How do you do a character analysis (literature)?

Question

Is there a special guideline to do character analysis? How do you study the functions/roles that the characters play in the stories in detail?

Answer 1

To analyze a character, you must find out what makes him/her “tick.” Look at the character as you would anyone you meet for the first time. You may notice or learn the following: • physical traits - what the character looks like, how he/she dresses, how he moves • psychological/personality traits • motivation • behavior /actions• relationships - with other characters in the story, how others see/react to him/her • weaknesses/faults • strengths/virtues• moral constitution - often a character will agonize over right and wrong • protagonist/antagonist - does the story revolve around this character’s actions?• complex/simple personality • history and background • change - has the character changed during the course of the story? What was his/her motivation? Why? similarities and differences of the characters • Does the character have a function in the story? *NOTE*: You also will need to examine how the author presents the *character*. The following passage will help you understand this. It is from A Handbook to Literature, Sixth edition, by C. Hugh Holman & William Harmon, Macmillan Publishing, New York, 1992. Characterization is “the creation of imaginary persons so they seem lifelike. There are three fundamental methods of characterization: (1) the explicit presentation by the author of the *character* through direct exposition, either in an introductory block or more often piecemeal throughout the work, illustrated by action; (2) the presentation of the *character* in action, with little or no explicit comment by the author, in the expectation that the reader can deduce the attributes of the actor from the actions; and (3) the representation from within the *character*, without comment by the author, of the impact of actions and emotion on the *character*’s inner self. . . .The author may concentrate on a dominant trait to the exclusion of other aspects of personality, or the author may attempt to present a fully rounded creation. If the presentation of a single dominant trait is carried to an extreme, not a believable *character* but a caricature will result. If this method is handled with skill, it can produce striking and interesting two-dimensional characters that lack depth. . . .Sometimes these characters are given descriptive names. . .On the other hand, the author may present so convincing a [collection] of personality traits that a complex. . .*character* emerges; such a *character* is three-dimensional. . . .A *character* may be static or dynamic. A static *character* is one who changes little if at all. . . .Some- times a static *character* is revealed bit by bit [but] does not change, although our view of him steadily changes. . . .A dynamic *character*. . . is one who is modified by actions and experiences, and one objective of the work. . . is to reveal the consequences of these actions” (80-81). *Character* is also defined as “a complicated term that includes the idea of the moral constitution of the human personality. . .the presence of moral uprightness, and the simpler notion of the presence of creatures in art that seem to be human beings of one sort or another. . . . [Sometimes] the person is described not as an individualized personality but as an example of some vice or virtue

Answer 2

Character Analysis In Literature