Characterization: Marsh9thEnglish.wordpress.com

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Characterization Marsh9thEnglish.wordpress.com

• How do authors describe and develop a character?
• What is direct characterization? Indirect?
• How can characterization bring insight to a work
  of literature?

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Objectives

• In this lesson we will answer
• How are characters developed by Orwell?
• What is the difference between direct and
  indirect characterization?
• How does a characters speech reveal their
  traits? (dialogue, monologue, soliloquy)
• What is a first-person narrator?
• How can we incorporate this knowledge into our
  writing?

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Creating Characters
Creating characterstelling what personalities
are likeis the whole point of writing stories.
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Character Development
Writers build characters by revealing
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Character Development
Quick Check
Which methods of character development are being
used?
Keep still, you little devil, or Ill cut your
throat! A fearful man, all in coarse grey, with
a great iron on his leg. A man with no hat, and
with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied round
his head. A man who had been soaked in water, and
smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by
flints . . . who limped, and shivered, and
glared and growled and whose teeth chattered in
his head as he seized me by the chin. from Great
Expectations by Charles Dickens
What do you think of the man based on this
excerpt?
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Character Development
Quick Check
Which methods of character development are being
used?
Keep still, you little devil, or Ill cut your
throat! A fearful man, all in coarse grey, with
a great iron on his leg. A man with no hat, and
with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied round
his head. A man who had been soaked in water, and
smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by
flints . . . who limped, and shivered, and
glared and growled and whose teeth chattered in
his head as he seized me by the chin. from Great
Expectations by Charles Dickens
Speech
Description
Actions
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Character Development
Quick Check
What do you think of the man based on this
excerpt?
Keep still, you little devil, or Ill cut your
throat! A fearful man, all in coarse grey, with
a great iron on his leg. A man with no hat, and
with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied round
his head. A man who had been soaked in water, and
smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by
flints . . . who limped, and shivered, and
glared and growled and whose teeth chattered in
his head as he seized me by the chin. from Great
Expectations by Charles Dickens
Hes dangerous and desperate. He seems to be an
escaped prisoner on the run.
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Speech
First-person narrators reveal their personal
traits as they

• tell their own stories (using pronouns like I,
  me, and we)

• tell us what they think and feel

Be aware that some first-person narrators mislead
or lie to the audience.
Soliloquy
Dramatic Monologue
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Speech
Dialogue can reveal a lot about characters and
their relationships with each other. Pay
attention to

• what characters say and dont say

• how characters respond to each other

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Appearance
Pay attention to language the writer uses to
describe the characters looks, clothes, and
demeanor.
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. . . . from A Christmas Carol by
Charles Dickens

• Does the description give you a positive or
  negative impression of the character?

• Which words contribute to this impression?

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Private Thoughts
Writers can take us into the characters minds to
reveal their thoughts and feelings.
As you read, note whether the characters
thoughts and feelings match their speech and
actions.
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How Other Characters Feel
Watch how other characters in the story react to
the character. Note

• how the others feel about the character

• what the others say about the character

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Actions
What characters do and how they treat each other
often reveal the most about them.
Observe characters actions to determine

• what their personality is like

• what motivates them

• how they deal with conflict

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Direct and Indirect Characterization
Direct CharacterizationWriters tell us directly
what characters are like or what their motives
are.
Oh, but he was a tightfisted hand at the
grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching,
grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old
sinner! from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Indirect CharacterizationWriters show us
characters (through speech, appearance, private
thoughts, other characters reactions, and
actions) but allow us to decide what characters
are like.
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Direct and Indirect Characterization
Quick Check
Is this an example of direct or indirect
characterization?
My sister, Mrs. Joe, with black hair and eyes,
had such a prevailing redness of skin that I
sometimes used to wonder whether it was possible
she washed herself with a nutmeg-grater instead
of soap. She was tall and bony, and almost always
wore a coarse apron, fastened over her figure
behind with two loops, and having a square
impregnable bib in front, that was stuck full of
pins and needles. from Great Expectations by
Charles Dickens
What kind of person do you think this character
is?
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Direct and Indirect Characterization
Quick Check
Is this an example of direct or indirect
characterization?
My sister, Mrs. Joe, with black hair and eyes,
had such a prevailing redness of skin that I
sometimes used to wonder whether it was possible
she washed herself with a nutmeg-grater instead
of soap. She was tall and bony, and almost always
wore a coarse apron, fastened over her figure
behind with two loops, and having a square
impregnable bib in front, that was stuck full of
pins and needles. from Great Expectations by
Charles Dickens
Indirect. The writer is describing the
characters appearance.
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Direct and Indirect Characterization
Quick Check
What kind of person do you think this character
is?
My sister, Mrs. Joe, with black hair and eyes,
had such a prevailing redness of skin that I
sometimes used to wonder whether it was possible
she washed herself with a nutmeg-grater instead
of soap. She was tall and bony, and almost always
wore a coarse apron, fastened over her figure
behind with two loops, and having a square
impregnable bib in front, that was stuck full of
pins and needles. from Great Expectations by
Charles Dickens
I think shes strict and unfriendly.
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Practice 20 points
Find an example of direct and
indirect characterization of the animals in
Animal Farm. Character Direct Indirect
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