Characterisation is the way a writer creates a fictional character. Understanding characterisation is absolutely central to analysing fiction. The most common techniques through which a writer gives us a sense of what a character is like are:
Writers need characters to express the ideas they want to show us. Often these are universal things about life or what is sometimes called the 'human condition'. So, by showing us the motivations, feelings, actions, regrets, limitations, aspirations and experiences of their characters, writers can give us an understanding of the themes they are dealing with. For this to work, the characters have to seem real and be believable.
It is important then, that we actually care about what the characters in a story are going through and what fate the author has in store for them. The characters must then behave in believable ways and say credible things.
Example 1
We can learn a great deal about a character from the narrative point of view. If we read a piece of fiction written in the first person, we feel more closely connected to the character. A book like JD Salinger's Catcher in the Rye is like reading a diary or a signed confession. Axe murderer or saint, we have access to the character's most private thoughts.
Example 2
We can expect to understand something about the lives of the characters through the setting of the story. In a story set entirely in the Scottish countryside and peopled by characters who work on the land, such as Lewis Grassic Gibbon's Sunset Song, we are quickly familiarised with their motivations and struggles.
Example 3
Writers often report that the characters take on a life of their own, seeming to influence the plot. Knowing that characters behave in ways that are consistent with what we know of them, this helps us believe in the forces that drive them and influence them. This is true of the characters in William Golding's Lord of the Flies
Plot and structure
Plot refers to the deliberate sequencing of events in the text. It usually applies to prose and drama. The 'story' on the other hand is simply an account of what happens - without regard to how the writer has sequenced the presentation of the events.
Writers may play about with time scales, so a plot sequence may not be chronological (as it happens in real time). You should always ask yourselves why a writer might have structured a story in sections. How does it add to your understanding of the story or themes?
Part of good story-telling is ensuring that readers want to find out what happens next. Authors want readers to persist with stories and experience the resolution or climax, whether in verse or prose. Writers use different devices to maintain the reader's focus and attention; things like suspense, fear and hope.
There are some common story-telling devices you might come across:
Texts have a 'shape'. Think of the structure of a poem, play or novel as being like an architect's plan. The words are the bricks, but underlying this is an overall shape or design. Structure refers to how a text is divided up. Acts, scenes and chapters usually indicate structure and are deliberately used to create meaningful sections of the text.
Example 1
Shakespeare's tragedies (eg Macbeth, King Lear, Othello, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet) are usually made up of five acts. Typically, the catharsis or key turning point of the play occurs in the third act, with the build-up and disintegration of the tragic characters occurring either side.
Example 2
In Lewis Grassic Gibbon's Sunset Song, the novel is broken into six sections: Prelude - The Unfurrowed Field, Ploughing, Drilling, Seed-time, Harvest and Epilude - The Unfurrowed Field. The Prelude provides an insight into the historical background and values of the society and community in which Chris Guthrie lives, while the Epilude section provides more of an insight into the political context of Kinraddie, Europe and the world in the new post-war order.
Example 3
It is much easier when reading poetry to recognise the importance of structure. Breaking down poems into verses or stanzas allows the poet to separate ideas and shape the development of their ideas.
There are three forms of narrative point of view.
This is where the 'voice' telling the story uses the word 'I'. This can have an intimate, believable confessional feel.
This is where the narrator refers to 'you', talks to the reader directly. This is often a challenging or conspiratorial mode, inviting our involvement, agreement or even complicity in their actions.
This is where the author uses 'he', 'she', 'they' or 'it'. A voice refers to actions, events and circumstances dissociated from both the narrator and the reader. The narrator can be either omniscient (all-knowing) or can merely function to report events as they take place.
Writers will often alternate between these modes. It is not uncommon for the narrative to shift from third to first person. This can help us understand the characters from different perspectives; first a detatched and objective view, then more personal and intimate. It is important to note that third person narrators are not always totally detached. Sometimes they favour the opinions and point of view of one particular character. Although the narrative may be in the third person it gives a special insight into the consciousness of one or more characters.
The narrative point of view is then crucial in revealing and telling us about characters - and also in helping the story to be told in an exciting, structured, significant way.
In a critical essay you should be able to write about key language features used in novels, short stories, plays and poems. Here's a reminder of what they are and how they work:
the first letter of a word is repeated in words that follow; the cold, crisp, crust of clean, clear ice.
An allusion is, plain and simple, a reference. You'll find allusions when the book you're reading makes a reference to something outside of itself, whether another work of literature, something from pop culture, a song, myth, history, or even the visual arts. They deepen and enrich a work's meaning, and are a form of intertextuality, so they help books talk to each other.
the same vowel sound is repeated but the consonants are different; he passed her a sharp, dark glance, shot a cool, foolish look across the room.
the suggestive meaning of a word, and all of the cultural associations it brings up. Two words can mean exactly the same thing and have wildly different connotations. For example, if you call someone economical, it's a polite, positive way of saying they're smart with money. If you call them cheap or stingy, well that's just plain rude.
language that is used in speech with an informal meaning; 'chill', 'out of this world', 'take a rain check'.
the version of language spoken by particular people in a particular area, such as Scots.
conversation between two people; sometimes an imagined conversation between the narrator and the reader. This is important in drama and can show conflict through a series of statements and challenges, or intimacy where characters mirror the content and style of each other's speech. It can also be found in the conversational style of a poem.
a discordant combinations of sounds; the clash, spew and slow pang of grinding waves against the quay.
Using highly emotive words to express ideas and feelings. Using language that creates a strong emotional reaction from the reader or audience.
a device used in poetry where a sentence continues beyond the end of the line or verse. This technique is often used to maintain a sense of continuation from one stanza to another.
A foil is a character whose main purpose is to offer a contrast to another character, usually the protagonist. Foils set off and accentuate the main character and are convenient ways to complicate and deepen the characterisation of the protagonist. Basically, everything the foil is, the protagonist is not. The foil's differences highlight the key qualities of the main character.
exaggerating something for literary purposes which is not meant to be taken literally; we gorged on the banquet of beans on toast.
similes, metaphors and personification; they all compare something 'real' with something 'imagined'.
the humorous or sarcastic use of words or ideas, implying the opposite of what they mean. When the expected outcome is the opposite of the actual outcome.
Put two things next to each other, and their similarities and differences are much easier to spot. Contrasting places, people, words, events.
a word or phrase used to imply figurative, not literal or 'actual', resemblance; he flew into the room.
The level of imperative in the langauge used- ie how definite or forceful the words are, eg 'may' has low modality, whereas 'will' has high modality.
an uninterrupted monologue can show a character's importance or state of mind. Monologue can be in speech form, delivered in front of other characters and having great thematic importance, or as a soliloquy where we see the character laying bare their soul and thinking aloud.
a word that sounds like the noise it is describing: 'splash', 'bang', 'pop', 'hiss'.
Where two words normally not associated are brought together: 'cold heat' 'bitter sweet'.
language that evokes feelings of pity or sorrow.
attributing a human quality to a thing or idea: the moon calls me to her darkened world.
the repetition of a word or phrase to achieve a particular effect.
the way that words sound the same at the end of lines in poetry. Poems often have a fixed rhyme-scheme (for example, sonnets have 14 lines with fixed rhyme scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GG). Try to comment as to what contribution the rhyme-scheme is making to the text as a whole. Why do you think the poet has chosen it? Does it add control or imitate the ideas in the poem?
a repetitive beat or metre within a poem. Tennyson's poem The Lady of Shallot uses a strong internal rhythm to build up the sense of unrelenting monotony in the poem:
There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colours gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott.
a phrase which establishes similarity between two things to emphasise the point being made. This usually involves the words 'like' or 'as'; 'he is as quick as an arrow in flight', 'as white as snow', 'like a burning star'.
often objects, colours, sounds and places work as symbols. They can sometimes give us a good insight into the themes. So, snakes are often symbols of temptation as in the story of Adam and Eve, white usually symbolises innocence and a ringing bell can be a symbol for impending doom.
the writer's tone or voice or atmosphere or feeling that pervades the text, such as sadness, gloom, celebration, joy, anxiety, dissatisfaction, regret or anger. Different elements of writing can help to create this; long sentences or verses, with assonance (repeated vowel sounds), tend to create a sad, melancholic mood. Short syllabic, alliterative lines can create an upbeat, pacy atmosphere. Modality and connotation will also affect the tone.
sometimes called 'register', this is the common thread in an author's choice of language. Authors may use words commonly associated with religion, words describing sensory experience such as touch, smell or colour or 'mood' words that reflect a character's state of mind.