Exploring Characterization Techniques in Literature

CHARACTERIZATION AND POINT OF VIEW

WAYS TO CHARACTERIZE Burroway discusses five ways to reveal character: Authorial interpretation Appearance Action Speech Thought

EXAMPLE OF AUTHORIAL INTERPRETATION: Mrs Touchett was by no means without benevolence, [but] rarely succeeded in giving an impression of softness. Henry James EXAMPLES OF CHARACTERIZATION THROUGH APPEARANCE: My grandmother wore four skirts; one supported the next, and she wore the lot of them in accordance with a definite system, that is, the order of the skirts was changed from day to day Gunter Grass Helen comes in a chauffeured car. She is all cream and roses. Her stockings are purest silk; her underskirt, just briefly showing, is lined with lace. Fay Weldon

EXAMPLES OF CHARACTERIZATION THROUGH ACTION: Missie May kept on crying and Joe not knowing what to do with all his feelings, he put Slemmon s watch charm in his pants pocket and took a good laugh and went to bed. Zora Neale Hurston Then I heard, very close to me, a footstep and a cough. I felt my flesh get hard you know that feeling but I didn t look up from my book, although I felt that I was being watched. John Cheever

EXAMPLES OF CHARACTERIZATION THROUGH SPEECH: A character who says It is indeed a pleasure to meet you is very different from one who says, Hey, man, what it is? Burroway, p. 138 Now, the cleverest thing of the sort that I ever did was inventing a new pudding during the meat course. Lewis Carroll I have a lousy trip to Philadelphia, lousy flight back, I watch my own plane blow a tire on closed-circuit TV, I go to my office, I find Suzy in tears Joan Didion

SPEECH CAN BE.. Summarized: Carefully, playing down the danger, Len filled her in on the events of the long night. Burroway, p. 137 Reported indirectly: Had he brought the coffee? She had been waiting all day long for coffee. Gosh, no, he hadn t. Lord, now he d have to go back. Katherine Anne Porter Quoted directly: What is it you re after then? Who was this person you re investigating?

EXAMPLES OF CHARACTERIZATION THROUGH THOUGHT: Like speech, a character s thought can be offered in three ways. Summarized: He hated the way she ate. Burroway Reported indirectly: It was all very well if the Seversons wanted to let their cats run loose, but she certainly wasn t responsible for Lisbeth s parakeets, now was she? Burroway Quoted directly: How I envy her! Miss Doheny thought. How fortunate she is to find herself in these easy times, not condemned because she loves a man! --William Trevor Burroway notes that interesting effects can be achieved when a character s thoughts (aka internal dialog) contradict his or her speech.

POINTS OF VIEW There are three basic points of view: Third person: She walked out into the harsh sunlight. A third person author can be omniscient know everything or limited know only what the character knows. Second person: You walked out into the harsh sunlight. This quirky style basically turns the reader into your character. First person: I walked out into the harsh sunlight. First person narrators seem very intimate, but first person narrators can be reliable or unreliable.

POETIC SPEAKER Every poem has a speaker. Usually the speaker is the poet: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. --Robert Frost Sometimes the poem dramatizes another person, as in this poem about Eve: Of course she never was a child herself waking as she did one morning full grown and perfect, with only Adam, another innocent, to love her and instruct --Linda Pastan

Sometimes the poems speaker is an inanimate object or an animal, like this poem from the point of view of a pig: It s wonderful how I jog on four honed-down ivory toes my massive buttocks slipping like oiled parts with each light step... --Philip Levine Poems, like prose, can be written from first, second, or third-person point of view.