E L E M E N T S O F L I T E RAT U R E , T H I R D C O U R S E

CHARACTER ANALYSIS

A. INDIRECT CHARACTERIZATION

• There are FIVE METHODS of INDIRECT CHARACTERIZATION.• The writer SHOWS us a character but allows us to INTERPRET for ourselves the kind of person we are meeting.

1. SPEECH

•Writers create a character by telling readers . . . • what the character says• His/her tone of voice• the words he/she uses• his/her dialogue - - which allows

the reader to listen in on a conversation

EBENEZER SCROOGE

•What would he say?

EBENEZER SCROOGE

•Bah! Hum-bug!

SPEECH

•What would Napolean Dynamite say?

2. APPEARANCE

•Writers create a character by telling readers . . . • how the character looks• By allowing the reader to see the

person/character

EBENEZER SCROOGEAPPEARANCE

• “The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice.”

3. PRIVATE THOUGHTS

•Writers create a character by telling readers . . . • what the character is thinking

PRIVATE THOUGHTS

•Scrooge is always thinking about saving his money. He always thinks other people are out to get his money and do not deserve it.•You in a personal narrative. Or, what you think your mom or dad was probably thinking.)

4. HOW OTHER CHARACTERS IN THE STORY FEEL ABOUT THEM

•Writers create a character by telling readers . . . • Example:• A salesman is a good guy in the eyes of his customers and a generous tipper in the eyes of the local waiter, but he is cranky and selfish in the eyes of his family.

4. HOW OTHERS FEEL . . .

• Scrooge - - • “Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say,

with gladsome looks, ‘My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?’ No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o’clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blind men’s dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways . . .”

5. ACTIONS

•Writers create a character by telling readers . . . • what we see them doing.

5. ACTIONS

•How would you react to a teenager in a story who, at five-thirty in the morning, is out delivering newspapers? •How would you react to a teenager whose parents hand them the credit card to buy whatever he wants?

5. ACTIONS

•Scrooge, when we first meet him on Christmas Eve, is working on his accounts - - an action that instantly reveals his obsession with money.

B. DIRECT CHARACTERIZATION

•When a writer tells us directly what a character is like or what a person’s motives are.

B. DIRECT CHARACTERIZATION

• Dickens’ tells us directly what kind of person Scrooge is:• Oh, but he was a tightfisted hand at the

grindstone, Scrooge! A squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner!

WORKS CITED

• Leggett, John. “Character: Revealing

Human

Nature.” Elements of Literature, Third

Course. New York: Holt, Rinehart and

Winston, 2003.