character |ˈkariktər|
noun
1 the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual : running away was not in keeping with her character.
• the distinctive nature of something : gas lamps give the area its character.
• the quality of being individual, typically in an interesting or unusual way : the island is full of character.
• strength and originality in a person's nature : she had character as well as beauty.
• a person's good reputation : to what do I owe this attack on my character?
• dated a written statement of someone's good qualities; a recommendation.
2 a person in a novel, play, or movie.
• a part played by an actor.
• [with adj. ] a person seen in terms of a particular aspect of character : he was a larger-than-life character | shady characters.
• informal an interesting or amusing individual : he's a real character.
3 a printed or written letter or symbol.
• Computing a symbol representing a letter or number.
• Computing the bit pattern used to store such a symbol.
4 chiefly Biology a characteristic, esp. one that assists in the identification of a species.
verb [ trans. ] archaic
inscribe; engrave.
• describe; characterize : you have well charactered him.
PHRASES
in (or out of) character in keeping (or not in keeping) with someone's usual pattern of behavior.
DERIVATIVES
characterful |-fəl| adjective
characterfully adverb
characterless adjective
ORIGIN Middle English : from Old French caractere, via Latin from Greek kharaktēr ‘a stamping tool.’ From the early sense [distinctive mark] arose [token, feature, or trait] (early 16th cent.), and from this [a description, esp. of a person's qualities,] giving rise to [distinguishing qualities.]
The whole definition of the word. But keep your eye on the first example.
"1 the mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual : running away was not in keeping with her character."
A character is a stage persona. Much like an actor has its persona(to explain a guy who plays 007 is not really 007). In movies it is vague and very understandable, sometimes this applies to theaters(although much of what you should see is not given to you on a silver plate, that is what makes reading literature with thought hard for some, you have to read between the lines and find the little quirks that the characters have to understand their actions. It is very hard to read Puškins "Jevgeni Onegin" without understanding the basics of his character) but mostly characters are hidden(much like in books). Movies need very vague approach since they don't have the time and platform to work up a plot like in books but in theater the emotion is given in a compact manner but still trying to keep a very thoughtful meaning to it.
This applies to magic in many ways. One of which is theater. You are an actor when you are on stage since nothing you do is actually real but you must convey the fact that what you are doing at that moment is very real. Chung Ling Soo comes into mind when talking about this. He went so far that he did not speak english for decades and always used friends or interpreters to speak to journalists. He did not speak on stage and if he did he spoke Chinese(don't quote me on the language it might have been something else, i'm not very familiar with the culture). He was always Chung Ling Soo until he got home, to his room and locked the door.(not literally but you get the feeling) Up until his death, if i'm not mistaken 1918, most people didn't know the truth, until attempting his famous Bullet Catch routine and failing. When he got shot(by shrapnel from his gun, terrible accident) he said the first words in English ever in his career as Chung Ling Soo: "Oh my god. Something happened. Lower the curtain.". This idea is taken to one of my favorite movies - The Prestige(every magician should watch it).
Long post but my point is that to create mystery we have to sacrifice something(much like old tales about the Devil getting your soul and you having eternal riches and a "fulfilling" life but then as they die their soul goes to the devil) and that is our own being. The extent to how far people go is their own choice but Max Maven, who was mentioned very nicely by Draven, said: "A character must not be someone else, my character is me but with some of my qualities heightened. So the person you see on stage and off stage is the same person."
I hope this gave a little bit of information on why it is important to ask this question. Many effects are created for a type of character but can be reworked to fit others.
M.