Meaning of ghost character | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A character who is mentioned as appearing on stage, but does not do anything and seems to have no purpose.
2. A kanji included erroneously in the JIS X 0208 character set (not traceable to the sources used to compile JIS X 0208).

Equivalents

Examples

“Beside this detailed information which Hall provides about Matthew Gough, Shakespeare's Gough is a ghost character. There is, indeed, no way in which an audience could pick⟳ up who he is when he appears only to be killed immediately.”

“A ‘ghost’ character is one who is marked as present⟳ on stage⟳, but given no lines to speak⟳: many editors consider⟳ the inclusion of these characters to be an oversight on the part of the writer or printer, and so remove⟳ them from modern stage⟳ directions; […]”

“Joseph A. Porter's discussion of the ‘ghost character’ of Valentine in Romeo and Juliet is also illuminating: Porter describes Valentine as a ‘symptom or by-product of Mercutio's transformation’ from rival lover (in Shakespeare's source) to friend […]”

CEFR level