Unseen character

Character referred to but not directly known to the audience An unseen character in theatre, comics, film or television, or a silent character in radio or literature, is a character who is mentioned but not directly known to the audience, but who advances the action of the plot in a significant way, and whose absence enhances their effect on the plot. History Unseen characters have been used since the beginning of theatre with the ancient Greek tragedians, such as Laius in Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and Jason's bride in Euripides' Medea, and continued into Elizabethan theatre with examples such as Rosaline in William Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet. However, it was the early 20th-century European playwrights August Strindberg, Henrik Ibsen and Anton Chekhov who fully developed the dramatic potential of the unseen character. Eugene O'Neill was influenced by his European contemporaries and established the absent character as an aspect of character, narrative and stagecraft in American theatre. Purpose and characteristics Unseen characters are causal figures included in dramatic works to motivate the onstage characters to a certain course of action and advance the plot, but their pres