Final answer:
Characters from the realism era are flawed and represent real life, often being middle class individuals with complex struggles, and are portrayed with attention to realistic detail and ordinary dialogue without romanticized elements.
Step-by-step explanation:
Characters featured in stories written during the realism era are best described as flawed and representative of the complexities of real life. These characters are typically developed with attention to realistic detail, representing ordinary people often of the middle class, with plausible real-life struggles that may not always find resolution. Influenced by the sociopolitical changes after the Civil War and embracing an accurate portrayal of contemporary life, realist writers like William Dean Howells, Mark Twain, and Henry James employed ordinary speech and social class-appropriate dialogue in crafting three-dimensional characters. Their narratives were formed through the exploration of characters reacting to or working through issues, where the inner lives of these characters were revealed through an objective, omniscient narrator without the intrusion of romanticized or idealized elements.