The topic of this diploma thesis are characters appearing in the literary works of Ivana Brlić - Mažuranić, focused on the Croatian Tales of Long Ago and Lapitch the Little Shoemaker. The assignment was to find this topic in related anthologies. I found 17 works and chose 6 of them, the most interesting to me, by the authors Sanja Vrcić-Mataija i Vesna Grahovac-Pražić, Danijela Marot Kiš i Nikolina Palašić, Mirna Brkić Vučina, Biljana Vidiček, Slobodan Z. Marković i Ana Pintarić. The similes and performative identities were considered in the novel Lapitch the Little Shoemaker; also the characters of fairies, Malik Tintilinić and the Natives, the names of other characters in the Croatian Tales of Long Ago; along with the real man character in the literary works of Ivana Brlić - Mažuranić. The analysis of selected literary works brought to the conclusion that Ivana Brlić - Mažuranić adopted names and characters in the Croatian Tales of Long Ago from slavic mythology. Dwarfs, fairies and ghosts appear, but also an ordinary man to be the central character, and all mythological and imaginative creatures are subordinated to him. The character of Lapitch is compared with animals, natural phenomena and plants; these similes are presenting him as a hero by whom the author tells us that the GOOD can always win assisted by faith. The identities of Lapitch and Gita were determined by the living environment, both of them constantly struggling with their surrounding to prove that they are worth more than their masters realise.