: Capitalizing generic names I have a story with several characters. I've decided that I won't give them names, but refer to them as their titles. For example, the grocer. The cleaner.

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In old fairy tales, the protagonists were sometimes referred to this way: the king, the princess, the miller's son. But there was only one of each, so it was okay to leave them lowercase.

If there might be the slightest confusion about which grocer, officer, etc. is being discussed, you should capitalize them. If there is only ever one grocer in the story, you're probably okay to leave it lowercase.

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If you are just referring to them by titles instead of names, you don't need to capitalize, but the narrative will seem impersonal. If the titles are being used in place of names, do capitalize them. Be aware, however, that this will change the entire feel of the book --it will make it seem more stylized and allegorical. If that's what you want, then go right ahead.

Typically (as mentioned by Monica) if you use a title in place of a name, you drop the article --thus Father, rather than a Father or the Father. Alternately, however, you can keep the definite article as a part of the title, but in that case, it would also be capitalized, The Grocer, The Officer. The first option reads as more natural, the second has more of the allegorical feel.

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