A stock character is a fictional character based on a common literary or social stereotype. Stock characters rely heavily on cultural types or names for their personality, manner of speech, and other characteristics. In their most general form, stock characters are related to literary archetypes, but they are often more narrowly defined. Stock characters are a key component of genre fiction, providing relationships and interactions that people familiar with the genre will recognize immediately. Stock characters make easy targets for parody, which will likely exaggerate any stereotypes associated with these characters.
Read more about Stock Character: Copyright Law
Famous quotes containing the words stock and/or character:
“I consider that a man’s brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose.”
—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930)
“People who wish to salute the free and independent side of their evolutionary character acquire cats. People who wish to pay homage to their servile and salivating roots own dogs.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)