(326 words) What is the basis of any literary work? First of all, this is the plot and characters. In each literary work there are main and secondary heroes. With the first, everything is clear: together with the main characters, we go all the way from beginning to end, through them the author addresses us. But what about those who are assigned a secondary role?
Minor characters can act as anyone. These are life teachers and enemies, and those for whom the protagonist sets off, and also the mouthpiece through which the author broadcasts. Minor characters like guides or mirrors reflecting the essence of the main characters.
Take, for example, Sonya Marmeladova from the novel “Crime and Punishment” by Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky. Sonya is a minor character. She is a young prostitute who, in the traditional sense, has fallen to the bottom. Meanwhile, the soul of eighteen-year-old Sonya remained clean, despite all the dirt that she had to pass through herself. With her example, she changed the worldview of the main character Rodion Raskolnikov, through whose fault the old percent-woman was killed. With her pure soul and faith in God, Sonia encourages Raskolnikov to reconsider his beliefs and leads him to repentance.
Consider the secondary character of the work of Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov "Oblomov." The servant of the protagonist Zakhar, an elderly man who prefers the familiar to the new. Zakhar was also distinguished by a great, if not fatherly, love in Ilya Ilyich. It was through Zakhar that the writer Goncharov showed the reader dependence on another person, because the meaning of Zakhar's life was to serve Oblomov. And it is through Zakhar that Oblomov and his life path from childhood are reflected.
And the last example is Lensky from the work of Eugene Onegin by Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin. A young nobleman, simple-hearted, romantic, believing in human ideals - contrasting the main character Eugene Onegin. Lensky as a litmus paper reveals a cold and selfish Eugene, who is bored with everything. Thanks to a duel with Lensky, Onegin begins to understand the true values. It is as if he wakes up and realizes the horror of his act and his vices.
Thus, it can be said that secondary characters are an important component of any novel or story. Minor heroes give meaning, add plot branches and bring the main characters to a frank dialogue or insight. Without minor heroes, the story would be empty and nondescript.
Black Swan
