How to Write Characters Who Can't Read (Because Most People Couldn't)

Your fantasy world is based on medieval Europe. Your main character is a peasant farmer. And in your current scene, they need to read a letter.

Except... most medieval peasants couldn't read. That's historically accurate. But you've been writing them as if literacy is universal because that's what modern readers assume. Now you realize your worldbuilding has a problem.

Or maybe you know your character should be illiterate, but you're not sure how to show it without making them seem stupid or helpless. How do illiterate people function? How do they receive written messages? Sign documents? Navigate a world where writing exists but they can't access it?

Understanding historical literacy rates and how illiteracy actually worked makes your world more authentic. It also creates interesting story situations: secrets hidden in text, characters learning to read as growth, communication barriers that drive plot. But you have to handle it thoughtfully, because illiteracy doesn't equal stupidity, and modern readers bring assumptions you need to navigate.

Historical Literacy: Most People Couldn't Read

If your setting is based on medieval Europe (which most fantasy is), historical literacy rates were very low.

Medieval Period (500-1500 CE)

**Overall literacy**: Estimated 5-10% of population could read. Maybe less.

**Who could read**:

**Clergy**: Monks, priests, nuns. Reading Latin for religious texts was fundamental. This is where most literate people were found.

**Nobility**: Mixed. Many nobles learned basic reading, especially from 13th century onward. But not all. Writing was less common skill even for those who could read.

**Merchants and urban wealthy**: Needed reading for business (contracts, accounts, letters). Cities had higher literacy than countryside.

**Scholars and university students**: Tiny percentage. Formal education existed but access was extremely limited.

**Who typically couldn't read**:

**Peasants and farmers**: Vast majority of population. No access to education, no need for literacy in daily agricultural work. Illiteracy was normal and not shameful.

**Laborers and servants**: Urban poor and working class. No schooling, no time or resources to learn.

**Soldiers and guards**: Unless officer class or noble-born, most common soldiers couldn't read.

**Many women**: Even noble women. Education for women was inconsistent. Some were taught, many weren't.

Gender and Class

**Men**: More likely to be literate than women, but still minority overall.

**Women**: Even more restricted access. Nuns in convents were exception (often highly literate). Noble women might learn reading but rarely writing. Lower-class women almost never.

**Class**: Strongest predictor. Wealth and status determined education access. Birth into literate family (clergy, nobility, merchants) gave opportunities. Born peasant meant almost guaranteed illiteracy.

Reading vs. Writing

These were separate skills. Many more people could read than could write.

**Reading**: Somewhat more common. Could be self-taught or learned informally. Practical skill for business, religion, law.

**Writing**: Harder to learn, required formal instruction and practice. Expensive (parchment, ink, time). Physical skill that took years to master.

Character might read adequately but write poorly or not at all. This was common even among educated people.

What Illiteracy Meant Practically

Illiterate doesn't mean stupid, ignorant, or helpless. It means lacking specific technical skill. Illiterate people functioned perfectly well in societies built around oral culture.

Oral Culture Was Primary

Information transmitted through speaking, listening, memory. Stories, laws, history, religious teaching all communicated orally.

**Memory skills**: Highly developed. People memorized long poems, genealogies, laws, stories. What we write down, they remembered.

**Storytelling**: Professional skill. Bards, minstrels, storytellers preserved and transmitted culture.

**Town criers**: Announced news publicly. Official communication was read aloud to gathered crowds.

**Oral contracts**: Witnessed agreements spoken aloud were binding. Handshakes and oaths mattered more than signatures.

Alternative Communication Methods

**Symbols and signs**: Heraldry, trade signs (image of boot for cobbler, not words), colors for identification. Visual communication for those who couldn't read text.

**Messengers**: Trusted people carried spoken messages. Memory and verbal accuracy were essential skills.

**Seals**: Wax seals on documents proved authenticity without signatures. Noble or merchant house seal was mark of authority.

**Marks**: Personal mark instead of signature. Simple symbol (X, circle, personal design) witnessed by others. Legally binding.

**Trusted readers**: Literate person (priest, scribe, educated friend) reads documents aloud. Illiterate person relies on trust.

Professional Scribes

Writing was specialized profession. People hired scribes to:

**Draft documents**: Contracts, wills, letters, petitions. Scribe writes what client dictates.

**Read letters**: Recipient who can't read brings letter to scribe. Scribe reads it aloud.

**Copy texts**: Before printing, books were copied by hand. Monks and professional scribes did this work.

**Translate**: Between languages or between Latin and vernacular.

This was legitimate career. Scribes worked in cities, monasteries, noble courts, markets. Charged fees for services.

How to Show Character Is Illiterate

Don't announce it dramatically or make it character's defining trait. Show it matter-of-factly as aspect of their background.

Direct But Casual

"He couldn't read, had never learned. Most people from his village couldn't."

Simple statement. Acknowledges it's common, not exceptional. Moves on.

Through Action

Someone hands character a letter. Character hands it back: "What does it say?" or takes it to someone who can read.

Character signs document with personal mark (X or symbol) rather than written name.

Character examines written text, turns it right-side up, still can't make sense of it.

Through Internal Thought

If using first person or close third, character's thoughts about text:

"The page was covered in dense black marks that meant nothing to her. Letters, he'd called them. She'd never learned to decipher them."

"He stared at the document, wishing he'd paid more attention when the priest offered to teach him years ago. Too late now."

Social Context

Other characters' reactions show it's normal:

"Can you read this?"

"I never learned. Ask Father Benedict."

"Fair enough. I'll read it to you."

No judgment, just practical acknowledgment and solution.

Writing Illiterate Characters Respectfully

Modern readers associate illiteracy with lack of education and opportunity, which carries class and inequality baggage. Historical illiteracy was different: it was normal for most people.

Illiterate ≠ Stupid

Most important thing: illiterate characters are intelligent, capable, skilled in their domains.

**Peasant farmer**: Can't read, but knows crop rotation, animal husbandry, weather prediction, soil quality, tool repair, and thousand other practical skills.

**Soldier**: Can't read, but expert in weapons, tactics, survival, leadership, reading terrain and enemy movements.

**Merchant**: Might not read well, but calculates prices instantly, remembers complex agreements, judges character, negotiates brilliantly.

Show competence in their areas of expertise. Literacy is one skill among many, not measure of worth or intelligence.

No Modern Shame

In historical setting, most people couldn't read and didn't feel bad about it. It wasn't personal failing or source of shame.

Anachronistic: "He was embarrassed he couldn't read, felt stupid for never learning."

Better: "He'd never needed to read before. Most people he knew couldn't either."

Some characters might wish they could read (practical benefit or curiosity), but not deep shame. That's modern projection.

Alternative Strengths

Oral memory, storytelling ability, memorizing complex information, reading people and situations. These are skills literate people might lack.

Scholar who's read everything but can't survive outside library versus illiterate guide who knows every path and plant in the forest. Both are skilled, different domains.

Practical Plot Implications

Illiteracy creates real obstacles and opportunities for your plot.

Characters Can't Read Important Information

Letter arrives with crucial information. Illiterate character must find someone trustworthy to read it. But can they trust the reader to tell truth?

Map exists but character can't read labels. Must rely on visual landmarks or get help interpreting it.

Book contains spell or secret. Character needs literate ally to access it.

Secrets Hidden in Writing

If most people can't read, written documents are effectively encoded. Keep secret by writing it down. Only literate people are threat.

Conspirators communicate through letters. Illiterate character intercepts letter but can't read it. Must decide whether to risk showing it to someone.

Forged or False Documents

Illiterate person can't verify what document actually says. Must trust reader. This creates vulnerability.

Villain could present false document, claim it says something it doesn't. Victim who can't read is easily deceived.

Or: character suspects document is forged but can't verify without admitting they can't read.

Learning to Read as Character Arc

Character starts illiterate, learns to read over course of story. Shows determination, growth, access to new world of knowledge.

Who teaches them matters: priest, friend, love interest. Teaching creates bond and intimacy.

Struggle is real: reading isn't easy to learn as adult. Show difficulty, frustration, small victories, eventual competence.

Power of Literacy

In world where few can read, literacy is power. Literate character has advantages:

Access to written knowledge (books, scrolls, archives). Can send and receive private messages. Can verify documents. Can learn from written sources independently.

But also responsibility: others depend on them to read, write, teach. They're bridges between oral and written worlds.

Social Class and Literacy Expectations

Match literacy to character's background believably.

Noble Characters

**Probably literate**: Especially males, especially from 13th century onward. Nobles had access to tutors and education.

**But not always**: Some nobles, especially in earlier periods or more martial families, couldn't read. Fighting and governing were their focus, not books.

**Women**: More variable. Some noble women very educated (queens, ladies of learning). Others taught minimal or nothing beyond household management.

If your noble character can't read, provide reason: family didn't value it, focused on martial training, isolated upbringing, personal learning disability.

Merchant Characters

**Usually at least functional literacy**: Needed for business. Accounting, contracts, correspondence. But might not be highly educated.

**Read well, write poorly**: Could read documents but hired scribes for formal writing. Common pattern.

**Numbers before letters**: Might learn to read/write numbers and simple accounting before full literacy. Practical focus.

Clergy Characters

**Expected to be literate**: Priests, monks, nuns needed to read religious texts. This was fundamental to their role.

**Exception**: Rural parish priests in very remote areas might have minimal literacy. But generally, clergy = literate.

**Educated beyond reading**: Often knew Latin, theology, history. Most educated class in medieval society.

Peasant Characters

**Default illiterate**: Unless you provide specific reason they learned (unusually educated parent, taught by local priest, curious and self-taught, spent time in city).

**No school access**: Village might not have anyone who could teach. No time for learning (constant agricultural work). No perceived need.

**Proud oral tradition**: Many peasants were excellent storytellers, singers, memorizers. Cultural richness without literacy.

Urban Working Class

**Mixed**: Some trades required basic literacy (more advanced crafts, guild records). Others didn't.

**City = more opportunity**: Might encounter writing more, have more chances to learn informally. But still majority illiterate.

**Guild apprentices**: Might learn to read as part of trade education, especially in later medieval period. Not universal.

**Functional literacy**: Important distinction here. Jeweler might recognize assay marks and guild stamps but not read a book. Merchant could tally accounts and sign name but not write letters. Apprentice learned trade-specific symbols but not full reading. These are people who function in world with writing without being truly literate. They know enough for their work, nothing more.

Gender and Literacy

Women had less access to education across all classes.

Noble Women

Some families educated daughters, others didn't. No universal standard. More common in later medieval period and Renaissance.

Literacy in vernacular (French, English) more common than Latin. Reading devotional texts at home versus scholarly Latin literacy.

Regional variation: Italy and Spain often educated noble women more than Northern Europe.

Nuns and Religious Women

Convents were centers of female literacy. Nuns copied manuscripts, wrote religious texts, maintained records.

Education available in convents that wasn't available elsewhere for women.

Some notable female scholars came from monastic backgrounds.

Common Women

Extremely low literacy. Even lower than common men.

No access to education, expected to focus on household and children, no economic need for literacy in most women's work.

Exceptions: merchants' wives and daughters might learn for business reasons. Midwives might learn to read medical texts.

Magic and Literacy

If your fantasy world has magic, consider relationship to literacy.

Magic Requires Reading

Spellbooks, scrolls, runes must be read to use. This makes magic accessible only to literate (small educated class).

Creates interesting class dynamic: magic is privilege of educated elite because they can read.

Or: character with magical talent can't access it fully until they learn to read. Motivation for literacy.

Magic Without Reading

Oral magical traditions: spells spoken, not written. Passed down through teaching and memory.

Makes magic accessible to illiterate practitioners. Folk magic, hedge witches, druids who keep knowledge orally.

Creates distinction between scholarly/academic magic (requires reading) and folk/practical magic (oral tradition).

Magical Literacy Solutions

Translation spells allow reading any language including for illiterate. Makes reading suddenly accessible.

Or magical items that speak text aloud. Technology that bypasses need for literacy.

Consider implications carefully. If magic solves illiteracy easily, literacy becomes less valuable skill. But if magical reading is expensive or rare, it reinforces existing class divisions. Magic that makes everyone functionally literate changes your entire social structure around knowledge and education. Think through how accessible magical literacy is and what that does to your world's power dynamics.

Common Mistakes

Everyone Can Read

Your peasant, soldier, and serving maid all casually read letters, signs, books. Not historically accurate for medieval setting.

Fix: Make literacy match class and background. Most common people can't read.

Illiterate Character Suddenly Reads

Character established as illiterate in chapter 3. Chapter 15, they read a sign. Readers notice.

Fix: Stay consistent or show them learning to read. Can't forget established character limitations.

Treating Illiteracy as Tragic Flaw

Character deeply ashamed, feels stupid, it's presented as terrible disadvantage they must overcome.

This is modern view imposed on historical setting. In period, illiteracy was normal and not shameful.

Fix: Treat it matter-of-factly. Might be inconvenient sometimes, but not identity-defining tragedy.

No Alternative Communication Methods

Illiterate characters have no way to function. Can't communicate, navigate, conduct business without reading.

Fix: Show oral culture, messengers, trusted readers, symbols, marks. People managed fine without universal literacy.

Literacy Appears as Plot Convenience

Character who should be illiterate (peasant background, no explanation) conveniently can read when plot needs them to.

Fix: Either establish character can read early with reason, or make their illiteracy create plot obstacle they must solve another way.

When Universal Literacy Makes Sense

Not every fantasy needs historical literacy rates. Sometimes it makes sense for everyone to read:

**Post-printing press**: Once printing made books common and cheap, literacy increased. Renaissance and later settings might have higher literacy.

**Modern-inspired fantasy**: If your world has universal education, public schools, cultural emphasis on reading, literacy can be near-universal. Just acknowledge this isn't medieval-standard.

**Magic-affected society**: If magic makes learning/reading easier or different, might change literacy rates.

**Deliberate divergence**: Maybe you want everyone to read for story reasons. That's valid creative choice. Just be aware it's not historically accurate for medieval-equivalent setting.

Making It Work

Thoughtful treatment of literacy adds realism and story opportunities. Know historical rates for your setting's equivalent period. Match character literacy to their class, education, and background. Show how oral culture and alternative communication methods work.

Most importantly: write illiterate characters as intelligent, capable people who lack one specific skill among many. Their illiteracy can create plot obstacles and character moments, but doesn't define them as lesser or tragic.

When you get it right, your world feels more authentic, your class distinctions more real, and your literate characters' access to written knowledge becomes meaningful advantage rather than assumed universal baseline. That adds depth to your worldbuilding and creates interesting story possibilities you wouldn't have otherwise.