Prof. Robert Collins

ENGL262G—The Art of Literature

Character Tip Sheet

How do we define character?

“A character is any personage in a literary work who acts, appears, or iss referred to as playing a part. Though personage usually means a human being, it doesn’t have to. Whole genres or subgenres of fiction are distinguished, in part, by the specific kinds of nonhuman characters they conventionally feature, whether alien species and intelligent machines (as in science fiction), animals (as in fables), or elves and monsters (as in traditional fairy tales and modern fantasy). All character must have at least some human qualities, however, such as the ability to think, to feel pain, or to fall in love.” (Norton 181)

A character is, essentially, a person in a story. A person need not necessarily be a human (the majority of the characters in The Lord of the Rings are not human, and there is a long tradition of literature in which animals are characters), but most of the characters on our syllabus will be human beings. Now, this seems so trivial as to not need mentioning; yet character is one of the most fruitful and interesting ways to talk about stories. So how can we talk about character?

The three most important things to know about any character are: what they want, what they are, and what they do. If you satisfyingly answer these three questions, you’ll have gone a long way toward a satisfying analysis of character. You should also consider how these three things relate to one another: how, for example, does what a character does reveal what she wants? How does what a character want determine what he does, or how does what a character is determine what he wants?

Characterization:

“…the art and technique of representing fictional personages. In analyzing character, we thus need to consider not motivations, and values, but also precisely how the text shapes our interpretation of, and degree of sympathy or admiration for, the character; what function the character serves in the story and what the character might represent.” (Norton 184)

Characterization is how we learn what we know about characters. The old distinction between “showing” and “telling” is key here.

Direct Characterization: telling us through description or obvious action; usually from the narrator. This is the only way to directly reveal what a character is or wants.

Indirect Characterization: showing us how the character(s) acts, speaks, thinks, or is represented. That is, this is what a character does. This also includes what characters say, which may be a direct statement of desire (“I want to travel the world!”) or of being (“I am a homosexual.”) but, since we’ve already established that characters are people, we should always entertain the possibility that they are lying about these things.

Important Terms and Concepts:

Protagonist: Also known as the “main character.” This character will be the focus of the story, which means that we’ll probably know the most about him or her.

Antagonist: This is the character to whom the protagonist is opposed. If you have answered the question “What does the protagonist want?” then the antagonist will probably be the person or thing that keeps the protagonist from getting what they want. That is, desire is the key distinction between a protagonist and an antagonist: they want contradictory things.

Narrator: This is the person who we assume is writing or telling the story that we’re reading. We’ll learn more about different kinds of narration later, but for now it’s important to note that sometimes a narrator who does not seem to be involved in the story will give us a sense of his or her individuality that influences the way that the story is told.

Relationships: Most stories will have more than one character. This is when things get dicey—as Jean-Paul Sartre said, “Hell is other people.” If you find a pair or a set of characters that has a dynamic that’s worth exploring – Gurov and Anna Sergeyevna in the Chekhov story, for example – a good place to start would be comparing and contrasting our three key terms—doing, wanting, and being. How do their desires overlap, and do they contradict? What are they, and what do they have in common? We’ll talk about relationships in greater depth when we cover plot.

Questions that will help to address character (straight from Norton)…

· Who is the protagonist, or might there be more than one? Why and how so? Which other characters, if any, are main or major characters? Which are minor characters?

· What are the protagonist’s most distinctive traits, and what is most distinctive about his or her outlook and values? What motivates the character? What is it about the character that creates internal and/or external conflict?

· Which textual details and moments reveal most about this character? Which are most surprising or might complicate your interpretation of this character? How is your view of the character affected by what you don’t know about him or her?

· What are the roles of other characters? Which, if any, functions as an antagonist? Which, if any, serves as a foil? Why and how so? How would the story as a whole (not just its action or plot) be different if any of these characters disappeared? What points might the author be raising or illustrating through each character?

· Which of the characters, or which aspects of the characters, does the text encourage us to sympathize with or to admire? To view negatively? Why and how so?

· Does your view of any character change over the course of the story, or do any of the characters themselves change? If so, when, how, and why?

· Does characterization tend to be indirect or direct in the story? What kinds of information do and don’t we get about the characters, and how does the story tend to give us that information?