AIC1001

Characterisation
 What is a character?
Typically, the person or persons featured in a text.

However, objects, places, etc can also be characters.

What types of characters are
there?
Protagonist (main character)

Antagonist (opposes the protagonist)

Major character/characters

Minor character/characters

Foil
What types of characters are there?
Flat characters
Relatively uncomplicated, remain
basically the same throughout the text

Round characters
Complex, multi-faceted, may
change in significant ways
 Types of characterisation
Direct characterisation: the author tells us exactly
what a person is like.

Indirect characterisation: the author shows us what a

person is like, by putting ‘clues’ for the reader to
follow and put together in order to understand the
character.
 Show vs Tell:
Tell (direct characterisation) :

Peter was very lazy, and would never shift himself more
than was absolutely necessary.

Show (indirect characterisation):

Peter was bored with the TV programme, but the remote

control was inexplicably across the room, so he just
watched it anyway. Jan would be in soon, and she could
fetch the remote control for him then.
Indirect characterisation might
include details about:
How the character looks

What the character does (everyday habits, movement, what

they do to other people, etc)

What the character thinks (note: what a character thinks may

not always be true)

What the character says (is the character honest, what kind of
ideas does the character have, etc)

How others react (compare the character’s response to that of

other characters, consider what other characters think of the
character, etc)
Indirect characterisation might
include details about:
How the character looks

What the character does (everyday habits, movement, what

they do to other people, etc)

What the character thinks (note: what a character thinks may

not always be true)

What the character says (is the character honest, what kind of
ideas does the character have, etc)

How others react (compare the character’s response to that of

other characters, consider what other characters think of the
character, etc)
Visual example:
 Textual example
Excerpt from Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations:

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 around his head. A man who had been
soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by
stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles. And torn by
briars; who limped, and shivered, and glared and growled;
and whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by
the chin.
Indirect characterisation might
include details about:
How the character looks

What the character does (everyday habits, movement, what

they do to other people, etc)

What the character thinks (note: what a character thinks may

not always be true)

What the character says (is the character honest, what kind of
ideas does the character have, etc)

How others react (compare the character’s response to that of

other characters, consider what other characters think of the
character, etc)
 Textual example:
Excerpt from Great Expectations (Charles Dickens)
Indirect characterisation might
include details about:
How the character looks

What the character does (everyday habits, movement, what

they do to other people, etc)

What the character thinks (note: what a character thinks may

not always be true)

What the character says (is the character honest, what kind of
ideas does the character have, etc)

How others react (compare the character’s response to that of

other characters, consider what other characters think of the
character, etc)
 Textual example:
Excerpt from The Namesake (Jhumpa Lahiri)

When he looks back to the child, the eyes are open, staring up
at him, unblinking, as dark as the hair on its head. The face is
transformed; Ashoke has never seen a more perfect thing. He
imagines himself as a dark, grainy, blurry presence. As a father
to his son. Again he thinks of the night he was nearly killed,
the memory of those hours that have forever marked him
flickering and fading in his mind. Being rescued from that
shattered train had been the first miracle of his life. But here,
now, reposing in his arms, weighing next to nothing but
changing everything, is the second.
Indirect characterisation might
include details about:
How the character looks

What the character does (everyday habits, movement, what

they do to other people, etc)

What the character thinks (note: what a character thinks may

not always be true)

What the character says (is the character honest, what kind
of ideas does the character have, etc)

How others react (compare the character’s response to that of

other characters, consider what other characters think of the
character, etc)
 Textual example:
Excerpt from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Roald Dahl)

Veruca’s father, Mr. Salt, had eagerly explained to the newspapermen exactly how the
ticket was found. “You see, fellers,” he had said, “as soon as my little girl told me that she
simply had to have one of those Golden Tickets, I went out into the town and started
buying up all the Wonka candy bars I could lay my hands on. Thousands of them, I must
have bought. Hundreds of thousands! Then I had them loaded onto trucks and sent
directly to my own factory. I’m in the peanut business, you see, and I’ve got about a
hundred women working for me over at my joint, shelling peanuts for roasting and
salting. That’s what they do all day long, those women, they sit there shelling peanuts. So
I says to them, ‘Okay, girls,’ I says, ‘from now on, you can stop shelling peanuts and start
shelling the wrappers off these crazy candy bars instead!’ And they did. I had every
worker in the place yanking the paper off those bars of chocolate full speed ahead from
morning till night.

“But three days went by, and we had no luck. Oh, it was terrible! My little Veruca got
more and more upset each day, and every time I went home she would scream at me,
‘Where’s my Golden Ticket! I want my Golden Ticket!’ And she would lie for hours on the
floor, kicking and yelling in the most disturbing way. Well, sir, I just hated to see my little
girl feeling unhappy like that, so I vowed I would keep up the search until I’d go her what
she wanted.”
Indirect characterisation might
include details about:
How the character looks

What the character does (everyday habits, movement, what

they do to other people, etc)

What the character thinks (note: what a character thinks may

not always be true)

What the character says (is the character honest, what kind of
ideas does the character have, etc)

How others react (compare the character’s response to that of

other characters, consider what other characters think of the
character, etc)
 Textual example:
Excerpt from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Roald Dahl)

“That child,” said Grandpa Joe, poking his head up from under the blanket
one icy morning, “that child has got to have more food. It doesn’t matter
about us. We’re too old to bother with. But a growing boy! He can’t go on
like this! He’s beginning to look like a skeleton!”

“What can one do?” murmured Grandma Josephine miserably. “He refuses
to take any of ours. I hear his mother tried to slip her own piece of bread
onto his plate at breakfast this morning, but he wouldn’t touch it. He made
her take it back.”

“He’s a fine little fellow,” said Grandpa George. “He deserves better than
this.”

And the cruel weather went on and on.

And every day, Charlie Bucket grew thinner and thinner.

 “Repent, Harlequin!”
Describe what the writer shows us about the Harlequin
through his actions, speech, and physical appearance.

Describe the responses of various social groups to the

Harlequin. What does this tell us about him? His society?

Identify the protagonist and the antagonist. Describe

their relationship.

Pay attention to the quotation which begins the text. How

does it shape our understanding of the Harlequin?
Identify the story’s setting and plot structure (linear or
non-linear). Why might these be significant?

What might be the theme of the story? What is the

writer saying about this?