On the Twofoldness of Character

Readers and viewers of fiction routinely speak of and respond to fictional characters in a similar, and sometimes identical, way to the manner in which they speak of and respond to real persons. This fact might appear to lend support to accounts of our engagement with fictions that give credence to the idea that we are subject to an illusion in the course of such engagement; we mistake fiction for reality, character for person. But in truth, our stance towards fictional characters is more complex and self-aware than this description suggests. I draw upon Richard Wollheim’s concept of twofoldness in order to show how our apprehension of fictional characters—realist and otherwise—is marked by a simultaneous awareness of them as both products of design and virtual persons. I defend the claim that twofoldness—advanced by Wollheim specifically as part of a theory of depiction—has pertinence for the representation of character across depictive and literary media, while noting the particular relevance it has for character in film.