From Držić’s Workshop: forming Characters

This article, with the understanding that Držić in his comedies created not only stereotypical characters, but also multilayered characters, analyses the modus of creating characters in his works, on three different levels: 1. Self-characterization of a character, the insight of a character into himself; 2. hetero-characterization, portraying, an image or an idea of some character by another character; 3. the insight of a character into human nature and the existing world. The article describes all three levels of Držić’s character profiling as well as listing numerous examples for every single type of profiling. At the same time, it analyses the problem of the relation between a plot and a character, and comes to the conclusion that with Držić, the relationship between a comediographic plot and the creation of a character is in harmonious balance and mutual dependance. In the end, the article tries to enlighten some sources of Držić’s portrayal skills while putting his work in the context of the early Middle Ages’ individualism and antropocentralism