Dark Muse
12-13-2007, 03:18 PM
Most of us are familar with the idea of type casting in movies, in which a certain actor will often get the same kind of roles time and time again becasue of a look they have or becasue in some of thier early work they played such a char, and ended up just being identified with that. Well appernetly a simillar thing happens in books as well. I found this quite intresting. They call it stock chacters.
Appernetly in numerous French Novles of the 19th century there was a Grisette character whom nearly always appeared as a working class girl, either a laundress, seamtress and someone associated with having loose virtues but was even tempered and easy to be around.
Later one Grisette came into English use to define a French working class woman and sometimes involved with prositution.
Another exampled is Soubrette a name commonaly used in French comedies of the 17th and 18th centuries usually to describe a maid for the female protagonist, on collusion with her mistress to help her win over a difficult to snare male protagonist. She is usually smart and funny but subserviant to her mistress.
Stock characters have been around since the time of Aeschylus and Euripides, an in 319 B.C. a strudent of Aristole put together a study of these characters and concluded there were 30 stock types in drame.
Even Shakespeare used these stock figures, most notbaly the fool.
Appernetly in numerous French Novles of the 19th century there was a Grisette character whom nearly always appeared as a working class girl, either a laundress, seamtress and someone associated with having loose virtues but was even tempered and easy to be around.
Later one Grisette came into English use to define a French working class woman and sometimes involved with prositution.
Another exampled is Soubrette a name commonaly used in French comedies of the 17th and 18th centuries usually to describe a maid for the female protagonist, on collusion with her mistress to help her win over a difficult to snare male protagonist. She is usually smart and funny but subserviant to her mistress.
Stock characters have been around since the time of Aeschylus and Euripides, an in 319 B.C. a strudent of Aristole put together a study of these characters and concluded there were 30 stock types in drame.
Even Shakespeare used these stock figures, most notbaly the fool.