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In Archer's Play-Making, what counts as a 'character', how do I tell a living character from a repeated attitude, and what is the difference between character-drawing and psychology?

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Archer (1912, Ch. XXII) says character cannot be taught by rules, defines it for the dramatist as a complex of intellectual, emotional and nervous habits (innate temperament being the oldest habit), and calls the 'ruling passion' view of character an eighteenth-century dogma. He treats a character who only repeats two or three traits displayed early as a bundle of traits, not a human being. He then separates character-drawing (presenting human nature in recognised aspects) from psychology (exploring the processes behind an act) and tests the difference with Rosmersholm's Rebecca, whose temptations and hesitations are shown, against the murderess of Bella Donna, whose traits are assigned but whose mental processes are not. He adds that not every play needs psychology and that the distinction is hard to apply. The phrase 'logic of character' does not occur in the pinned text.

Archer (1912, Ch. XXII) says character cannot be taught by rules, defines it for the dramatist as a complex of intellectual, emotional and nervous habits (innate temperament being the oldest habit), and calls the 'ruling passion' view of character an eighteenth-century dogma. He treats a character who only repeats two or three traits displayed early as a bundle of traits, not a human being. He then separates character-drawing (presenting human nature in recognised aspects) from psychology (exploring the processes behind an act) and tests the difference with Rosmersholm's Rebecca, whose temptations and hesitations are shown, against the murderess of Bella Donna, whose traits are assigned but whose mental processes are not. He adds that not every play needs psychology and that the distinction is hard to apply. The phrase 'logic of character' does not occur in the pinned text. Curator qualifications: Character definition and 'ruling passion' passages verified (the one automated miss, E7, matches after whitespace collapse). Comparison rows with earlier cycle-3 candidates are producer synthesis from summaries. Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.
Structured fields
{
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10865/pg10865.txt",
      "note": "Archer Ch. XXII (pinned Gutenberg text)"
    }
  ]
}

Evidence claims

  • [sourced_fact] Archer (1912, Ch. XXII) says character cannot be taught by rules, defines it for the dramatist as a complex of intellectual, emotional and nervous habits (innate temperament being the oldest habit), and calls the 'ruling passion' view of character an eighteenth-century dogma. He treats a character who only repeats two or three traits displayed early as a bundle of traits, not a human being. He then separates character-drawing (presenting human nature in recognised aspects) from psychology (exploring the processes behind an act) and tests the difference with Rosmersholm's Rebecca, whose temptations and hesitations are shown, against the murderess of Bella Donna, whose traits are assigned but whose mental processes are not. He adds that not every play needs psychology and that the distinction is hard to apply. The phrase 'logic of character' does not occur in the pinned text. · locator: Archer Ch. XXII (pinned Gutenberg text) source

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