6. Characterize

1. Definition:

Describe the character of someone or something in a particular way.

2. Examples:

-Characterize the main characters.

-Examine how the principal figures are characterized.

-Write a characterization of the main protagonists in the story.

-Analyse the author’s method of characterizing the villagers.

3. Description:

When you characterize a person you have to give details about his/her outward appearance as well as about his/her personality as presented in the text. Include facts about what the person does and how he/she behaves in connection with other characters and in key situations. Try to interpret the character’s role in the text with the help of these aspects. Similarly, characterizing ‘something’, a special situation or a relationship, you also have to point out specific aspects according to it, connect them and interpret the character of this relationship etc.

4. Useful Vocabulary:

Here are some phrases that can help you to characterize a person:

-To characterize a person

-To describe a character/person/protagonist

-To get information about a character’s state of mind

-To transmit information about…by…

-To understand that…is an emotional/a strong person…because we are told that…

-To interpret a character’s actions as suggesting that…

Here are some positive adjectives to describe someone’s character:

-agreeable, cooperative, courageous, fair, fair-minded, generous, honest, loyal, nice, open, pleasant, predictable, reliable, tolerant, trustworthy, understanding, warm, well-behaved…

Here are some negative adjectives to describe someone’s character:

-aggressive, boastful, brutal, cold, cynical, disagreeable, disloyal, greedy, mean, narrow-minded, nasty, pompous, promiscuous, sly, unfair, unpleasant, unpredictable, unreliable, violent, vulgar…

5. Advice:

You have to realize that there is a difference between direct and indirect characterization. Direct characterization means the immediate description of a character by the author or another character in the text. In contrast to this, indirect characterization means the description of a person’s behaviour so that the reader himself can conclude certain characteristics of this person.

by Sarah Stöppel