Character System - An Important Element In Theme Development

The King was just a mediocre, incompetent and afraid of death person. Duong Hau was lewd, Le Hoan was cruel...

The pages about love affairs in Truong Tuu's historical novels also show that this is a writer who has a fresh perspective on the issue of sexuality . The author sees this as a natural aspect of life and art. In traditional concepts, heroes are not entangled with ordinary women, but Truong Tuu's heroes are very ordinary. They also love, are jealous, and resentful. Minh Tam secretly loves Bo De, but Bo De loves Tu Lan, so she is very miserable and jealous when she sees the two together. But for the great cause of the Tu Bi Party, she sacrificed her feelings ( Tràng sĩ Bồ Đề ). That shows that, it seems that only love can guide people towards goodness. Truong Tuu has devoted much effort to writing about women, no matter what position they are in, they all yearn for freedom, love and happiness. We can see that very clearly in female characters such as Tu Lan, Minh Tam, Kim Chi,… in Trang si Bo De or the character Viet Lieu, nun Thanh Tuyen in Nam chang hiep si. They are beautiful, young, talented. They are strong, have hearts that yearn for love and they also have things that girls in feudal society do not have: intense love, very seductive flirtation, very intense desire for love. For example, when Ngoc Nu first met Bach Hac, she “asked flirtatiously” , “sweetly blamed” and then “glared at him” [120, p. 690]. Miss Nam Hoa Lu was also “bold, direct and flirtatious” in openly expressing her love for Bo De, wanting to be with the hero “holding hands to live together, working together, sharing success and failure together” [120, p. 651]…

Obviously, bearing the status of women in a historical period of the late Dinh Dynasty, but the female characters in Truong Tuu's historical novels have a rich and unrestrained emotional life like that of girls in the 20th century. In them, the consciousness of human beings in the world, the instinct always transcends the human of conventional doctrine with invisible ties. That is the difference between the characters in his historical novels and the characters in historical novels of other writers. Delving into the worldly aspirations of people shows that human consciousness

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The writer attacked the feudal rites with the thousand-year-old obstacles that still existed. On the other hand, the reproduction of the ironic details of life also created the attraction for readers of this historical novelist. In particular, the activities of the heroes Bo De, Bach Hac and the girls Minh Tam, Kim Chi in the Tu Bi party opposing the Thap Dao party in the capital showed the modern color and the mark of the influence of the contemporary social atmosphere quite strongly in these characters. Especially the "spy situation", "the phenomenon of betrayal" or "being tried in secret" that happened quite commonly in the work were very similar to the atmosphere of Vietnamese society in the years 1930 - 1945. The novel Five Knights is the same. With 2 volumes and 14 chapters, the work is set in the historical and social context of the Ly Anh Tong period (1138-1175), building many loyal party members in the Quan Anh party interwoven with romantic love affairs, espionage, assassination, and overthrow activities. The conflicts between people about rights and desires that lead to tragedies in historical novels are also explored by Truong Tuu, so that readers can look into the tragedy of their time.

It seems that for Truong Tuu, the historical theme also has the purpose of borrowing history to discuss the present. History is like a storehouse of experience for people of today's era. It seems that there are many problems of today, if expressed through historical images, will have a more aesthetic effect than any other method. Therefore, the aesthetic and social impact of historical novels in the contemporary period is proving to be more necessary than ever. And so, right from the early years of the 20th century, historical novels have received the attention of more writers than any other period in the history of Vietnamese literature. But like that, the "historical quality" in the novel also gradually faded, the legendary element increased. Therefore, in Truong Tuu's historical novels, the historical quality is more concentrated than the historical quality. Historical events are very faint, even just a "shadow" of the past. In the novel Bodhisattva, the event of the fall of the Dinh dynasty and the usurpation of the throne by the Le dynasty is only the background for the author to depict the talent and dignity of talented, skilled, and virtuous heroes like Bodhi and Bach Hac.

In general, the two novels Bodhisattva and Five Knights have time, context, events, and connections with characters from the medieval period and are recorded in official history. The novel Bodhisattva is based on the event of General Le Hoan replacing the Dinh Dynasty in the late 10th century. In the work, there are many characters or elements of events originating from history such as Duong Hau, Dinh Lien, etc. Writer Truong Tuu approaches the historical theme in the direction of relying on historical facts but naturally distorting them. The instructive passages appear a lot in Truong Tuu's historical novels. With such an instructive policy, the characters in the work are not built in a simple, easy way, in the way that reason will overwhelm emotions, which often leads to the simple description of the character's thoughts and actions. A typical example of a character in a historical novel with a rich and complex emotional life is Bodhisattva in the historical novel of the same name. He is a young man with noble morals and ideals. A character who is trusted and respected by many other characters in the story. He is perfect from appearance, appearance to morality, tolerance, generosity " his gestures seem elegant... the young man is calm... just sits and listens calmly... And with a calm voice... The bright and gentle eyes of the young man look straight at others... " [120, p. 602-603]. In Bodhi's conversation with the warrior Bach Hac, right at the beginning of the story, he showed his virtue and compassion "... The more the grudge is tightened, the tighter it will never be untied. We must forgive those who have harmed us, who have made us suffer. We should learn the tolerance of Buddha, and treat everyone with compassion. We can kill evil people without hating them. Killing them is not for ourselves but for the world " [120, p. 603]. Bo De appeared majestic with his talented beauty, his sword hand was flexible and agile, making everyone admire and admire. He also exuded the beauty of a sensitive soul, easily moved. A lovely young man and loved by many people. The character of the hero Bo De or the hero Bach Hac or the hero Kim Son, Dong Tung all had the chivalrous beauty and talent as the right way to call "hero". Besides the very beautiful

The “old” in them exudes the modern features of 20th century men because of their romanticism, sensitivity, daring to love and devotion to love. In addition to behaving as the term “hero”, they also have the gallantry, the subtle and strong emotions of modern people. Some writers when coming to historical novels let the characters in their novels bear the heavy imprint of the viewpoint of “using literature to teach history”. In this regard, Truong Tuu has a more sophisticated way of expressing when he combines historical imprints, folk and modern literary imprints to create his own unique prose style. If in normal novels, fiction is the natural technique of the novelist, then for historical novels, the art of fiction is the main field for the writer to express his creativity, making the work truly a novel, and making the historical novel different from a historical work, through fictional events the writer expresses his own point of view on history. Truong Tuu has done this, although not really excellently, but it is also a contribution, an example of creativity in daring to put his pen into a fairly new field.

However, the fiction in historical novels has its own unique characteristics, which are different from the fiction of novels in general. Historical novels must be based on real historical events and characters, so even if they are fictional, they can only create events that are like "additives" to history, but cannot distort history.

In the theme of the historical novel Truong Tuu, there also appears the image of numerous mass characters. Although the writer does not describe their names in detail, each time they appear, they are associated with the power and great events of history. Beggars, panhandlers, folk... are recreated richly and vividly in the novel Five Knights . The image of the crowd and folk is cleverly combined with historical time and space to express part of the power of the Quan Anh party. It is they - the masses who contributed to the victory of heroes such as Kim Son, Dong Tung, Cat Dien...

Besides, the writer has the opportunity to describe more aspects of human psychology and personality than the "stereotype" of characters in official history, giving readers more feelings.

recognize their closeness to the people in "forest stories" and folk tales. The social integration of people in historical novels by Truong Tuu or some other writers is higher than people in official history, thanks to the elements of world affairs and private life, the "strangeness" is flexibly transferred by the writer into history so that the book and life are closer together.

Truong Tuu's historical novels were born in the trend of novel innovation to meet the multi-dimensional reception needs of readers. The people in his novels do not "coincide" with historical characters. The writer has stripped away the conventional elements, allusions, and "stereotypes" in medieval literature and the writings of Confucian scholars in the early 20th century, replacing them with people carrying within them the "good and bad" of life. Breaking away from the chapter structure, creating a polyphonic voice, flexibly combining epic, worldly, private, psychological, and strange elements, skillfully using humor and folk materials are ways of renewing Truong Tuu's historical novels. Although there are some limitations in the “bold” innovation, in some places the author has let the characters speak the voices of a man and a woman in the 20th century, in general, Truong Tuu’s works have shown a new perspective on the nature of human society, associated with typical events in each dynasty or in each locality to create the plot. The number of characters in each work is not much, but the details are impressive in the setting of scenes and people, creating unexpected situations along with flexible narration, storytelling mixed with description, using words bearing historical marks, miracles, using jargon and place names, combining historical documents and unofficial history to create colorful artistic pictures. The success and artistic intention of the author in the historical and unofficial history topics are shown in the main characters, characters who are not too famous or not in official history. They are the heroes Bach Hac, Bo De, Kim Son or Dong Tung... They are ideal people: They are all-round beautiful, talented, dare to live their lives for a sacred, noble purpose and dare to love passionately with all their hearts... All of them highlight the blurry portrait of a historical novelist in the early decades.

of our country in the 20th century, one of the pioneer writers on the journey of novel innovation. And so, it seems that the existence or disappearance of a writer's name in each literary era perhaps needs to be determined in its own direction.

In addition to works about love, family or social evils, Truong Tuu's historical novels, although only 2/13 works, have left a rather important mark in the modernization process of the country's literature when integrating history into life, bringing heroes back to everyday life. This can be considered the novelist's initial success when entering a rather complex genre - the historical novel genre.

3.2. Character system - an important factor in developing the topic

3.2.1. Positive characters

This is a system of characters that represent spiritual values and noble qualities. They have noble actions, great ambitions or simple aspirations. They have admirable personalities. They represent the aesthetic ideals of the writer, and also partly the ideals of society.

Positive characters appear quite clearly in some of the writer's works. Typical are historical novels such as Bodhi Warrior or Five Knights . In addition, we must also mention characters such as Hien, Nhu Lan, Hao in A Soldier ; or the character Thong, Huan's wife and husband (Thong's close friends) in the novel Rebel Heart ; Thien, My in When People Are Hungry ; the character "I" with full sympathy, sharing unfortunate lives.

The positive characters in Truong Tuu's prose are quite diverse. Each character has a personality, more specifically, the writer has let the characters come to their own fate very objectively. The characters Hien, Hao, Nhu Lan in A Soldier or the warrior Bo De in the novel of the same name, the warrior Kim Son, Dong Tung in Five Knights... help us feel the writer's ideals and viewpoints, because those characters have beauty crystallized on the spirit of fighting for a better society. People's lives will change in that new society. In the novel A Soldier, the character Hien is a very handsome young man. He is honest, has

A healthy lifestyle, with clear ideals and purposes in life. Hien does not accept a life of bowing, self-containment or pursuing fame for money. He also does not accept a normal, peaceful life in a bland way... For him, the reason for living is synonymous with fighting. For him, love is synonymous with dedication and sacrifice. Individuals must know how to serve the community and everyone. He is a young man with a heart that longs for love, a heart burning with love but also seething with the desire to fight for society. With a clear and righteous purpose in life, Hien and Hao were clear-headed in their thoughts and actions. They courageously left behind the sentimental feelings of their families and lovers to embark on the life of a soldier who dares to sacrifice for a greater cause. However, we also see that in enthusiastic young men like Hien and Hao, the path they take is also at the level of "receiving the path". They still have to wonder and worry about the path they have chosen. They dare to embark on a path not many people have traveled. Sometimes, Truong Tuu's pen penetrates deep into the characters' inner psyche, to show their worries, anxieties, and anxieties.

Hien is a young man "Intelligent, talented and virtuous, people want to lead him to one path - the path of wealth - but he prepares to use another path"

- the ideal path… But “our soldier has a sentimental heart!” [120, p. 138]. Long ago, Hien realized that he did not want to sit within the four walls of a selfishly happy house and “shake his legs and hum the melodious poem of love… The path that his parents, Nhu Lan’s parents, and Nhu Lan herself had secretly mapped out for his life - the path of leisurely wealth

- that path, Hien does not want to step on, cannot step on” [120, p. 139]. Hien is like a boat being pushed on two rapids. He is in pain, tormented between ideals and simple happiness. He loves Nhu Lan and also loves his parents very much. What Truong Tuu challenges his character, and also challenges the feelings of the readers, is that he lets Hien go through struggles and suffering in choosing a path. On one side is the personal happiness that everyone dreams of. On the other side is the ideal of fighting for the community. For Hien, Nhu Lan's passionate, intense love makes him extremely happy, but also extremely miserable. Whenever that young man feels happiness in love, it is precisely when his heart

He was in pain: “Seeing Nhu Lan’s love for him so pure and tender, Hien was moved to tears” [120, p. 140]. Because to nurture a love is the result of having a small, warm family. For the world, perhaps that is all, but for Hien: “Giving up the fight means death. Living the life of cowards, Hien will wither and die. His field of life must be fighting - a dangerous, unceasing fight. He could only find the meaning of life in altruistic actions, in great ambitions, in selfless sacrifices… A whole fighting spirit suddenly arose in the soul of that brave young man… Hien could not confine his life within the narrow confines of his family. His field must be society because only there could he feel alive” [120, p. 153-154]. When witnessing the tears of his parents and lover, the young man felt moved and then the fire of struggle burned even more strongly. Hien is one of the bright spots in the world of characters in Truong Tuu's novel, the character who most clearly represents the writer's ideal of struggle.

Some other characters, the hero Bo De or the hero Bach Hac in The Hero Bo De , the hero Kim Son or Dong Tung in The Five Knights are also typical positive characters with high idealization by Truong Tuu. Those heroes have extraordinary enthusiasm and talent, on the one hand they are young men eager for ideals and also have noble, passionate love. The characters in the historical novels of writer Truong Tuu are quite perfect in personality, action and talent. Although the characters live in a past era, they are built by the writer with a present perspective, so there is a mark of modernization. To make the characters reach the level of idealization, Truong Tuu built the characters with fictional colors. Especially in terms of talent, the characters seem to be extraordinary and outstanding. Besides, the positive characters in historical novels are also clearly portrayed through rich spiritual life and emotions. Not only are they talented and virtuous, they also know how to love sincerely and dare to devote themselves to love. The pages of literature expressing sincere and subtle feelings about love have highlighted the characters with a perfect, complete and ideal appearance. Perhaps historical novels are a fertile ground for writers to cultivate ideal seeds, characters that he can hardly find in the present, outside of contemporary life.

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