In the fourth century B.C. Aristotle’s successor, Theophrastus, enumerated 30 stock characters, including “the shamelessly greedy man,” “the showoff,” “the coward,” “the man without moral feeling,” “the insincere man,” “the absentminded man,” “the flatterer” and “the faultfinder.” But not all stock characters are defined by negative traits.
The stock “good guy” character may be a hero of epic proportion or just a humble servant, loyal to the end. Some stock good guys include “the knight errant,” like Galahad and Lancelot; “the wise old man,” like Tiresias and Gandalf; “Prince Charming,” the hero of many fairy tales; “the sidekick,” like Dr. Watson and Robin; and “the cop on the edge,” like Mel Gibson’s character in the “Lethal Weapon” series.
The list of villainous stock characters is just as diverse as the list of heroes. Some classic examples include “the mad scientist” -- Dr. Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll; “the femme fatale,” -- the sirens, Morgan le Fay; “the evil stepmother” -- as in the story of "Cinderella"; “the dark lord” -- the Devil, Sauron; “the wicked witch” -- as in "The Wizard of Oz" or "Macbeth"; death itself (or, often, himself); and “the henchman” -- usually one of many faceless expendables.
Stock characters are not necessarily either good or evil. Some of them function mainly to move the plot along. Some well-known neutral stock characters include “the damsel in distress” -- Rapunzel, Lois Lane; “the nerd” -- there’s one in every high school story; “the dumb jock” -- he can sometimes be a villain, too; “the town drunk” -- Barney of “The Simpsons”; and “the fop” or “dandy” -- Oscar Wilde and Lord Byron were living examples.
Ambiguous characters may be good, bad or neutral. Some ambiguous stock characters are “the trickster” -- the mischievous coyote of Native American mythology; “the outlaw” -- Robin Hood, Billy the Kid; and “the comic relief” -- often a bumbling clown.