What are the differences between Chinese and western novels in depicting characters?

The history of literature, in the deepest sense, is a kind of psychology, and the study of human soul is the history of soul. Undoubtedly, paying attention to psychological description in novel creation is the rational understanding and aesthetic pursuit of Chinese and western writers.

Although both Chinese and western classical novels pay attention to the inner world of characters in characterization, there are great differences between them in the details of psychological description and expression techniques.

First, the psychological description of characters in China's classical novels is concise and action-oriented.

The success of characterization often determines the success or failure of a novel. In China's classical novels, the characters are often described in detail in concise language in the trajectory of plot movement, thus accurately showing the inner world of the characters.

Second, the psychological description of characters in western classical novels is exquisite and in-depth.

Western classical novelists pay special attention to depicting the inner world of characters in detail. They are good at going directly into people's hearts, analyzing and excavating people's hidden, multifaceted and changeable inner world.

As can be seen from the above, when portraying characters' personalities or revealing their spiritual world, western classical novels are good at going deep into the open space of characters' inner world, and even tapping the subconscious of characters' inner world, capturing the changes of every moment and accurately reappearing them. The psychological description in China's classical novels is closely combined with the actions of the characters, and the description is dynamic and concise.

Third, compare and analyze the differences between them.

First of all, there are great differences between them in the traditional way of novel inheritance and the subject of creation. This unique psychological description of China's classical novels is related to its historical origin. China's ancient classical Chinese novels were born out of historical biography literature, while vernacular novels came from the art of storytelling. Telling stories with historical facts is the true face of historical biography literature. Historical records pay more attention to time, place and action events themselves, and sometimes make simple comments with obscure or explicit words. Rarely go deep into the characters' hearts to dig deeper psychological world. Western classical novels are both descendants of epic and drama. Homer's epic focuses on the fate and history of one or two protagonists, and writes a grand narrative structure. On this creative soil, Aristotle's assertion that "a work imitates only one object" and "imitation is limited to a complete action" ("Poetics") aims to realize the "universality" meaning of characters, and lays the foundation and theory of the structure of western narrative literature, which has had such a wide and far-reaching impact on narrative literature in almost all European countries. This structural mode with one or two main characters as the main line gives the writer the energy and space to carve the complete image of the characters. For a while, for a while, it was like a free and unconstrained style, calmly and freely, and completed the main description of the typical image.

To sum up, Chinese and western classical novels are fruits cultivated in different soils. Due to the differences in history, social atmosphere and creative habits, there are great differences in ideological content and artistic expression methods, especially in the psychological description of characters, which is not surprising. These differences can not be judged by the value standard of which is better or worse, which is higher or lower. It is necessary to compare, analyze, study and evaluate historically and dialectically, and clearly grasp the characteristics, so as to clearly inherit, absorb and discard the useless.