Charles
Charles is the instrument of Oliver's first attempt on Orlando's life - his wrestling match is where Orlando first proves himself publicly and wins Rosalind's admiration, and his private conversation with Oliver reveals the brother's malice to the audience before the plot requires it.
Appears In
Who is Charles?
Charles is Duke Frederick's professional wrestler, and his one significant scene doubles as an efficient piece of exposition - he arrives to warn Oliver of the danger the wrestling match poses to Orlando, only to reveal in the same breath that he has already been quietly encouraged by Oliver to injure or kill his brother in the ring, since Oliver has slandered Orlando to him as a dangerous and treacherous young man plotting against Charles himself.
Charles also supplies the audience its first substantial account of the forest and its exiles, describing Duke Senior's court living 'like the old Robin Hood of England' in Arden, passing time 'carelessly, as they did in the golden world' - a description that sets pastoral expectations well before the play's characters actually arrive there.
The wrestling match itself is brief and decisive: Orlando, undeterred by Charles's reputation for having broken ribs and worse, throws him so thoroughly that Charles cannot be revived to speak, let alone continue. He does not appear again after this scene, his function in the plot - establishing Orlando's courage, delivering Oliver's malice into the open, and setting the whole love plot in motion - fully discharged in a single confrontation.
Motivation
Charles is motivated by professional pride in his wrestling and, more consequentially, by Oliver's slander of Orlando, which persuades him to wrestle with lethal intent against a young man he has no real quarrel with.
Personality
Charles is defined almost entirely by his function - a wrestler who takes Oliver's word at face value and applies more force than the situation warrants as a result. His defeat is total and immediate, and the play has no further use for him once it happens.