Apuleius. The Golden Ass: Secondary Characters

Abstract

In a literary work, the central place is given to a person. The main subject of depiction for the writer is a person and his society. In a written text, there are secondary characters next to the main character, who are brought in by the authors for different purposes and assigned certain (in many cases, key) functions by them. In the article, we will try to show how the story of Lucius, the main character, turned into a donkey, develops throughout the novel; What difficulties does the main character have to go through before returning to his original state, and most importantly, what is the relationship between the main character and the secondary characters. They often put the main character, Lucius, in an unbearable situation, and sometimes, on the contrary, show tolerance and even empathy towards him. The adventures of Lucius, full of difficulties, are made even more interesting by the secondary characters, who present the main character in different situations and show us his spiritual strength and unbreakability. In terms of their relationship with the main character, secondary characters in Apuleius's novel are grouped according to certain signs/characteristics: interesting to the main character; unnamed characters; characters that help the hero to achieve the desired goal; Characters who are represented in the form of animals and birds, and whose symbolic signs or actions provide the main character with certain types of information he needs; characters who pose a threat to the main character; characters that push the plot; Characters who blame the main character... These characters, of course, have different functions in the novel, but the goal is still the same: to better present the main character, to reveal his character, to emphasize his insightful mind, and to reveal the reader's sympathy or antipathy towards the hero.