Drama

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• vwo
• Leerjaar 4

What do these characters have in common?

Coincidence?

Of course not! 

This is what we call 

stock characters

Stock characters originate from Commedia dell'arte, also known as "Italian comedy," which was a humorous theatrical presentation performed by professional actors who traveled in troupes throughout Italy in the 16th century.

Commedia dell'arte

Stock characters

The actors of the commedia represented fixed social types. These types included tipi fissi, for example, foolish old men, devious servants, or military officers full of false bravado. Characters such as Pantalone , Dottore Gratiano , or Arlecchino , began as satires on Italian "types" and became the archetypes of many of the favourite characters of 17th- and 18th-century European theatre.

Arlecchino was the most famous. He was an acrobat, a wit, childlike, and amorous. 

Il Capitano (the captain) was a caricature of the professional soldier — bold, swaggering, and cowardly.

Pantalone was a caricature of the Venetian merchant, rich and retired, mean and miserly, with a young wife or an adventurous daughter.

Inamorati were young lovers. They wore no masks and had to be eloquent in order to perform speeches of love.

Zanni was drawn from the lower classes of the time, the peasant or migrant worker who worked in Venetian society as a servant, valet or porter.

Inamorati in Disney films

Zanni in Disney films

Il Capitano in Disney films

Homework

Think of your favourite TV show or film (preferably not disney...) and identify the stock characters. 

sources

https://www.thoughtco.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-commedia-dellarte-4040385

https://www.italymask.co.nz/About+Masks/Commedia+dellArte+Characters.html