By the time the Roman comic playwright Plautus wrote his plays two centuries later, the use of characters to define dramatic genres was well established.[38] His Amphitryon begins with a prologue in which Mercury claims that since the play contains kings and gods, it cannot be a comedy and must be a tragicomedy.[39]
Genre connects the emotion to the story and the role that the characters play.
On this basis, a distinction between the individuals represented in tragedy and in comedy arose: tragedy, along with epic poetry, is "a representation of serious people" (1449b9—10), while comedy is "a representation of people who are rather inferior"
Associating with characters emotions have to do a lot with what is going on within the setting.
For (i) tragedy is a representation not of human beings but of action and life. Happiness and unhappiness lie in action, and the end [of life] is a sort of action, not a quality; people are of a certain sort according to their characters, but happy or the opposite according to their actions.
Creating some sort of emotion to characters is important.
A recurring character or supporting character often and frequently appears from time to time during the series' run.[22] Recurring characters often play major roles in more than one episode, sometimes being the main focus. A guest or minor character is one who acts only in a few episodes or scenes. Unlike regular characters, the guest ones do not need to be carefully incorporated into the storyline with all its ramifications: they create a piece of drama and then disappear without consequences to the narrative structure, unlike core characters, for which any significant conflict must be traced during a considerable time, which is often seen as an unjustified waste of resources.[23] There may also be a continuing or recurring guest character.[24] Sometimes a guest or minor character may gain unanticipated popularity and turn into a regular or main one;[25] this is known as a breakout character.[26][27]
Overall every character plays an important part to the story.
In television, a regular, main or ongoing character is a character who appears in all or a majority of episodes, or in a significant chain of episodes of the series
The main focus, usually who the story is about.
the protagonist of A Christmas Carol. At the start of the story, he is a bitter miser, but by the end of the tale, he transforms into a kind-hearted, generous man.
Helps develop a lesson using a dynamic character.
An author can create a character using the basic character archetypes which are common to many cultural traditions: the father figure, mother figure, hero, and so on
These types of characters are usually easy for the reader to relate to the narrative.
Other authors, especially for historical fiction, make use of real people and create fictional stories revolving around their lives,
Some authors also did this to not expose certain people.
The study of a character requires an analysis of its relations with all of the other characters in the work
Each character has its own role in the story.
The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life person, in which case the distinction of a "fictional" versus "real" character may be made.
Your character depends on what your narrative is about. If your narrative is based on a real life event it is most likely going to have non fiction characters.