What Is Characterization? At its core, characterization is the art of building characters within a narrative. It’s how writers reveal the personalities of their characters, making them feel real, relatable, and engaging for the reader.
Characterization is the technique writers use to develop characters; it is the representation of the traits, motives, and psychology of a character in a story. This development can happen directly, where traits are explicitly stated, or indirectly, where traits are implied through actions, thoughts, and dialogue.
Here are some crucial aspects to understand about characterization:
- Historically, character development wasn’t always central to storytelling. In ancient times, figures like Aristotle emphasized plot as the primary element in narratives. It wasn’t until the 15th century that characters began to gain prominence.
- Characterization became particularly vital in the 19th century with the rise of literary realism. Realist novels aimed to depict life and people authentically, making robust character development a necessity.
Characterization: Pronunciation
Let’s clarify how to say “characterization”: kar-ak-ter-ih-zey-shun
Direct vs. Indirect Characterization: Two Approaches
Writers employ two main methods to build characters: direct and indirect characterization. It’s important to remember that these are not mutually exclusive techniques. Skilled authors often blend both direct and indirect methods to create well-rounded and believable characters.
Direct Characterization: Explicitly Telling
Direct characterization involves the author explicitly telling the audience about a character’s personality traits. This can be done through:
- Narration: The narrator directly states a character’s qualities.
- Another Character: One character describes another, revealing their traits.
- Self-Description: The character describes themselves, highlighting their own perceived qualities.
Consider this example of direct characterization through dialogue:
“Have you met Sarah?” asked Mark.
“Yes,” replied Emily. “Sarah is incredibly generous. She always thinks of others before herself and is the first to offer help when someone is in need. She’s also remarkably patient, even in stressful situations.”
Here, Emily directly characterizes Sarah as generous and patient through her explicit description. Direct characterization is also known as “explicit characterization.”
Indirect Characterization: Showing Instead of Telling
Indirect characterization is a more subtle approach. Instead of stating character traits outright, the author reveals them through clues within the story, allowing the reader to infer the character’s qualities. These clues can come from:
- Character’s Thoughts: Revealing a character’s inner thoughts provides insights into their values and mindset.
- Character’s Actions: What a character does is often more telling than what they say. Actions reveal priorities and personality.
- Character’s Speech (Words): The words a character chooses, their vocabulary, and style of speaking can indicate their education, background, and personality.
- Character’s Speech (Tone & Manner): How a character speaks – their tone, dialect, and mannerisms – adds layers to their personality. Are they sarcastic, formal, casual, etc.?
- Character’s Appearance: Physical descriptions, clothing choices, and overall appearance can hint at a character’s personality or social standing.
- Character’s Mannerisms: Gestures, habits, and physical movements can reveal nervousness, confidence, or other personality aspects.
- Interactions with Others: How a character treats others, and how others react to them, provides valuable indirect characterization.
Indirect characterization is also referred to as “implicit characterization.”
Indirect Characterization in Performance Arts
In performance-based storytelling like drama, film, and television, indirect characterization gains another dimension. Actors become crucial in conveying character. They don’t just recite lines; they interpret them. An actor’s choices in delivery, body language, and interaction with other actors significantly shape how a character is perceived. This is why different actors can portray the same character in vastly different, yet equally valid, ways.
For example, consider two actors playing King Claudius in Hamlet’s play-within-a-play scene. Alan Bates’ portrayal in the 1990 film showcases growing alarm and outward terror, overtly revealing his guilt. In contrast, Patrick Stewart’s interpretation in a 2010 production presents Claudius as icy, offended, but internally controlled, suggesting guilt through subtle nuances rather than overt displays. Both are indirect characterizations, achieved through acting choices.
Alan Bates portraying King Claudius, demonstrating visible signs of guilt and terror in a scene from the 1990 film adaptation of Hamlet.
Patrick Stewart’s interpretation of King Claudius in a 2010 Hamlet production, showing a more restrained and subtly guilty demeanor.
Round and Flat Characters: Depth and Complexity
Characters are often categorized as either round or flat, based on the depth and complexity of their characterization.
- Flat Characters: These are simpler characters, often defined by a single trait or idea. They are two-dimensional and predictable. Authors might intentionally create flat characters for minor roles or when a character serves a specific, limited purpose in the story. A stereotypical bully in a short TV episode, for instance, might be a flat character, needing only to embody “bully-like” traits.
- Round Characters: These characters are complex, multi-faceted, and feel more like real people. They have depth, contradictions, and evolve throughout the story. Round characters are essential for creating narratives that are engaging, nuanced, and realistic.
Sometimes, unintentionally creating flat characters when round ones are needed can weaken a story, making it feel simplistic and unconvincing.
Character Archetypes: Recurring Patterns
Character archetypes are recurring character types that appear across stories throughout history and cultures. They represent universal patterns of human nature and storytelling. Psychologist Carl Jung proposed twelve fundamental archetypes representing core aspects of the human psyche:
- The Caregiver
- The Creator
- The Explorer
- The Hero
- The Jester
- The Lover
- The Magician
- The Orphan
- The Rebel
- The Ruler
- The Sage
While the rigidity of Jung’s twelve archetypes is debated, the concept of archetypes is highly influential in understanding and developing fictional characters. Relating archetypes to round and flat characters can be insightful:
- Flat characters often embody a single archetype directly, with little deviation. They are easily recognizable as “the hero,” “the villain,” etc., without much individualization.
- Round characters might align with an archetype as a starting point, but they transcend it. They can combine traits from multiple archetypes and possess unique backgrounds, personalities, and psychologies that make them individuals, even while resonating with archetypal patterns.
Effective characterization often involves working with archetypes but avoiding making characters just archetypes. Skilled writers might subvert or play with archetypes to create unexpected and fresh characters. The goal is to create characters whose individual characterization is so compelling that the archetype feels more like a framework than the entirety of their being.
Characterization Examples in Literature
Characterization is present in virtually every story across literature, film, and all narrative forms. Here are some examples illustrating different characterization techniques:
Characterization in Shakespeare’s Hamlet
Literary critic Harold Bloom famously argued that “Personality, in our sense, is a Shakespearean invention” in his book The Invention of the Human. Whether fully agreed upon or not, Shakespeare’s mastery of characterization is undeniable. One key method he employed was the soliloquy, allowing characters to reveal their inner thoughts directly to the audience. Consider Hamlet’s famous “To be or not to be” soliloquy from Hamlet, where he contemplates suicide:
To be, or not to be? That is the question—
Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And, by opposing, end them? To die, to sleep—
No more—and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to—’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished! To die, to sleep.
To sleep, perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub,
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause.
This soliloquy is not merely Hamlet stating his thoughts; it’s him discovering his thoughts in real-time. His initial embrace of death (“To die, to sleep. To sleep”) evolves as he considers the uncertainty of dreams in death (“perchance to dream—ay, there’s the rub”). This unfolding thought process, mimicking how real thought works – sparking new and unexpected ideas – gives Hamlet a profound sense of humanity. Shakespeare uses the soliloquy to characterize Hamlet as melancholic, deeply thoughtful, and even obsessive in his logic. Within these lines, a rich and complex character emerges through masterful characterization.
Characterization in Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi
John Webster’s play The Duchess of Malfi provides a strong example of direct characterization. In this excerpt, the character Antonio offers a stark description of Duke Ferdinand to a friend:
The Duke there? A most perverse and turbulent nature;
What appears in him mirth is merely outside.
If he laugh heartily, it is to laugh
All honesty out of fashion. … He speaks with others’ tongues,
And hears men’s suits with others’ ears; will seem to sleep
O’th’ bench only to entrap offenders in their answers;
Dooms men to death by information,
Rewards by hearsay.
Antonio directly characterizes Duke Ferdinand as deceitful, erratic, and fundamentally dishonest. He paints a picture of a man whose outward appearances are false and whose inner nature is corrupt. This direct description is powerful and accurate, foreshadowing Ferdinand’s turbulent and destructive actions in the play.
Characterization in Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald offers examples of both direct and indirect characterization. Near the novel’s conclusion, the narrator, Nick Carraway, provides a direct assessment of Tom and Daisy Buchanan:
They were careless people, Tom and Daisy—they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.
This is direct characterization; Nick explicitly labels Tom and Daisy as “careless.” However, The Great Gatsby, like most sophisticated literature, also relies heavily on indirect characterization. Earlier in the novel, Nick describes Gatsby indirectly:
He stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward—and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock.
Here, Nick doesn’t state Gatsby’s desires directly. Instead, he describes Gatsby’s actions – reaching, trembling, gazing at a distant green light. This physical description indirectly communicates Gatsby’s profound longing, his vulnerability, and the elusive nature of his dreams. The green light itself becomes a symbol laden with meaning, further enriching our understanding of Gatsby’s character indirectly.
Leonardo DiCaprio portraying Jay Gatsby, reaching towards the symbolic green light, visually representing Gatsby’s yearning and the central themes of desire and the past in The Great Gatsby film adaptation.
Why is Characterization Important?
Characterization is fundamental to narrative literature because compelling characters are the lifeblood of stories. Writers use characterization techniques to develop and reveal characters’:
- Motivations: What drives their actions? What do they want?
- History and Background: What past experiences have shaped them?
- Psychology: How do they think, feel, and process the world?
- Interests and Desires: What are they passionate about? What do they yearn for?
- Skills and Talents: What are they good at? What are their strengths?
- Self-Conception, Quirks, and Neuroses: How do they see themselves? What are their unique traits and flaws?
These character elements make characters believable and relatable. Furthermore, characterization is crucial for driving plot. Plot often arises from the conflicts, interactions, and desires of well-developed characters. In essence, rich characterization makes stories meaningful, engaging, and resonant for readers.
Further Resources on Characterization
To deepen your understanding of characterization, explore these helpful resources:
