpiece, acquaintances or relatives, and even an interesting historical personality. These people can be called prototypes of literary characters.
What is a prototype in the literature?This is the original image, familiar to the writer in life or from historical books, which borrowed features of character and appearance to create a literary hero. At the same time, the writer has the right to speculate the character, refine, supplement his personality qualities. Often a writer creates such a literary image, choosing a prototype, that such a coincidence with a real person is not entirely accurate.
Prototype in realistic literature
Often, according to the idea of the writer appears prototype,which from the beginning to the end repeats the life path and actions of the author himself. Such works are the most realistic, because they fully absorb the way of life and the views of the heroes of that era. Refer to such a prototype writer in his autobiographical works.
Several prototypes - collective image
There are so-called collective images.This is when the prototype of the hero is not one, but several. Creating a literary image, the author takes on several features at once for several people. A striking example is the work of M. Yu. Lermontov "Hero of Our Time", where Grushnitsky is a collective image.
Children's literature
For children, a prototype is chosen that isthe work becomes a reading child close and understandable, because the main character is a child. The young reader is fully aware of his actions. And where do the characters-children come from? Often the children of writers become prototypes. So Alice Selezneva appeared in The Secret of the Third Planet, the girl Murochka in the works of K. Chukovsky.
Lewis Carroll’s daughter Alice became the prototypethe main character in the work "Alice in Wonderland". Often the story told seems incredible and very interesting, and the names of the characters coincide with the names of the original and his friends. Sometimes readers can review a prototype. What is the concept can give in the analysis of works? Reading a literary work, I want to know from what person the author wrote off the characters, whom they resemble. It helps to feel the idea and theme of the text.
But the prototype (what does this term mean, wedisassembled above), quite possibly, does not want to publicize his name. Therefore, sometimes readers just have to guess and build a theory about the prototype of a particular hero.
