The article examines, from a comparative perspective, the poetic devices of characterization in the short stories of Somerset Maugham and Abdulla Kahhor. The research problem concerns the identification of common and distinctive functions of portrait, artistic detail, and character speech in shaping the individual features of literary characters in the works of representatives of different national literatures. The study aims to reveal the artistic potential of these elements and identify the shared and distinctive principles of the two writers’ poetics. Comparative-typological, comparative, structural-semantic, and linguopoetic methods are employed in the study. The findings demonstrate that portrait, detail, and speech interact to form an integrated system that reveals a characterʼs psychological state, behaviour, worldview, and attitude towards life. In S.Maughamʼs stories, psychological conflict, hidden motives, and individual choices play a leading role, whereas A.Kahhorʼs works place greater emphasis on moral position, social environment, and contradictions in behaviour. In the works of both writers, the essence of a character is revealed gradually through artistic features rather than through direct authorial description. The findings establish that the different functional orientations of shared representational techniques contribute to the distinctive artistic vision of Maugham and Kahhor.