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Writing a Character Analysis Essay | Step-by-Step Guide

Chris Drew (PhD)

Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

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I’m also going to give you a ton of examples.

This post is split into four parts for easy navigation:

• What is a Character Analysis Essay?
• What is the best Format to Use?
• 11 Character Analysis Example Ideas
• Template, Checklist and Outline for Your own Piece

In this post, I’m going to explain to you clearly and in a step-by-step way how to conduct a character analysis.

1. What is a Character Analysis Essay?

Let’s get you started with some really simple details about what a character analysis is:

• A Quick Definition: A character analysis essay zooms-in on a character in a book, movie or even real life. It provides what we sometimes call a ‘sketch’ of a character.
• The Purpose of a Character Analysis: The purpose of a character analysis is to reveal interesting details about the character that might contain a broader moral message about the human condition. For example, Atticus Finch is not just a lawyer in To Kill a Mockingbird. Rather, he provides us with a moral message about the importance of doing what you believe is right even though you know you will likely fail.

2. What is the best Character Analysis Essay Format?

Character analysis essays do not have just one format.

However, let me offer some advice that might act as a character analysis essay outline or ‘checklist’ of possible things you could discuss:

1. Start with the Simple Details.

You can start a character analysis by providing a simple, clear description of who your character is. Look at some basic identity traits such as:

• Race (if relevant)
• Social class (if relevant)
• Protagonist or Antagonist? A protagonist is the character who is our central character in the plot; the antagonist is often the protagonist’s opponent or challenger.
• Major or minor character?

2. What are the character’s distinctive personality features?

Your character might have some really clearly identifiable character traits. It’s best to highlight in your character analysis the exact traits that this character possesses. Some common character traits include:

I recommend you take a moment to write down what you think the top 3 to 5 words are that you’d use to explain your character’s personality traits. These will be important to discuss throughout your character analysis.

Sometimes a character may start out with some personality traits, but change over the course of the text. This is quite common; and one clear example of this is Lady Macbeth she deteriorates from a cutthroat power player to a guilt ridden shell of a person roaming the halls of the castle. This dramatic character change is something that makes her very interesting, and is worthy of discussion!

3. What are the character’s key relationships?

Does your character have a close relationship with a certain person in the storyline?

You might want to discuss the character’s relationships as a part of your character analysis. These relationships may reveal some key personality traits of your character.

For example, in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, Horatio is the loyal offsider to Hamlet. Through his actions in staying by Hamlet through thick and thin, we learn that he is a deeply loyal character.

Examining the character’s relationships with their friends and foes therefore is very useful for digging deeper into who this character actually is, and what personality traits they have when they are put to the test within the narrative.

4. What are the character’s motivations?

Another thing you might want to examine are the character’s motivations . What do they desire most in the world? Some common motivations for characters in stories are:

• A simple life
• To serve others

This list really could be endless, but I hope the above examples give you a bit of an idea of the sorts of traits to look out for. By mentioning and examining the motivations of the character, we will come closer and closer to learning exactly what moral message this character might be able to tell us.

5. What are the character’s key conflicts?

Stories tend to have a beginning, a complication, and a resolution.

The complication involves conflicts and challenges that need to be overcome. For Edmund in Narnia, it’s cowardice. For Romeo and Juliet, it’s the conflict between love and family loyalty. Here’s some other common conflicts for characters:

• Whether to stay loyal to a friend;
• To overcome obstacles to love;
• To seek a way out of a challenging situation;
• To escape war or poverty;
• To persevere through imprisonment;
• To overcome personal fear

Again, this list is endless.

Knowing the character’s core conflict gets us even closer to knowing the moral that the character is trying to teach us.

For example, in Romeo and Juliet, the challenge of Romeo and Juliet being together despite their families’ objections teaches us something. Personally, I believe it teaches us the importance of letting go of old grudges in order to let love bloom.

This moral lesson was taught to us through conflict: namely, the conflict that Romeo and Juliet were right in the center of.

6. What are the character’s epiphanies?

Sometimes a character has an epiphany. This often happens towards the end of the story and helps the character overcome the challenge or conflict that we discussed in the point above.

Here’s an example of an epiphany:

• In the Lion King, Simba runs away from his tribe to live in exile. After a chance encounter with his childhood friend Nala, he has an epiphany that he has a duty to his tribe. This leads him back home to fight Scar and return freedom to Pride Rock.

Not all characters have an epiphany. But, if they do, I strongly encourage you to write about it in your character analysis.

7. Examine the moral message the character teaches us.

Finally, conclude by examining the moral message behind the character. Nearly every character has something to teach the reader. Authors put a lot of thought into creating complex characters with whom we can relate. We relate to the character and say “wow, they taught me a lesson about something!”

The lesson might be something like:

• Money doesn’t buy happiness;
• Loyalty to family comes above all else;
• Love gives life meaning;
• Honesty is always the best policy

This is the core of your character analysis essay. If you can pick out exactly what moral message the character teaches you, you’ll be well on your way to writing a strong character analysis.

Below I’m going to give you some examples to help you out. I know it can be hard to really get your head around a character, so sometimes the best thing is to look at some samples!

3. Here’s 13 Example Character Analysis Essay Ideas.

Most times when we create a character analysis, we’re exploring the deeper moral stories / aspects of humanity. Here’s some example ideas. I’ve tried to outline in less than a paragraph exactly what your key point will be about each character:

• Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird: A character who teaches us a lesson about standing up for what’s right, even if you know you’re likely to lose.
• Huckleberry Finn from Huckleberry Finn: A character who reveals our inner desire for freedom from the elements of society that constrain us.
• Dudley from Harry Potter: A character whose personality tells us a cautionary tale of the perils of middle-class narcissism, parents’ desire to wrap their children in cotton wool, and the lack of discipline we perceive in contemporary childhoods.
• Jack from Lord of the Flies: A character who represents the innate desire for power that seems to lurk not too far from the surface of the human condition. When social structures are stripped away, he quickly reverts to violence and superstition to assert control over his peers.
• Lady Macbeth from Macbeth: Lady Macbeth teaches us a valuable lesson about the perils of contravening our own morality. She starts out a cutthroat killer but is increasingly consumed by the guilt of her own actions. While we may be able to escape full punishment from outside forces, it is the inner guilt that might eat us away to our last.
• The Boy who Cried Wolf: The boy who cried wolf is a character whose fatal flaw is his desire for attention and adulation. His repeated attempts at gaining the attention of others leads the townspeople to no longer take him seriously, which causes him harm when he actually needs the villagers to take him seriously to save his life. He teaches us the virtue of honest and humility.
• Nick Carraway from the Great Gatsby: Nick shows us all the inner conflict between the trappings of wealth, glamor and spectacle; and the desire for simplicity, honesty and community. He is drawn by the dazzling world of East Egg, New York, but by the end of the novel sees live in East Egg as shallow and lacking the moral depth of his former life in small town Minnesota.
• Alice from Alice in Wonderland: In many ways, Alice represents the child within all of us. She is a character of goodwill to all and who looks upon the world (or, rather, Wonderland) with awe. Travelling with a cadre of flawed characters, she learns with them the importance of seeking strength from within.
• The Nurse in Romeo and Juliet: Like many Shakespearian characters, the nurse’s role is both as loyal confidante to a central character and comic relief. Shakespeare uses minor characters to regale his crowd and sustain viewer interest between scenes.
• Lucy in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe: Lucy represents a surprising character whose youthfulness and small stature make her an underrated character by all around her. Nonetheless, she possesses within the bravery and loyalty necessary to carry out the quest for Aslan. Lucy represents the goodness in children and, by extension, all of mankind.
• Anne in Anne of Green Gables: Anne occupies the typical literary role of young girls in many classical novels: she represents innocence and wonder, and her contraventions of rules are seen through a prism of childhood innocence. This frames Anne not as a deviant but as a precious soul.
• Simba from The Lion King: Simba’s story follows his struggle with growing up, embracing his destiny and duty to his family, or fleeing towards freedom and a ‘no worries’ lifestyle. Simba flees Pride Rock and goes through an existential crisis with his existentialist friends Timon and Pumba. When he runs into an old childhood friend, he realizes how shallow his new carefree life has become and reflects upon his obligation to his community back home.
• Woody from Toy Story: Woody starts out Andy’s favorite toy, but when Andy gets a new flashier toy, Woody’s status amongst the toys falls apart. Woody’s key character challenge is to learn to be humble and inclusive living within the group. By the end of the movie, Woody realizes his duty to love and serve Andy is more important than his own status within the group.

4. Here’s an Example Template for your own Character Analysis Essay

Feel free to use this brainstorming template to get you started with your character analysis essay. I recommend filling out as many of these key points as you can, but remember sometimes you might have to skip some of these points if they’re not relevant to your character.

Once you’ve brainstormed the ideas in Table 1, follow the character analysis essay outline in Table 2 to stay on track for your character analysis essay. Do remember though that each assignment will be different and you should adjust it based on your teacher’s requirements.

Here’s Table 1, which is a brainstorming template for your character analysis essay:

And here’s Table 2, which is an example character analysis essay outline. This is for a 1500 word character analysis essay. Change the word count according to how long your essay should be:

Read Also: 39 Better Ways to Write ‘In Conclusion’ in an Essay

Character analyses can be really tough. You need to know your character really well. You might even need to re-read (or watch) your book or movie a few times over to get to know the character really well.

I recommend when you re-read or re-watch the text before you write your character analysis, have the checklist I provided above handy and take notes. Then, use the essay outline I provided above to put all of those notes together into a clear and thorough final character analysis essay.

• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 10 Reasons you’re Perpetually Single
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• Chris Drew (PhD) https://helpfulprofessor.com/author/chris-drew-phd-2/ 21 Montessori Homeschool Setups
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How to Write a Character Analysis Essay

A character analysis essay is a challenging type of essay students usually write for literature or English courses. In this article, we will explain the definition of character analysis and how to approach it. We will also touch on how to analyze characters and guide you through writing character analysis essays.

Typically, this kind of writing requires students to describe the character in the story's context. This can be fulfilled by analyzing the relationship between the character in question and other personas. Although, sometimes, giving your personal opinion and analysis of a specific character is also appropriate.

Let's explain the specifics of how to do a character analysis by getting straight to defining what is a character analysis. Our term paper writers will have you covered with a thorough guide!

What Is a Character Analysis Essay?

The character analysis definition explains the in-depth personality traits and analyzes characteristics of a certain hero. Mostly, the characters are from literature, but sometimes other art forms, such as cinematography. In a character analysis essay, your main job is to tell the reader who the character is and what role they play in the story. Therefore, despite your personal opinion and preferences, it is really important to use your critical thinking skills and be objective toward the character you are analyzing. A character analysis essay usually involves the character's relationship with others, their behavior, manner of speaking, how they look, and many other characteristics.

Although it's not a section about your job experience or education on a resume, sometimes it is appropriate to give your personal opinion and analysis of a particular character.

What Is the Purpose of a Character Analysis Essay

More than fulfilling a requirement, this type of essay mainly helps the reader understand the character and their world. One of the essential purposes of a character analysis essay is to look at the anatomy of a character in the story and dissect who they are. We must be able to study how the character was shaped and then learn from their life. 

A good example of a character for a character analysis essay is Daisy Buchanan from 'The Great Gatsby.' The essay starts off by explaining who Daisy is and how she relates to the main character, Jay Gatsby. Depending on your audience, you need to decide how much of the plot should be included. If the entire class writes an essay on Daisy Buchanan, it is logical to assume everyone has read the book. Although, if you know for certain that your audience has little to no knowledge of who she is, it is crucial to include as much background information as possible. 

After that, you must explain the character through certain situations involving her and what she said or did. Make sure to explain to the reader why you included certain episodes and how they have showcased the character. Finally, summarize everything by clearly stating the character's purpose and role in the story. 

We also highly recommend reading how to write a hook for an essay .

Still Need Help with Your Character Analysis Essay?

Different types of characters.

To make it clear how a reader learns about a character in the story, you should note that several characters are based on their behaviors, traits, and roles within a story. We have gathered some of them, along with vivid examples from famous literature and cinema pieces:

Types of Characters

• Major : These are the main characters; they run the story. Regularly, there are only one or two major characters. Major characters are usually of two types: the protagonist – the good guy, and the antagonist: the bad guy or the villain. 
• Protagonist (s) (heroes): The main character around whom most of the plot revolves. 

For example, Othello from Shakespeare's play, Frodo from The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, Harry Potter from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, and Elizabeth Bennet from 'Pride and Prejudice' by Jane Austen.

• Antagonist (s): This is the person that is in opposition to the protagonist. This is usually the villain, but it could also be a natural power, set of circumstances, majestic being, etc. 

For example, Darth Vader from the Star Wars series by George Lucas, King Joffrey from Game of Thrones, or the Wicked Queen from 'Snow White and Seven Dwarfs.'

• Minor : These characters help tell the major character's tale by letting them interact and reveal their personalities, situations, and/or stories. They are commonly static (unchanging). The minor characters in The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien would be the whole Fellowship of the ring. In their own way, each member of the Fellowship helps Frodo get the ring to Mordor; without them, the protagonist would not be a protagonist and would not be able to succeed. In the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, minor characters are Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger. They consistently help Harry Potter on his quests against Voldemort, and, like Frodo, he wouldn't have succeeded without them.

On top of being categorized as a protagonist, antagonist, or minor character, a character can also be dynamic, static, or foil.

• Dynamic (changing): Very often, the main character is dynamic.

An example would also be Harry Potter from the book series by J.K. Rowling. Throughout the series, we see Harry Potter noticing his likeness to Voldemort. Nevertheless, Harry resists these traits because, unlike Voldemort, he is a good person and resists any desire to become a dark wizard.

• Static (unchanging): Someone who does not change throughout the story is static.

A good example of a static character is Atticus Finch from “How to Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. His character and views do not change throughout the book. He is firm and steady in his beliefs despite controversial circumstances. 

• Foils : These characters' job is to draw attention to the main character(s) to enhance the protagonist's role.

‍ A great example of a foil charact e r is Dr. Watson from the Sherlock Holmes series by Arthur Conan Doyle.

How to Analyze a Character 

While preparing to analyze your character, make sure to read the story carefully.

• Pay attention to the situations where the character is involved, their dialogues, and their role in the plot.
• Make sure you include information about what your character achieves on a big scale and how they influence other characters.
• Despite the categories above, try thinking outside the box and explore your character from around.
• Avoid general statements and being too basic. Instead, focus on exploring the complexities and details of your character(s).

How to Write a Character Analysis Essay?

To learn how to write a character analysis essay and gather a more profound sense of truly understanding these characters, one must completely immerse themself in the story or literary piece.

• Take note of the setting, climax, and other important academic parts.
• You must be able to feel and see through the characters. Observe how analysis essay writer shaped these characters into life.
• Notice how little or how vast the character identities were described.
• Look at the characters' morals and behaviors and how they have affected situations and other characters throughout the story.
• Finally, observe the characters whom you find interesting. 

Meanwhile, if you need help writing a paper, leave us a message ' write my paper .'

How Do You Start a Character Analysis Essay

When writing a character analysis essay, first, you have to choose a character you'd like to write about. Sometimes a character will be readily assigned to you. It's wise to consider characters who play a dynamic role in the story. This will captivate the reader as there will be much information about these personas.

Read the Story

You might think that if you already have read the book, there is no need to do so again; however, now that you know the character you would like to focus on, reading it again will have plenty of benefits. It will give you an opportunity to be more precise while reading the scenes that relate directly to your character and are important for his/her analysis. While reading the book, pay attention to every tiny detail to make sure you grasp the whole array of your character's traits. 

Consider the following things:

• What specific descriptions does the author provide for each character?

For example, when J.K. Rowling describes Harry Potter for the first time, she describes his clothes as old and oversized, his hair untidy, and his glasses as broken. It might seem just like a simple description, but she expresses compassion and pity for an orphan neglected by his only relatives. 

• What kinds of relationships does your character have with others?

Think about how Harry builds up his friendships with others. First, he and Ron do not like Hermione because she acts like a know-it-all, but when she gets stuck in the dungeons with a horrendous troll, he rushes to save her regardless. 

• How do the actions of the character move the plot forward?

In 'The Philosopher's Stone,' Harry is very observant of any events taking place at school. He analyzes people's actions, which builds up the plot around the stone and its importance for the magical world.

Get help with your character analysis from our experts.

Choose a Dynamic Character

Choosing a dynamic character is a great idea. This does not necessarily have to be the protagonist, but a character that undergoes many changes has grown throughout the story and is not boring and/or static. This gives you a perfect advantage to fully show the character and make your paper entertaining and engaging for the reader. If you choose a character that is not very dynamic, your essay might seem monotonous because your character will not end up doing much and will not be very involved in the story.

While you are reading, it is useful to take notes or highlight/underline any of the critical elements of the story. This will add depth to your character description(s). By providing vivid and specific examples, you connect your reader to the character, and the character comes alive in their eyes. Review your notes and formulate the main idea about your character when you're finished reading with your character in mind.

Make an initial draft while taking note of the character analysis essay outline provided by your instructor. You may follow the recommended character analysis essay format if you have not been provided with a sample.

Choose a Main Idea

While reading the story, make sure you keep track of your notes. It is a good idea to look at them, choose the ones that are the most representative of your character and find patterns. This will be your thesis. Then, you must support this idea with examples and situations involving your character. 

If your character were Jem Finch from 'To Kill a Mockingbird' by Harper Lee, the main idea would be how his personal character is shaped through racial conflicts, social inequalities, and internal struggles between public opinion, his own views, and what is actually right. Essaypro offers you history essay help. Leave us a notice if you need to proofread, edit, or write your essay.

Character Analysis Questions

Now that you have jotted down some main concepts about your character, here is a list of questions that can help you fill in the blanks you might still have:

• Where do the events involving your character take place?
• What are the relationships between your character and other significant characters?
• What is the primary change your character has gone through throughout the story?
• What is your character's background?
• What is your character's occupation?
• What kind of emotions does your character go through?
• What are your character's values?
• What is your character's value?
• Does your character have friends?
• Is there a lesson your character has learned by the end of the story?
• Does the character achieve the goals he/she has set for himself/herself?

Make a Character Analysis Essay Outline

When you're unsure how to write a character synopsis, remember that creating a literary analysis outline is one of the most critical steps. A well-constructed character analysis outline will keep your thoughts and ideas organized.

Character Analysis Essay Introduction:

Make the introduction to your paper brief and meaningful. It should hold together your entire essay and spark your audience's interest. Write a short description of the character in question. Don't forget to include a character analysis thesis statement which should make a case for the character's relevance within the narrative context.

Character Analysis Essay Body:

Subdivide your body paragraphs into different ideas or areas regarding the character. Look at your professor's rubric and ensure you'll be able to tackle all the requirements. You should also be provided with questions to be answered to formulate your analysis better. The body should answer the following questions:

• What is the character's physical appearance, personality, and background?
• What are the conflicts the character experiences, and how did he/she overcome them?
• What can we learn from this character?
• What is the meaning behind the character's actions? What motivates him/her?
• What does the character do? How does he/she treat others? Is he/she fair or unjust?
• What does the character say? What is his/her choice of words? Does he/she have a rich vocabulary?
• How does the character describe themself? How do others describe him/her?
• What words do you associate with the character? Perhaps a word like 'hope,' 'bravery,' or maybe even 'freedom'?

Character Analysis Essay Conclusion:

It's time to master the secrets of how to write character analysis essay conclusions. Your ending should also hold your ideas together and shape a final analysis statement. Mention things about the character's conflicts that we could experience in real life. Additionally, you can write about how a character should've reacted to a certain situation.

Character Analysis Essay Example

Read our blogs ‘Character Analysis of Jem Finch', 'The Great Gatsby Book Through Daisy Buchanan Character,' 'Analysis of Characters in Beowulf,' or simply use these character analysis essay examples to reference your paper. You might also be interested in a synthesis essay example .

Now that you know what is character analysis, it might be time to choose a character to write about. If you find yourself in a situation where you need to type ' do my homework for me ,' you should contact our writers. You also get a free plagiarism report, formatting, and citing when  buying an essay from us!

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How To Write A Character Analysis Essay?

How to start a character analysis essay, how to write an introduction for a character analysis essay.

is an expert in nursing and healthcare, with a strong background in history, law, and literature. Holding advanced degrees in nursing and public health, his analytical approach and comprehensive knowledge help students navigate complex topics. On EssayPro blog, Adam provides insightful articles on everything from historical analysis to the intricacies of healthcare policies. In his downtime, he enjoys historical documentaries and volunteering at local clinics.

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• How to Write a Character Analysis Essay

How to Write a Character Analysis Essay: A Comprehensive Guide

By: Angelina Grin

Character analysis

Character analysis is the process of critically examining and interpreting a fictional or non-fictional character within a narrative, play, novel, film, or any work of literature or storytelling. It involves a comprehensive evaluation of the character's personality, motivations, development, and impact on the story's plot and themes.

Step 1: Choose Your Individual for Analysis

Starting with the basics: writing a character analysis overview, delving into personality traits: the core of character analysis, step 3: understanding internal vs. external traits, character arcs: transformation, growth, or regression, key events that influence the character's evolution, how challenges and conflicts shape the role, how setting influences a character's behavior and decisions, the impact of cultural, social, and historical backgrounds, how a character speaks: tone, choice of words, and mannerisms, actions that define a character: brave acts, betrayals, and sacrifices, objects or symbols associated with the character, recurring themes or patterns linked to the character, how the character stands out or blends in, the significance of character dynamics, step 9: conclude with the overall impact, pro tips for stellar character analysis essays, building the perfect character analysis, what does it mean to analyze a character, what is the purpose of a character analysis, how to write an essay about a character, can i analyze more than one character in an analysis essay, how to start a character analysis in an essay, are there any pitfalls i should avoid, how do i write a character analysis in middle school.

During a character analysis, one seeks to understand the character's internal and external traits, such as their beliefs, values, emotions, behaviors, and relationships with other characters. It aims to uncover the character's strengths, weaknesses, desires, fears, and the evolution of their personality throughout the narrative.

A well-executed character analysis not only reveals the character's multifaceted nature but also provides insights into the author's intentions, the story's underlying themes, and the broader cultural or societal context in which the character exists. Character analysis enhances the reader's or viewer's appreciation of the narrative by shedding light on the character's role in advancing the plot and conveying profound messages about human nature, society, or the human condition.

Character evaluation is the first step to a great analysis. The role or persona you choose for your analysis is crucial to its success. Primary characters are sometimes easier to write since they have well-defined personalities, and their motivations may be evident. Secondary characters can be just as interesting to write, but getting the right evidence within the text to support one's position might be challenging.

The character's significance in the story also plays a part in whether analyzing the persona will be easy or difficult. Important characters have more depth to them that's easily seen. Less significant players require a greater understanding of the background story and setting. Typically, several types show up in a story:

• Protagonist: Also known as the "main character," protagonists drive the narrative. Analyzing their development, motivations, and role in advancing the plot is often richly rewarding.
• Antagonist: The primary opposition to the protagonist, antagonists offer insights into their motivations and the reasons behind their opposition.
• Deuteragonist: These key supporting characters offer perspective and context, enriching the story's depth.
• Tertiary Characters: Smaller roles can still provide unique insights and are worth considering based on their impact on the plot.
• Romantic Interest: A romantic interest's analysis explores their influence on the protagonist and their own personality development.
• Confidant: These characters offer emotional support and guidance, shedding light on the protagonist's inner world.
• Foil: Foil characters highlight the central role's qualities and flaws, aiding in their development.

Another method of separating characters is by their quality. An individual will fall into one of these groups:

• Dynamic: A dynamic character undergoes significant internal changes during the story, and their analysis explores the events and decisions driving this transformation.
• Static: In contrast, static characters remain relatively unchanged. Analyzing them focuses on their consistency and the impact of their steadfastness on the story.
• Stock: Stock characters often adhere to familiar archetypes or stereotypes. Analyzing characters involves exploring how they conform to or subvert these expected roles.
• Symbolic: Symbolic characters represent abstract concepts, values, or themes. Their analysis delves into the deeper meaning and associations they bring to the narrative.

Each persona type offers a unique perspective, allowing you to uncover the layers of complexity that make literary and cinematic characters so fascinating. A character analysis example would offer a great format to see what each of these character types looks like.

Step 2: How to Start a Character Analysis Essay

How do you start a character analysis essay? The blank page is a difficult place for a student to start, but an outline can help arrange your thoughts. Starting your character analysis means looking at the existing work and deciding what parts of the story accentuate or support your decisions on the character's personality.

• Physical Description: Is your character short, tall, or medium-built? Does he or she have muscles? This description should be more than skin-deep; it should capture essential details, such as appearance, gestures, or personal style. These features may offer insights into the character's personality or the author's intentions.
• Role in the Story: Outline the character's role within the narrative. Are they the protagonist, antagonist, supporting role, or something more complex? Summaries of this role provide context for their actions and development.
• Relationship with Other Characters: Characters do not exist in isolation. Discuss the character's views and relationships with other key figures in the story. Take note of significant interactions, conflicts, or connections, as these relationships often influence personality development. In what directions does the character’s decisions drive the other players?

To analyze characteristics, you might be inclined to ask a few questions, such as:

• What is the Value of Your Character? Consider why the individual is essential to the story. How do they contribute to the plot's progression or thematic development? Identifying their value will help you delve into their significance.
• Is Your Character Friends with Anyone? Explore the persona's friendships, as these relationships can reveal their true nature and motivations. Analyze the dynamics of these friendships through a character summary, considering whether they're genuine or superficial.
• By the Time the Story Ends, Has Your Character Learned Anything? Investigate the role's growth and development throughout the narrative. Have they gained wisdom, overcome challenges, or evolved in any way? This transformation can be a focal point of your analysis.
• What Has Been Your Character's Main Transformation Throughout the Narrative? Beyond learning, identify the persona's primary transformation. This could be a change in beliefs, values, or traits. Understanding their journey is vital to a thorough analysis.
• What Motivates Your Character? Delve into the role's motivations and desires. What drives them to act in specific ways? Examining their inner motives can uncover deeper layers of their personality.
• How Does the Setting Influence Your Character? Sometimes, a character's surroundings significantly impact their actions and development. Assess how the story's setting interacts with your character's choices and behavior.

These questions show how to analyze a character to figure out the most critical parts of the individual under analysis and develop their report in a more well-rounded way.

What is the personality of the role you've chosen for your character analysis? Personality traits differ from person to person, and so, too, they differ from individual to individual. How to analyze characters using personality traits is pivotal to gaining a profound understanding of a person's psychological nuances.

Characterization may be divided into internal and external traits. Internal traits pertain to a character's inner qualities, such as beliefs, values, emotions, and thought processes. They influence decision-making and personal growth throughout the story. On the other hand, external traits encompass a character's outward behaviors, actions, and physical manifestations of their personality. Both dimensions play a vital role in shaping the character's identity.

Character analysis examples will show one or more of these traits as core elements of a character’s personality. By realizing a narrator has these traits, an analysis can discern what an individual is thinking as they perform an action. This makes the persona's decisions and thought process far more "real".

Step 4: Analyze Character Development: How to Do a Character Analysis Through Evolution

Analyzing character development is the most critical way we examine how a role grows and evolves over the course of the story. In a character analysis, you should look at personality arcs, the events that induce their development (or regression), and the impact of their challenges and conflicts.

Character arcs are the trajectories that characters follow, often culminating in transformation, growth, or regression. They represent the role's journey from the story's beginning to its conclusion. Understanding the type of arc a persona experiences, whether a hero's journey of self-discovery or a descent into villainy, provides a lens through which to analyze their actions and decisions.

Identifying pivotal events within the narrative is critical to character analysis. These events can be turning points that alter the role's trajectory. It's essential to scrutinize the impact of these events on the character's beliefs, values, and motivations. For instance, the loss of a loved one, a personal triumph, or a moral dilemma can all catalyze significant changes. Recognizing these moments helps chart the individual's development.

No well-rounded persona is complete without some conflict that plays on their feelings and behavior. The adversity they face can range from internal struggles to external opposition. The individual's response to these challenges, whether they overcome them, are changed by them, or succumb to them, indicates their growth or regression. Examining how characters adapt, learn, or grapple with adversity reveals their resilience, vulnerabilities, and capacity for change.

A character analysis can be built by examining these crucial elements of a persona, looking at where they start and end, and following the decisions that drive their conflict and resolution. By following the characters closely on their journey, one can gain a sense of appreciation for all they went through to get to the culmination of their arc.

Step 5: The Role of Environment in Writing Character Analysis

Whether it's a high fantasy novel or a play set in 1930s Georgia, a role's actions and decisions are driven by their environment. The prevailing social, cultural, and, at times, political climate may be more than just window dressing for a literary work or a film. It's essential to understand that characters don't exist in a vacuum, and the environment is as crucial to understanding their story as is their personalities.

The physical environment, or setting, can significantly impact a person's actions and choices. The story's location, climate, or specific places may influence a character's behavior. For instance, a character raised in a bustling city may exhibit different traits and make different decisions than one raised in a remote rural area. For instance, it's understandable that a protagonist from a poor Chicago family in the 1920s would subject himself to physical harm to ensure he could have a job during an economic depression. Yet that same decision would make no sense in a wealthy family of the same era. Analyzing the setting allows a deeper understanding of why a character behaves the way they do.

Cultural values, traditions, and norms influence their beliefs and actions. Social status, family dynamics, and community ties can determine their roles and relationships. Historical contexts, such as war, economic crises, or political movements, play a significant role in character development. For instance, a character who grew up during the Second World War may exhibit different traits and motivations than one who grew up as the child of a royal family in 17th-century Europe.

Analyzing a character's background within these contexts helps readers and viewers understand the character's identity and the constraints or opportunities that influence their decisions and evolution.

Incorporating the environment into character analysis adds depth and complexity to the examination, revealing the intricate interplay between characters and their world and providing valuable insights into the character's behavior and decisions.

Step 6: Dialogue and Actions in a Character Analysis: Unveiling the True Essence

Most well-defined characters have different layers of personality folded in on itself. To view the true essence of an individual, an analysis must examine how the persona speaks with others and the actions they take that impact other people in the setting.

A character's dialogue is a rich source of insights. Their tone—whether it's sarcastic, earnest, or timid—sheds light on their emotions and attitudes. Their choice of words, such as a formal language or slang preference, reflects their background and education. Mannerisms, like stuttering, nervous tics, or assertive body language, offer cues about their inner struggles and self-confidence. Scrutinizing these aspects of speech illuminates the character's true nature.

A character's actions, whether acts of courage, betrayal, or sacrifice, define their essence. Courageous deeds demonstrate their values and convictions. Betrayals reveal moral complexity or flaws in the persona. Sacrifices demonstrate selflessness or inner conflicts. Character analysis is the process of deducing a person's essential beliefs, their malleability, and the overarching themes of a story from their behavior.

Step 7: Symbolism and Motifs: Key Elements in How to Do a Character Analysis

Authors have always favored symbols instead of blatantly stating something about the role. "Showing, not telling" makes for compelling works, offers us commentary without being open about it, and also gives us a bit of work to unravel the symbolism each persona may carry with them.

Objects or symbols that recur throughout a character's interactions can hold deep meaning. For instance, a character's prized possession, like a family heirloom, can represent their values and connections. One of the most stunning expressions of this is the river in Huckleberry Finn as a symbol of freedom and escape from bondage. Analyzing these symbols within a paragraph or two helps unveil the character's significance in the story and their emotional attachments.

Recurring themes and patterns that revolve around a role provide a window into their role and development. These motifs can encompass elements like repeated actions, words, or situations. One of the more modern instances of this is the use of the Litany Against Fear in Frank Herbert's Dune series. By identifying and interpreting these motifs, character analysis can expose the character's personal growth, impact on others, and broader relevance to the narrative's themes and messages.

Step 8: Compare and Contrast: Enhancing Your Character Analysis Through Dynamics

The compare and contrast approach helps to make for a richer analysis, especially for college-level reports. By focusing on the characters' dynamics and their interaction with their society, we can derive particular insights into the character's mind and behaviors.

Comparing the individual to others in the story can be helpful in illuminating their uniqueness. It highlights distinctive traits, values, and behaviors that set them apart or make them blend in with the narrative's world. This distinction can reveal the character's individuality or their role as a representative of a specific group or archetype.

Exploring character dynamics—how they interact with other characters in a book or film—holds a mirror to their personality and development. Comparing these interactions can unveil power struggles, alliances, and emotional bonds. The significance of these dynamics lies in their impact on the character's evolution, their influence on the plot, and the broader thematic implications for the narrative.

The character's profound influence on the world, the plot, and the other personas should form the basis for your analysis's conclusion. Their place in driving the action forward should be highlighted. Moreover, the emotional impact on the reader or viewer should be emphasized, highlighting how the character's journey, personality, and interactions resonated. Whether it's admiration, empathy, or a sense of closure, examining the character's ability to evoke emotions and engage the audience adds a meaningful dimension to the character analysis, underscoring their enduring significance within the story.

• Provide Evidence: Back your analysis with specific examples from the text or source material to support your claims. Ideally, reference a certain scene if possible.
• Consider Conflicting Traits: Acknowledge contradictions or inconsistencies in the character's behavior, as these can reveal depth and complexity. A good character analysis paper example can help you see how this is done.
• Stay Objective: Your analysis should be done from the point of view of an impassionate researcher, even if the topic is one that is close to your heart.
• Relate to Themes: Discuss how the character's traits, actions, and development relate to broader themes in the work based on your research.
• Compare and Contrast: Compare the character to others in the narrative to highlight unique qualities and relationships.
• Maintain Focus: Stay focused on the character and their impact, avoiding excessive summary of the plot or storyline.
• Don't Overthink: Sometimes, all it takes to see a character's place in a story is to examine the story around the character.

The steps mentioned above will give you a general idea of what your character analysis should look like. However, each character is unique, and each character review will touch on different topics, themes, and interactions. A deep character analysis not only helps you understand the character but also helps to put their struggle and conflict in perspective. To truly understand the art of good character analysis, you should try with a few characters from your favorite books. Reach out to some of the genres that you don't usually read and analyze them. With practice comes perfection.

To start a character analysis in an essay, begin by introducing the character you will analyze, including their name, the work they appear in, and their role in the story. You might start with a compelling description or quote that encapsulates the character's essence. Briefly mention the context of the story and how the character fits into it, including any significant relationships or conflicts. End the introduction with a thesis statement that outlines the main traits or development of the character that you'll be exploring in your analysis.

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Character Analysis Guide: Master Literature

What is character analysis, how to identify characteristics of a character, how to analyze character development, how to analyze character interactions, how to analyze character motivations, how to analyze character influence on plot, how to analyze character influence on theme, how to analyze character arc and transformation.

• How to write character analysis essay

Picture your favorite book. Now, think about the characters that brought that story to life. Their actions, thoughts, and words paint a vivid picture in our minds, don't they? Well, the secret to understanding those characters, as well as the heart of the story, lies in mastering the art of analyzing characterization in literature. It's like a fun detective game where you gather clues about characters to uncover the deeper layers of the story. Let's jump right in!

Character analysis is a fascinating journey into the heart of a story. It's about looking closely at each character and understanding their traits, roles, and experiences. Imagine you are a detective and the character is a puzzle waiting to be solved. You're not just reading about who they are on the surface, but you're digging into their actions, words, and thoughts to see what makes them tick. Here's how you do it:

• Identify the character's traits: These are the qualities that make a character who they are. It could be anything from being brave, clever, kind, or stubborn.
• Understand their role in the story: Every character plays a part in moving the story forward. They could be the hero, the sidekick, the villain, or even the comic relief.
• Examine the conflicts they experience: Characters often face challenges or conflicts. How they deal with these situations can reveal a lot about their personality and growth.

Remember, analyzing characterization in literature isn't just about listing facts about the character. It's about understanding them in a way that brings the story to life. It's about seeing how they change, how they interact with others, and how they influence the plot and themes of the story. There's a whole world to explore within each character, so let's get started!

So, you're ready to start analyzing characterization in literature, and the first step is to identify the characteristics of a character. But how do you do it? Here is a straightforward plan:

• Observe their actions: What a character does can tell you a lot about who they are. For example, if a character always stands up for others, they're likely brave and compassionate.
• Pay attention to their words: Dialogue can reveal a lot about a character's personality, beliefs, and relationships with others. For instance, a character who always speaks kindly to others is likely a nice person.
• Consider their thoughts and feelings: Sometimes, a character's inner world — their thoughts and feelings — can tell you more about them than their actions or words.
• Take into account their appearance: How a character dresses or looks can give you clues about their personality or their role in the story.

Identifying characteristics is like collecting puzzle pieces about a character. It's not just about noting what you see or read, but about putting those pieces together to get a fuller picture of who the character really is. So, keep those detective glasses on and let's continue our journey in analyzing characterization in literature.

Now that you've got the basics down, let's move on to analyzing character development. This involves observing how a character changes and grows throughout the story. Here's the scoop:

• Track the character's journey: Look at where the character started at the beginning of the story and where they end up. Have they grown? Have they learned something new? Have their beliefs or attitudes changed? This can give you a sense of their development.
• Analyze key events: Major events in the story often trigger changes in characters. Examine these closely and consider how the character reacted, what choices they made, and how it affected them.
• Consider relationships: Relationships can greatly influence a character's development. How a character interacts with others, their reactions, and the changes in their relationships can all signify growth or change.

Remember, not all characters will develop or change in a story—that's okay. Some characters are static, meaning they stay the same throughout the story. Others are dynamic, meaning they undergo significant changes. Both are important and understanding this is a key part of analyzing characterization in literature.

Let's dive into another important part of analyzing characterization in literature: examining character interactions. This is all about how characters relate to each other. Let's break this down:

• Observe dialogues: So much can be uncovered from the way characters talk to each other. Do they argue? Are they supportive? Do they joke around? Dialogues can reveal a lot about relationships between characters.
• Look at their actions: Actions can speak louder than words. If a character helps another in a tough situation, or perhaps the opposite, betrays them, it can tell you much about their relationship and interactions.
• Consider their influence: Characters often influence each other's decisions and behaviors. If a character changes because of another, it shows the power and effect of their interaction.

When analyzing character interactions, it's important to note that these interactions can change over time—just like in real life. Characters can start off as friends and end up as enemies, or vice versa. Understanding these changing dynamics can give you a deeper understanding of the characters and the story as a whole.

It's time to explore the driving forces behind characters' actions. Understanding character motivations is a key part of analyzing characterization in literature. Here's what you need to watch out for:

• Desires and Goals: What does the character want more than anything? This could be anything from a physical object, a relationship, a change in their life, or even the resolution of a mystery. Their ultimate goal will heavily influence their actions.
• Fears and Worries: On the flip side, what does the character want to avoid? Fears and worries can be as motivating as desires and goals. They can push the character to take risks or to make safe choices.
• Values and Beliefs: What does the character believe in? What are their morals? These deeply held values can guide a character's decisions, even when they conflict with their desires or fears.

Remember, motivations can evolve as the story progresses. Characters might change their minds, achieve their goals, or face new fears. Keeping track of these changes can help you understand not just the characters, but also the bigger themes and messages of the story.

The plot of a story isn't just something that happens—it's often driven by the actions and decisions of its characters. That's why analyzing characterization in literature includes understanding how characters influence the plot. Here's how you can do it:

• Actions: Look at the key events in the story. How many of them are caused directly by the character's actions? A character who frequently makes things happen is likely to have a significant influence on the plot.
• Decisions: Similarly, consider the character's decisions. How do they affect the story's direction? Remember, a decision isn't always about doing something—sometimes, the decision to do nothing can be equally impactful!
• Reactions: Even passive characters can influence the plot through their reactions. How do other characters and events in the story change as a result of this character's responses? This can give you clues about their indirect influence on the plot.

As you can see, a character's influence on the plot goes beyond their actions. It's about how they shape the world around them, and how the world, in turn, shapes them. This give-and-take is a vital part of analyzing characterization in literature, and it can reveal a lot about the story's deeper meanings.

When analyzing characterization in literature, one often overlooked aspect is how characters can embody and influence the theme of the story. Themes are the underlying messages or big ideas of a story, and characters play a crucial role in expressing these. So how do you analyze a character's influence on theme? Here's a simple guide:

• Beliefs: What does the character believe in? Their beliefs can often mirror the theme of the story. For instance, if a character strongly believes in forgiveness, the theme of the story may revolve around redemption.
• Speech: The way a character speaks can reflect the theme. For example, a character who frequently talks about freedom and independence might hint at a theme of personal liberty.
• Behavior: How does the character behave? Do they consistently act in a way that supports the theme? In a story themed around courage, you might find a character who consistently stands up for what they believe in, no matter the cost.

Remember, characters are often vehicles for the author's themes. By diving into a character's beliefs, speech, and behavior, you can gain a deeper understanding of the story's larger messages. And that's the beauty of analyzing characterization in literature—it's not just about understanding the characters, but also the world they inhabit and the ideas they represent.

Another fascinating aspect of analyzing characterization in literature is the character arc and transformation. A character's arc is the journey they go through, the changes they undergo from the start of the story to the end. This can provide a wealth of insight into not only the character but also the story's overall message. Let's take a look at how to analyze this aspect:

• Identify the starting point: Where does the character begin in the story? Are they timid, confident, naive, cynical? This initial characterization sets the stage for their journey.
• Track the changes: As the story progresses, how does the character change? Do they become more confident? Do they lose their innocence? Identifying these changes can help you understand the character arc.
• Understand the catalysts: What events or experiences prompt these changes in the character? The reasons behind a character's transformation can be as revealing as the changes themselves.
• Analyze the end point: Where does the character end up at the end of the story? How do they differ from the character we met at the beginning? Assessing the end point of the character's journey can provide insight into the overall theme of the story.

Character transformation is one of the most compelling aspects of a story. It's what makes us root for characters, mourn their losses, and celebrate their victories. By analyzing a character's arc, we can gain a deeper appreciation for the intricacies of storytelling and the power of character development in literature.

How to write a character analysis essay

Now that we've covered the intricate process of analyzing characterization in literature, let's apply this knowledge to the final step: writing a character analysis essay. This task may seem daunting at first, but don't worry, we're in this together. Here's how you can approach it:

• Choose your character: Start by selecting the character you want to analyze. It could be a major character or a minor one—whatever sparks your interest!
• Identify key characteristics: Next, list down the key characteristics of your chosen character. Remember, these can include physical attributes, personality traits, and even their habits and quirks!
• Analyze character development: How does your character change over the course of the story? What experiences or events lead to these changes? This is where your understanding of character arcs comes into play.
• Consider character interactions: Look at how your character interacts with others. These interactions can reveal a lot about your character's motivations and their role in the story.
• Examine influence on plot and theme: How does your character influence the plot and the theme of the story? Their actions, decisions, and transformations can have significant impacts on the storyline and the underlying messages of the text.
• Organize your thoughts: Before you start writing, create an outline for your essay. This will help you structure your thoughts and ensure a smooth flow of ideas.
• Write, review, and revise: Now it's time to bring it all together! Write your essay, then take some time to review and revise it. Make sure your analysis is clear, your arguments are well-supported, and your writing is engaging.

And there you have it! With these steps, you're well on your way to writing a stellar character analysis essay. Remember, the goal is not to simply describe your character, but to delve into their personality, their changes, their motivations, and their impact on the story. So go ahead, flex those analytical muscles and dive into the wonderful world of character analysis!

If you enjoyed our Character Analysis Guide and want to dive deeper into the world of creating compelling characters, be sure to check out the workshop ' Creating Characters: The Design Process ' by Kit Buss. This workshop will provide you with valuable insights on how to design unique and memorable characters for your stories, further enhancing your understanding of literature.

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Story in Literary Fiction

• Literary Fictional Story
• Character in Literary Fictional Story
• Narration of Literary Stories
• Desire and Motivation
• Credibility
• Improving Dialogue
• Characterization Improves Dialogue, Motivates Plot, and Enhances Theme
• Techniques for Excellence in Creating Character in Literary Fiction
• How to Change Fiction Writing Style
• Author’s Attitudes
• How Literary Stories Go Wrong
• Preparing to Write the Great Literary Story
• The Anatomy of a Wannabe Literary Fiction Writer
• Victims as Characters in Literary Fiction
• Information and Literary Story Structure
• 1st person POV in Literary Story
• Top Story/Bottom Story
• Strong Voice and Attention to Time
• Humor and Fiction
• Emotional Complexity in Literary Fiction
• Conflict in Literary Fiction
• What Exactly Is a Character-Based Plot?
• Writing in Scene: A Staple for Reader Engagement in Fiction
• Creating Story World (setting) in Literary Fiction
• Perception in Literary Fiction: A Challenge for Better Narration

Creating Quality Characters in Literary Fiction

• Mastering the Power of a Literary Fictional Story
• Understanding Empathy
• Q & A On Learning to Think About Narration in Literary Fiction To Write Better Stories
• Incorporating Rhythm in Prose Style
• Fiction Writer’s Manual
• A Simple Life
• Gatemouth Willie Brown on Guitar
• The Wreck of the Amtrak’s Silver Service
• The Indelible Myth
• Inside the Matryoshka
• Speaking of the Dead
• The Necklace
• The Golden Flute
• The Amish Girl
• Dr. Greiner’s Day in Court
• The Cart Boy
• The War of the Flies
• Father Ryan
• Suchin’s Escape
• The Stonecutter
• Facing Grace with Gloria
• The Perennial Student
• The Activist
• Curse of a Lonely Heart
• The Miracle of Madame Villard
• On the Road to Yazoo City
• Captain Withers’s Wife
• The Thirteen Nudes of Ernest Goings
• Crossing Over
• Lost Papers
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• Graphic story: Homunculus
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• mp3 Short Stories
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by William H. Coles

Techniques for creating quality characters in literary fiction: action, conflict, character-based plots, change, dialogue, imaging..

How do the most well-received literary fiction writers create memorable characters? In essence, literature is a written work of lasting art; fiction is imagined story and characters.  When an author uses imagination for creating characters who compliment the storytelling, a character can become the dominant feature of the story, can contribute to plot development, and with consistent emotional and intellectual arcs often is the source of a reader’s discovery of significant theme and meaning.  Here are techniques and principles in storytelling that provide literary-quality characterization: Action, Conflict, Character-Based Plots, Change, Dialogue, Imaging.

Showing story and character in imagistic action-scenes displays characteristics, emotion, morality, and worldview whenever possible. Of course narrative telling is important, but in-scene storytelling can engage and involve the reader often with more intensity and impact.

This example tells of a happening. There is no action or significant characterization:

Harry flew a kite at the beach to entertain his invalid son. But the kite got away, and Harry seethed with anger.

Here is the event told in scene and with action that develops character:

A wind gust elevated the dragon kite and the string ran through Harry’s hand fast enough to hurt. “Let me do it, Daddy,” his son Raymond said as he limped to Harry’s side. The boy held out his hand that trembled without stop from a congenital palsy. Could he hold the string? Fly the kite? He wanted to so badly. “Hold it tight,” Harry said placing the string in the boy’s hand. The kite dipped then suddenly soared, the string taught again. “I dropped it,” the boy said crying. Harry reached out but the kite had ascended too far to reach the string. Harry cursed as the kite disappeared untethered, driven out to the sea by the off-shore wind. “I didn’t mean too,” the boy said, “Don’t hit me.”

Dramatize by keeping characters in conflict (reveals character). When plotting, this is accomplished by (1) presenting characters with conflicting desires, emotions, actions, thoughts, and (2) inserting conflict in dialogue of verbal exchanges.

For example of conflict in dialogue:

Jane says to her father: “I’d like to hike to the top.” Her father says: “A smashing idea.”

There is no conflict in this exchange.  But there is potential.

Now with character-revealing conflict embedded;

Jane: “Let’s climb to the top.” Father. “I’m too weak to do that. And you know I don’t like heights.”  Jane: “Stay here then. I don’t care.”

This conflict tells something about characters and plot. And there are always many ways to reveal different character traits.   What if father said:  “I don’t want you to go.  You know what the doctor said.”?  A caring response in a clash of wills about the climb.

CHARACTER-BASED PLOTS

Character-based plotting in narrative telling often augments opportunities for characterization. Compare these examples: straight-forward narrative telling and then character-based plotting:

“The night was dark and stormy, the plane’s instruments were not functioning after a lighting strike, and the plane crashed killing all aboard.”

Now the same event but with character-based plotting ; the character’s hubris causes the accident. An opportunity for character development.

“A wealthy business man excessively proud of his invincibility chooses to fly his private airplane at night with limited experience in bad weather, causes a crash due to his poor decisions based on his inflated belief in himself and his abilities, and kills himself and his passengers.”

In essence, plots can reveal essential character traits. In successful literature, characters’ strengths, weaknesses, fears, lack of experience, failures of intuition, etc., frequently drive plots.

Great characters in literature change in some significant way. An enlightenment, an epiphany, a recognition of responsibility, a caring, a gracious gesture from a mean soul, a commitment, accepted responsibility for a failure, a change in character’s perception, acceptance, realization of consequences from an action, a change in morality, a coming of age, a new way of thinking, etc.  But characterization is also enhanced when a character fails the opportunity for change. 

A young girl goes to court with her brother, younger sister and aunt to attend the indictment of her father for the murder of the children’s mother and discovers truth about the father that forces a coming of age to take on maternal caring for her distraught siblings and stressed aunt. Dr. Greiner’s Day in Court

The son of an illiterate stonecutter of funerary statuary falls in love with a client twice his age whom he helps to forgive the dead man whose statue of tribute crafted by his father is so revealing to all of the good rather than the bad that the boy discovers pride and love for the father who had so long embarrassed him. The Stonecutter

An older man is living with a divorced woman unwilling to commit to marry when the two go on a tour of India where the theft of a valuable necklace results in the death of a woman and the circumstances bring the man to realize the value of the woman he loves and then expresses to her by commitment to marry. The Necklace

The husband attending a funeral to give a eulogy for his dead estranged wife meets a young college student also attending to delivery a eulogy who helps him to understand forgiveness of his dead wife and allows him to conquer his fear of a failed eulogy and deliver a remarkable tribute to the dead woman. Speaking of the Dead

UNIQUENESS (AVOID STEREOTYPES)

For a major character, actions, thoughts and descriptions must seem as unique and fresh to a reader as possible. Avoid stereotypical rendering.

Excerpt from Chapter 1 of Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert, an example of ironic, humorous storytelling producing unique, memorable characters.

It was about this time, that is to say, the beginning of winter, that she seemed seized with great musical fervour. One evening when Charles was listening to her, she began the same piece four times over, each time with much vexation, while he, not noticing any difference, cried– “Bravo! Very good! You are wrong to stop. Go on!” “Oh, no; it is execrable! My fingers are quite rusty.” The next day he begged her to play him something again. “Very well; to please you!” And Charles confessed she had gone off a little. She played wrong notes and blundered; then, stopping short– “Ah! it is no use. I ought to take some lessons; but–” She bit her lips and added, “Twenty francs a lesson, that’s too dear!” “Yes, so it is–rather,” said Charles, giggling stupidly. “But it seems to me that one might be able to do it for less; for there are artists of no reputation, and who are often better than the celebrities.” “Find them!” said Emma. The next day when he came home he looked at her shyly, and at last could no longer keep back the words. “How obstinate you are sometimes! I went to Barfucheres today. Well, Madame Liegard assured me that her three young ladies who are at La Misericorde have lessons at fifty sous apiece, and that from an excellent mistress!” She shrugged her shoulders and did not open her piano again. But when she passed by it (if Bovary were there), she sighed– “Ah! my poor piano!” And when anyone came to see her, she did not fail to inform them she had given up music, and could not begin again now for important reasons. Then people commiserated her– “What a pity! she had so much talent!” They even spoke to Bovary about it. They put him to shame, and especially the chemist. “You are wrong. One should never let any of the faculties of nature lie fallow. Besides, just think, my good friend, that by inducing madame to study; you are economising on the subsequent musical education of your child. For my own part, I think that mothers ought themselves to instruct their children. That is an idea of Rousseau’s, still rather new perhaps, but that will end by triumphing, I am certain of it, like mothers nursing their own children and vaccination.” So Charles returned once more to this question of the piano. Emma replied bitterly that it would be better to sell it. This poor piano that had given her vanity so much satisfaction–to see it go was to Bovary like the indefinable suicide of a part of herself. “If you liked,” he said, “a lesson from time to time, that wouldn’t after all be very ruinous.” “But lessons,” she replied, “are only of use when followed up.” And thus it was she set about obtaining her husband’s permission to go to town once a week to see her lover. At the end of a month she was even considered to have made considerable progress.

CHARACTER-SPECIFIC DIALOGUE

Dialogue should always be specific to the character speaking. Note that character-specific dialogue is dependent on word choice, syntax, ideation, but as important is the dialogue segment in revision is determined to be logical and credible and directly related to the character’s worldview, experience, education, intellect and the moment in story time when the dialogue is delivered.

Example I  (excerpt from “ Reddog “) On Christmas Day my second year in prison for murder, my mother stopped coming to visit.  She doesn’t call and I can’t get in touch with her.  In August, she missed my twenty-fifth birthday.  A couple months later, my sister came and said, “Mother doesn’t want to think about it anymore.  Try to understand.”  I did try.  Eventually my sister quit coming; she had a lot on her mind with her van full of kids – and no husband.  So I go a year with no visitors, and when I get dragged to administration to face an assistant to the warden, I’m half-crazy.  “A graduate student working in criminal justice wants to include you in her experiments,” he said.  “Your choice.  Two or three times a month.  Goes on your record as good behavior.” Sessions would be out of maximum security . . . like a mini-vacation. “Hey.  What’s with the experiments,” I said.  “She stick you with drugs, stuff like that?” “Just talk.” “Hey, Captain.  She a looker?” “Don’t get your fantasies revved up.  She’s a pro.” “You be there?” “Just you and her.  And high security.”  “Maybe I get out of max sooner?” I asked.  You get a cell in the main building and you could talk to guys, set things up. “Can’t promise.”  He walked around the table, stuck a ballpoint pen in my cuffed hand, and showed me where to sign.  “Consent papers.” You need a magnifying glass to read the print on the last two pages.  “I don’t know about signing anything,” I said.  “It’s permission to talk, record, use information,” he said.  “I thought this was research,” I said.  I hated do-gooders and I didn’t need rehabilitation.  I needed parole, miraculous DNA evidence, a new trial. “I don’t give a shit what you do.  I’m here because the warden says to cover our ass legally.  It’s routine.  No one’s trying to screw you.  No one cares.” “She ain’t a lawyer, is she?  She ain’t trying to retry the case or something.” “She’s a student.  We checked.  She was a paralegal before she went back to grad school.  She’s demonstrated against the death penalty.  Arrested once, but never charged.  She won’t violate your rights, if that’s what you’re thinking.  You don’t have rights.” I signed her papers with a bump-and-a-line so no one could ever read my name.

_________________________

Example II (excerpt from “ The Activist “) “I ain’t going to stand for it,” Mama said.  She said this often. She held a small dead human about as long as an ear of corn.  Even though the head was too big, the hands too small, you could tell it might have been somebody. “Push down,” Mama said. My sister moaned.  With a gush of blood the afterbirth slid onto the bed.  Her skin was white as wood ash. “I don’t feel good,” she said. “Shut up, Pearl Anne,” Mama said.  “Shut up and grow up.” “I’m seventeen.” “You’re acting like a two-year-old.” “I’m going to throw up,” Pearl Anne said. I wasn’t feeling so hot either. “Go get some towels, Ether Mae.  Help get Pearl Anne cleaned up.” I didn’t move.  Pearl Anne got herself into this fix, not me.  I’d never had a boy put his thing into me.  Pearl Anne said it felt funny but not so good that she couldn’t do without it.  So she’d decided to quit.  She wanted more respect.  She quit too late. Now Mama moaned and held this dead thing.  “My grandchild,” she said.  “Didn’t I tell you get some towels?” “Don’t want to.”  I backed away a little. “You’ll get the stick.  You’re too old to have me telling you what to do.”  I was eleven. I found some rags and two towels and got them wet under the faucet in the sink, then squeezed the water out. “Goddamn it.  Wring them out.  You’re dripping all over the floor,” Mama screamed. “What’s that doctor’s name wouldn’t treat you, Pearl Anne?”

CHARACTER-FOCUSED IMAGING

The perspective of a scene can be close or distant for a reader.  Variations of use depend on authorial style and purpose of the scene.  The use of close perspective is often valuable for characterization; by allowing the reader into the scene, character traits are revealed.  In distant perspective, so essential for delivering broad perspective of story and setting, characters contribute to image but not so much to characterization.  See these two examples:

Perspective

1) Close perspective    (excerpt form “ Dilemma “)

After the explosion they were quickly inside the room.  The gun had fallen to the floor.  His son had fallen to one side; his face gone: the lower jaw blown away, a few upper teeth haphazardly clinging to flesh.  Nose and lower lids gone, the deflated eyeballs wrinkled like a fallen soufflé.  His son’s legs, then his arms, went into spasms; he was alive but without air. I’m a surgeon, he thought.  Focus.  Think like a doctor and not a father.   His wife had crumpled to the floor, her hands over her eyes, wailing. He held his son’s head with both hands; straightened the torso.  “Get up,” he said to his wife.  “You’ve got to do this.”  She stood.  “Slide the pillow under his shoulders.” He let the head fall back hoping to find the glistening end of the trachea.   There were no landmarks, only flesh and blood, and bits and slivers of bone.

2) Distant perspective   (excerpt from Moby Dick, Chapter 1, by Herman Melville)

There now is your insular city of Manhattoes, belted round wharves as Indian Isles of coral reefs–commerce surrounds it with her surf.  Right and left, the streets take you waterward.  Its extreme downtown is the battery, where that noble mole is washed by waves, and cooled by breezes, which a few hours previous were out of sight of land.  Look at the crowds of water-gazers there.  Circumambulatee the city of a dreamy Sabbath afternoon.  Go from Corlears Hook to Coenties Slip, and from thence, by Whitehall, northward.  What do you see?–Posted like silent sentinels all around the town, stand thousands upon thousands of mortal men fixed in ocean reveries.  Some leaning against the spiles; some seated on the pier-heads; some looking over the bulwarks of ships from China; some high aloft in the rigging, as if striving to get still a better seaward peep.  But these are all landsmen; of weekdays pent up in lath and plaster–tied to counters, nailed to benches, clinched to desks.  How then is this?  Are the green fields gone?  What do they do here?

Final thought.

Characters in fiction are often stimulated by real life persons and events but are most effectively rendered when engagement, entertainment, and enlightenment of the reader are the prime considerations and achieved through authorial skill in creating characters through imaginative, accurate, prose-storytelling.  Literary stories have altruistic reasons–usually void of authorial ego, catharsis, need for attention, or relief of guilt–to tell their stories and seek to stimulate new or renewed thinking about facing the human condition in our lives.

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• How to write a literary analysis essay | A step-by-step guide

How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay | A Step-by-Step Guide

Published on January 30, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on August 14, 2023.

Literary analysis means closely studying a text, interpreting its meanings, and exploring why the author made certain choices. It can be applied to novels, short stories, plays, poems, or any other form of literary writing.

A literary analysis essay is not a rhetorical analysis , nor is it just a summary of the plot or a book review. Instead, it is a type of argumentative essay where you need to analyze elements such as the language, perspective, and structure of the text, and explain how the author uses literary devices to create effects and convey ideas.

Before beginning a literary analysis essay, it’s essential to carefully read the text and c ome up with a thesis statement to keep your essay focused. As you write, follow the standard structure of an academic essay :

• An introduction that tells the reader what your essay will focus on.
• A main body, divided into paragraphs , that builds an argument using evidence from the text.
• A conclusion that clearly states the main point that you have shown with your analysis.

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Table of contents

Step 1: reading the text and identifying literary devices, step 2: coming up with a thesis, step 3: writing a title and introduction, step 4: writing the body of the essay, step 5: writing a conclusion, other interesting articles.

The first step is to carefully read the text(s) and take initial notes. As you read, pay attention to the things that are most intriguing, surprising, or even confusing in the writing—these are things you can dig into in your analysis.

Your goal in literary analysis is not simply to explain the events described in the text, but to analyze the writing itself and discuss how the text works on a deeper level. Primarily, you’re looking out for literary devices —textual elements that writers use to convey meaning and create effects. If you’re comparing and contrasting multiple texts, you can also look for connections between different texts.

To get started with your analysis, there are several key areas that you can focus on. As you analyze each aspect of the text, try to think about how they all relate to each other. You can use highlights or notes to keep track of important passages and quotes.

Language choices

Consider what style of language the author uses. Are the sentences short and simple or more complex and poetic?

What word choices stand out as interesting or unusual? Are words used figuratively to mean something other than their literal definition? Figurative language includes things like metaphor (e.g. “her eyes were oceans”) and simile (e.g. “her eyes were like oceans”).

Also keep an eye out for imagery in the text—recurring images that create a certain atmosphere or symbolize something important. Remember that language is used in literary texts to say more than it means on the surface.

Narrative voice

Ask yourself:

• Who is telling the story?
• How are they telling it?

Is it a first-person narrator (“I”) who is personally involved in the story, or a third-person narrator who tells us about the characters from a distance?

Consider the narrator’s perspective . Is the narrator omniscient (where they know everything about all the characters and events), or do they only have partial knowledge? Are they an unreliable narrator who we are not supposed to take at face value? Authors often hint that their narrator might be giving us a distorted or dishonest version of events.

The tone of the text is also worth considering. Is the story intended to be comic, tragic, or something else? Are usually serious topics treated as funny, or vice versa ? Is the story realistic or fantastical (or somewhere in between)?

Consider how the text is structured, and how the structure relates to the story being told.

• Novels are often divided into chapters and parts.
• Poems are divided into lines, stanzas, and sometime cantos.
• Plays are divided into scenes and acts.

Think about why the author chose to divide the different parts of the text in the way they did.

There are also less formal structural elements to take into account. Does the story unfold in chronological order, or does it jump back and forth in time? Does it begin in medias res —in the middle of the action? Does the plot advance towards a clearly defined climax?

With poetry, consider how the rhyme and meter shape your understanding of the text and your impression of the tone. Try reading the poem aloud to get a sense of this.

In a play, you might consider how relationships between characters are built up through different scenes, and how the setting relates to the action. Watch out for  dramatic irony , where the audience knows some detail that the characters don’t, creating a double meaning in their words, thoughts, or actions.

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Your thesis in a literary analysis essay is the point you want to make about the text. It’s the core argument that gives your essay direction and prevents it from just being a collection of random observations about a text.

If you’re given a prompt for your essay, your thesis must answer or relate to the prompt. For example:

Essay question example

Is Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law” a religious parable?

Your thesis statement should be an answer to this question—not a simple yes or no, but a statement of why this is or isn’t the case:

Thesis statement example

Franz Kafka’s “Before the Law” is not a religious parable, but a story about bureaucratic alienation.

Sometimes you’ll be given freedom to choose your own topic; in this case, you’ll have to come up with an original thesis. Consider what stood out to you in the text; ask yourself questions about the elements that interested you, and consider how you might answer them.

Your thesis should be something arguable—that is, something that you think is true about the text, but which is not a simple matter of fact. It must be complex enough to develop through evidence and arguments across the course of your essay.

Say you’re analyzing the novel Frankenstein . You could start by asking yourself:

Your initial answer might be a surface-level description:

The character Frankenstein is portrayed negatively in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein .

However, this statement is too simple to be an interesting thesis. After reading the text and analyzing its narrative voice and structure, you can develop the answer into a more nuanced and arguable thesis statement:

Mary Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to portray Frankenstein in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as.

Remember that you can revise your thesis statement throughout the writing process , so it doesn’t need to be perfectly formulated at this stage. The aim is to keep you focused as you analyze the text.

Finding textual evidence

To support your thesis statement, your essay will build an argument using textual evidence —specific parts of the text that demonstrate your point. This evidence is quoted and analyzed throughout your essay to explain your argument to the reader.

It can be useful to comb through the text in search of relevant quotations before you start writing. You might not end up using everything you find, and you may have to return to the text for more evidence as you write, but collecting textual evidence from the beginning will help you to structure your arguments and assess whether they’re convincing.

To start your literary analysis paper, you’ll need two things: a good title, and an introduction.

Your title should clearly indicate what your analysis will focus on. It usually contains the name of the author and text(s) you’re analyzing. Keep it as concise and engaging as possible.

A common approach to the title is to use a relevant quote from the text, followed by a colon and then the rest of your title.

If you struggle to come up with a good title at first, don’t worry—this will be easier once you’ve begun writing the essay and have a better sense of your arguments.

“Fearful symmetry” : The violence of creation in William Blake’s “The Tyger”

The introduction

The essay introduction provides a quick overview of where your argument is going. It should include your thesis statement and a summary of the essay’s structure.

A typical structure for an introduction is to begin with a general statement about the text and author, using this to lead into your thesis statement. You might refer to a commonly held idea about the text and show how your thesis will contradict it, or zoom in on a particular device you intend to focus on.

Then you can end with a brief indication of what’s coming up in the main body of the essay. This is called signposting. It will be more elaborate in longer essays, but in a short five-paragraph essay structure, it shouldn’t be more than one sentence.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is often read as a crude cautionary tale about the dangers of scientific advancement unrestrained by ethical considerations. In this reading, protagonist Victor Frankenstein is a stable representation of the callous ambition of modern science throughout the novel. This essay, however, argues that far from providing a stable image of the character, Shelley uses shifting narrative perspectives to portray Frankenstein in an increasingly negative light as the novel goes on. While he initially appears to be a naive but sympathetic idealist, after the creature’s narrative Frankenstein begins to resemble—even in his own telling—the thoughtlessly cruel figure the creature represents him as. This essay begins by exploring the positive portrayal of Frankenstein in the first volume, then moves on to the creature’s perception of him, and finally discusses the third volume’s narrative shift toward viewing Frankenstein as the creature views him.

Some students prefer to write the introduction later in the process, and it’s not a bad idea. After all, you’ll have a clearer idea of the overall shape of your arguments once you’ve begun writing them!

If you do write the introduction first, you should still return to it later to make sure it lines up with what you ended up writing, and edit as necessary.

The body of your essay is everything between the introduction and conclusion. It contains your arguments and the textual evidence that supports them.

Paragraph structure

A typical structure for a high school literary analysis essay consists of five paragraphs : the three paragraphs of the body, plus the introduction and conclusion.

Each paragraph in the main body should focus on one topic. In the five-paragraph model, try to divide your argument into three main areas of analysis, all linked to your thesis. Don’t try to include everything you can think of to say about the text—only analysis that drives your argument.

In longer essays, the same principle applies on a broader scale. For example, you might have two or three sections in your main body, each with multiple paragraphs. Within these sections, you still want to begin new paragraphs at logical moments—a turn in the argument or the introduction of a new idea.

Robert’s first encounter with Gil-Martin suggests something of his sinister power. Robert feels “a sort of invisible power that drew me towards him.” He identifies the moment of their meeting as “the beginning of a series of adventures which has puzzled myself, and will puzzle the world when I am no more in it” (p. 89). Gil-Martin’s “invisible power” seems to be at work even at this distance from the moment described; before continuing the story, Robert feels compelled to anticipate at length what readers will make of his narrative after his approaching death. With this interjection, Hogg emphasizes the fatal influence Gil-Martin exercises from his first appearance.

Topic sentences

To keep your points focused, it’s important to use a topic sentence at the beginning of each paragraph.

A good topic sentence allows a reader to see at a glance what the paragraph is about. It can introduce a new line of argument and connect or contrast it with the previous paragraph. Transition words like “however” or “moreover” are useful for creating smooth transitions:

… The story’s focus, therefore, is not upon the divine revelation that may be waiting beyond the door, but upon the mundane process of aging undergone by the man as he waits.

Nevertheless, the “radiance” that appears to stream from the door is typically treated as religious symbolism.

This topic sentence signals that the paragraph will address the question of religious symbolism, while the linking word “nevertheless” points out a contrast with the previous paragraph’s conclusion.

Using textual evidence

A key part of literary analysis is backing up your arguments with relevant evidence from the text. This involves introducing quotes from the text and explaining their significance to your point.

It’s important to contextualize quotes and explain why you’re using them; they should be properly introduced and analyzed, not treated as self-explanatory:

It isn’t always necessary to use a quote. Quoting is useful when you’re discussing the author’s language, but sometimes you’ll have to refer to plot points or structural elements that can’t be captured in a short quote.

In these cases, it’s more appropriate to paraphrase or summarize parts of the text—that is, to describe the relevant part in your own words:

The conclusion of your analysis shouldn’t introduce any new quotations or arguments. Instead, it’s about wrapping up the essay. Here, you summarize your key points and try to emphasize their significance to the reader.

A good way to approach this is to briefly summarize your key arguments, and then stress the conclusion they’ve led you to, highlighting the new perspective your thesis provides on the text as a whole:

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

• Ad hominem fallacy
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By tracing the depiction of Frankenstein through the novel’s three volumes, I have demonstrated how the narrative structure shifts our perception of the character. While the Frankenstein of the first volume is depicted as having innocent intentions, the second and third volumes—first in the creature’s accusatory voice, and then in his own voice—increasingly undermine him, causing him to appear alternately ridiculous and vindictive. Far from the one-dimensional villain he is often taken to be, the character of Frankenstein is compelling because of the dynamic narrative frame in which he is placed. In this frame, Frankenstein’s narrative self-presentation responds to the images of him we see from others’ perspectives. This conclusion sheds new light on the novel, foregrounding Shelley’s unique layering of narrative perspectives and its importance for the depiction of character.

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Characterization

Characterization Definition

What is characterization? Here’s a quick and simple definition:

Characterization is the representation of the traits, motives, and psychology of a character in a narrative. Characterization may occur through direct description, in which the character's qualities are described by a narrator, another character, or by the character him or herself. It may also occur indirectly, in which the character's qualities are revealed by his or her actions, thoughts, or dialogue.

Some additional key details about characterization:

• Early studies of literature, such as those by the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, saw plot as more important than character. It wasn't until the 15th century that characters, and therefore characterization, became more crucial parts of narratives.
• Characterization became particularly important in the 19th century, with the rise of realist novels that sought to accurately portray people.

Characterization Pronunciation

Here's how to pronounce characterization: kar-ack-ter-ih- zey -shun

Direct and Indirect Characterization

Authors can develop characterization in two ways: directly and indirectly. It's important to note that these two methods are not mutually exclusive. Most authors can and do use both direct and indirect methods of characterization to develop their characters.

Direct Characterization

In direct characterization, the author directly describes a character's qualities. Such direct description may come from a narrator, from another character, or through self-description by the character in question. For instance, imagine the following dialogue between two characters:

"That guy Sam seems nice." "Oh, no. Sam's the worst. He acts nice when you first meet him, but then he'll ask you for money and never return it, and eat all your food without any offering anything in return, and I once saw him throw a rock at a puppy. Thank God he missed."

Here the second speaker is directly characterizing Sam as being selfish and cruel. Direct characterization is also sometimes called "explicit characterization."

Indirect Characterization

In indirect characterization, rather than explicitly describe a character's qualities, an author shows the character as he or she moves through the world, allowing the reader to infer the character's qualities from his or her behavior. Details that might contribute to the indirect characterization of a character are:

• The character's thoughts.
• The character's actions.
• What a character says (their choice of words)
• How a character talks (their tone, dialect, and manner of speaking)
• The character's appearance
• The character's movements and mannerisms
• How the character interacts with others (and how others react to the character)

Indirect characterization is sometimes called "implicit characterization."

Indirect Characterization in Drama

It's worth noting that indirect characterization has an additional layer in any art form that involves actors, including film, theater, and television. Actors don't just say the words on the script. They make choices about how to say those words, how to move their own bodies and in relation to other character. In other words, actors make choices about how to communicate all sorts of indirect details. As a result, different actors can portray the same characters in vastly different ways.

For instance, compare the way that the the actor Alan Bates plays King Claudius in this play-within-a-play scene from the 1990 movie of Hamlet, versus how Patrick Stewart plays the role in the same scene from a 2010 version. While Bates plays the scene with growing alarm and an outburst of terror that reveals his guilt, Stewart plays his Claudius as ice cold and offended, but by no means tricked by Hamlet's little play-within-a-play into revealing anything.

Round and Flat Characters

Characters are often described as being either round or flat.

• Round characters : Are complex, realistic, unique characters.
• Flat characters : Are one-dimensional characters, with a single overarching trait and otherwise limited personality or individuality.

Whether a character is round or flat depends on their characterization. In some cases, an author may purposely create flat characters, particularly if those characters will appear only briefly and only for a specific purpose. A bully who appears in a single scene of a television show, for instance, might never get or need more characterization than the fact that they act like a bully.

But other times authors may create flat characters unintentionally when round characters were necessary, and such characters can render a narrative dull, tensionless, and unrealistic.

Character Archetypes

Some types of characters appear so often in narratives that they come to seen as archetypes —an original, universal model of which each particular instance is a kind of copy. The idea of the archetype was first proposed by the psychologist Carl Jung, who proposed that there were twelve fundamental "patterns" that define the human psyche. He defined these twelve archetypes as the:

While many have disagreed with the idea that any such twelve patterns actually psychologically define people, the idea of archetypes does hold a lot of sway among both those who develop and analyze fictional characters. In fact, another way to define round and flat character is to think about them as they relate to archetypes:

• Flat characters are easy to define by a single archetype, and they do not have unique personal backgrounds, traits, or psychology that differentiates them from that archetype in a meaningful way.
• Round characters may have primary aspects that fit with a certain archetype, but they also may be the combination of several archetypes and also have unique personal backgrounds, behaviors, and psychologies that make them seem like individuals even as they may be identifiable as belonging to certain archetypes.

Good characterization often doesn't involve an effort to avoid archetype altogether—archetypes are archetypes, after all, because over human history they've proved to be excellent subjects for stories. But successful authors will find ways to make their characters not just archetypes. They might do so by playing with or subverting archetypes in order to create characters who are unexpected or new, or more generally create characters whose characterization makes them feel so unique and individual that their archetype feels more like a framework or background rather than the entirety of who that character is.

Characterization Examples

The characters of nearly every story—whether in literature, film, or any other narrative—have some characterization. Here are some examples of different types of characterization.

Characterization in Hamlet

The famous literary critic Harold Bloom has argued in his book The Invention of the Human that "Personality, in our sense, is a Shakespearean invention." Whether or not you agree with that, there's no doubting that Shakespeare was a master of characterization. One way he achieved such characterization was through his characters delivering soliloquies . The excerpt of a soliloquy below is from Hamlet , in which Hamlet considers 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.

Hamlet's soliloquy is not simply him saying what he thinks. As he delivers the soliloquy, he discovers what he thinks. When he says "To die, to sleep. To sleep," he is all-in on the idea that suicide is the right course. His words "perchance to dream" flow directly out of his thoughts about death as being like "sleep." And with his positive thoughts of death as sleep, when he first says "perchance to dream" he's thinking about having good dreams. But as he says the words he realizes they are deeper than he originally thought, because in that moment he realizes that he doesn't actually know what sort of dreams he might experience in death—they might be terrible, never-ending nightmares. And suddenly the flow of his logic leaves him stuck.

In showing a character experiencing his own thoughts the way that real people experience their thoughts, not as a smooth flow but as ideas that spark new and different and unexpected ideas, Shakespeare gives Hamlet a powerful humanity as a character. By giving Hamlet a soliloquy on the possible joy of suicide he further captures Hamlet's current misery and melancholy. And in showing how much attention Hamlet pays to the detail of his logic, he captures Hamlet's rather obsessive nature. In other words, in just these 13 lines Shakespeare achieves a great deal of characterization.

Characterization in The Duchess of Malfi

In his play the The Duchess of Malfi , John Webster includes an excellent example of direct characterization. In this speech, the character Antonio tells his friend about Duke Ferdinand:

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.

Ferdinand directly describes the Duke as deceitful, perverse, and wild, and as a kind of hollow person who only ever laughs for show. It is a devastating description, and one that turns out to be largely accurate.

Characterization in The Great Gatsby

Here's another example of direct characterization, this time from The Great Gatsby . Here, Nick Carraway, the narrator of the novel, describes Tom and Daisy Buchanan near the end of the novel.

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.

But The Great Gatsby, like essentially all other literature, doesn't solely rely on direct characterization. Here is Nick, earlier in the novel, describing Gatsby:

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.

This is an example of indirect characterization. Nick isn't describing Gatsby character directly, instead he's describing how Gatsby is behaving, what Gatsby is doing. But that physical description—Gatsby reaching out with trembling arms toward a distant and mysterious green light—communicates fundamental aspects of Gatsby's character: his overwhelming yearning and desire, and perhaps also the fragility inherent such yearning.

Why Do Writers Use Characterization?

Characterization is a crucial aspect of any narrative literature, for the simple reason that complex, interesting characters are vital to narrative literature. Writers therefore use the techniques of characterization to develop and describe characters':

• Motivations
• History and background
• Interests and desires
• Skills and talents
• Self-conception, quirks, and neuroses

Such characteristics in turn make characters seem realistic and also help to drive the action of the plot, as a plot is often defined by the clash of actions and desires of its various characters.

Other Helpful Characterization Resources

• Wikipedia entry on characterization: A brief but thorough entry.
• Archetypal characters: The website TV tropes has built a vast compendium of different archetypal characters that appear in film and television (and by extension to books).
• Encyclopedia Britannica on characters: A short entry on flat and round characters.

• Flat Character
• Round Character
• Juxtaposition
• Tragic Hero
• Dynamic Character
• Bildungsroman
• Anachronism
• Slant Rhyme
• Falling Action
• Dramatic Irony

• Quizzes, saving guides, requests, plus so much more.

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Plot is what happens in a story, but action itself doesn’t constitute plot. Plot is created by the manner in which the writer arranges and organizes particular actions in a meaningful way. It’s useful to think of plot as a chain reaction, where a sequence of events causes other events to happen.

When reading a work of fiction, keep in mind that the author has selected one line of action from the countless possibilities of action available to her. Trying to understand why the author chose a particular line of action over another leads to a better understanding of how plot is working in a story

This does not mean that events happen in chronological order; the author may present a line of action that happens after the story’s conclusion, or she may present the reader with a line of action that is still to be determined. Authors can’t present all the details related to an action, so certain details are brought to the forefront, while others are omitted.

The author imbues the story with meaning by a selection of detail. The cause-and-effect connection between one event and another should be logical and believable, because the reader will lose interest if the relation between events don’t seem significant. As Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren wrote in Understanding Fiction , fiction is interpretive: “Every story must indicate some basis for the relation among its parts, for the story itself is a particular writer’s way of saying how you can make sense of human experience.”

If a sequence of events is merely reflexive, then plot hasn’t come into play. Plot occurs when the writer examines human reactions to situations that are always changing. How does love, longing, regret and ambition play out in a story? It depends on the character the writer has created.

Because plot depends on character, plot is what the character does. Plot also fluctuates, so that something is settled or thrown off balance in the end, or both. Traditionally, a story begins with some kind of description that then leads to a complication. The complication leads up to a crisis point where something must change. This is the penultimate part of the story, before the climax, or the most heightened moment of a story.

In some stories, the climax is followed by a denouement, or resolution of the climax. Making events significant in plot begins with establishing a strong logic that connects the events. Insofar as plot reveals some kind of human value or some idea about the meaning of experience, plot is related to theme.

Character can’t be separated from action, since we come to understand a character by what she does. In stories, characters drive the plot. The plot depends on the characters' situations and how they respond to it. The actions that occur in the plot are only believable if the character is believable. For most traditional fiction, characters are divided into the following categories:

• Protagonist : the main or central character or hero (Harry Potter)
• Antagonist : opponent or enemy of the protagonist (Dark Lord Voldemort)
• Foil Character : a character(s) who helps readers better understand another character, usually the protagonist. For example in the Harry Potter series, Hermione and Ron are Harry's friends, but they also help readers better understand the protagonist, Harry. Ron and Hermione represent personalities that in many ways are opposites - Ron is a bit lazy and insecure; Hermione is driven and confident. Harry exists in the middle, thus illustrating his inner conflict and immaturity at the beginning of the book series.

Because character is so important to plot and fiction, it’s important for the writer to understand her characters as much as possible. Though the writer should know everything there is to know about her character, she should present her knowledge of the characters indirectly, through dialogue and action. Still, sometimes a summary of a character’s traits needs to be given. For example, for characters who play the supporting cast in a story, direct description of the character’s traits keeps the story from slowing down.

Beginning and intermediate level writers frequently settle for creating types, rather than highly individualized, credible characters. Be wary of creating a character who is a Loser With A Good Heart, The Working Class Man Who Is Trapped By Tough Guy Attitudes, The Lonely Old Lady With A Dog, etc. At the same time, keep in mind that all good characters are, in a sense, types.

Often, in creative writing workshops from beginning to advanced levels, the instructor asks, “Whose story is this?” This is because character is the most important aspect of fiction. In an intermediate level workshop, it would be more useful to introduce a story in which it is more difficult to pick out the main character from the line-up. It provides an opportunity for intermediate level fiction writers to really explore character and the factors that determine what is at stake, and for whom.

Conflict depends on character, because readers are interested in the outcomes of people’s lives, but may be less interested in what’s at stake for a corporation, a bank, or an organization. Characters in conflict with one another make up fiction. Hypothetically, a character can come into conflict with an external force, like poverty, or a fire. But there is simply more opportunity to explore the depth and profundity in relationships between people, because people are so complex that conflict between characters often gets blurred with a character’s conflict with herself

The short story, as in all literary forms, including poetry and creative nonfiction, depends on the parts of the poem or story or essay making some kind of sense as a whole. The best example in fiction is character. The various aspects of a character should add up to some kind of meaningful, larger understanding of the character. If the various aspects of a character don’t add up, the character isn’t believable. This doesn’t mean that your characters have to be sensible. Your characters may have no common sense at all, but we have to understand the character and why she is that way. The character’s motives and actions have to add up, however conflicted, marginalized or irrational they may be.

September 3, 2024

published by phi beta kappa

Print or web publication, 10 of the most influential literary characters of all time.

In any given year, an average of 275,000 books are published in the United States, some 43,000 of them fiction. Add to that centuries of books and you can see why it’s nearly impossible to devise a definitive list of the best 100 literary characters. But, undeterred, for our recent book, The 100 Greatest Literary Characters , my co-authors Gail Sinclair, Kirk Curnutt, and I decided that a reasonable list was possible if we gravitated toward time-honored reader favorites, classic prototypes, and cultural influencers—characters who had a life beyond the page s . There were at least 50 additional characters that we agonized over but ultimately left out of the book. Below are 10 who deserved to be included but were not.

Elizabeth Bennet (from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen)

We will undoubtedly get the most blowback for not including Austen’s hero among the top 100, but we faced the same dilemma with her and Mr. Darcy that we did with Gatsby and Daisy, Frankenstein and Frankenstein’s monster, and Tom and Ma Joad. We ultimately chose Mr. Darcy because of the great shadow he cast—but in print and on film, Elizabeth remains one of Austen’s most beloved creations for her pride, feistiness, and inner strength.

Antoinette Cosway (from Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys)

Rhys famously offered a “prequel” to Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea, which tells the backstory of the mad Creole wife that Rochester kept locked in his attic. Antoinette is the vehicle for Rhys’s feminist and anticolonial commentary, but she’s also a richly imagined character whose life in 1830s Jamaica is told in poetic, fluid narration, as we see her gradually descend into a madness that made her intriguing enough for three film adaptations.

Nancy Drew (from the Nancy Drew Mysteries Stories by Carolyn Keene)

Debuting three years after the Hardy Boys, this teenage female sleuth influenced generations of young girls (including Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush) and inspired five films, three TV series, several computer games, and numerous product tie-ins. Drew, the brainchild of multiple writers working under the same pseudonym, was smart, athletic, resourceful, analytical, brave, steady under pressure, and a master psychologist.

Edmond Dantès (from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexander Dumas)

Framed by three jealous friends, Edmond Dantès finds himself imprisoned in an island fortress with no hope of getting out. But one conspiracy deserves another, and Dantès lives to escape and exact revenge. He’s an interesting character because he’s a mixture of rational and emotional impulses, pity and hatred, and ruthlessness and patience. And his story has been told on stage, film, radio, and television dozens of times.

Lemuel Gulliver (from Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift)

Jonathan Swift used his off-course sailor to satirize royalty, war, and everything that made 18th-century Europe less than praiseworthy. Shipwrecked, Gulliver first finds himself a giant in a country of diminutive people; on a later voyage, he ends up in a land of giants where he’s the tiny one. Gulliver appeals to young readers because of his adventures and to adults because of Swift’s wry commentary.

Black Moses (from Black Moses by Alain Mabanckou)

The title character of this slender novel grew up in a Congo-Brazzaville orphanage in the 1970s. His story of running away, joining a gang, getting involved with a brothel madam, and trying to go straight feels like an Oliver Twist tale, if Twist were born in 20th-century Africa rather than Victorian England. The added complication of mental illness makes this a poignant yet darkly comic novel.

Captain Nemo (from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Mysterious Island by Jules Verne)

Nemo is Verne’s version of a mysterious and misguided scientific genius, one who lives aboard his Nautilus submarine, plays the organ, lives off the sea, and laments the world’s evils to such a degree that it becomes a raging obsession. Disney’s cartoon clownfish Nemo pays homage to his story.

Randle P. McMurphy (from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey)

What happens when a rascal fakes insanity to get out of serving a prison sentence for minor crimes? Kesey’s antihero rages quietly against the system, locking horns with bossy Nurse Ratched and trying to revitalize his fellow inmates, even if it means hooking one of them up with a prostitute or breaking the group out of the hospital to take an unsupervised fishing trip.

Sam Spade (from The Maltese Falcon and three later short stories by Dashiell Hammett)

Crime fiction in the 1930s was full of hard-boiled detectives, but Hammett’s tough private eye captured the imagination of New York and Hollywood, and was re-created on radio by Howard Duff and on the big screen by Humphrey Bogart. Spade also appeared in comics and was spoofed in Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, The Pink Panther, and Murder by Death. Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon remains the quintessential noir novel.

Alexis Zorba (from the Life and Times of Alexis Zorbas by Nikos Kazantzakis)

Zorba, portrayed by Anthony Quinn in the film Zorba the Greek, lives an ordinary life but manages somehow to become larger than life. He’s a zestful, robust lover of beauty, an Olympian storyteller and a philosopher whose remarks about love, life, religion, and politics make him as flamboyant a character as you’ll ever find in a self-professed mine worker, chef, musician, and expert on women.

James Plath  is the R. Forrest Colwell Endowed Chair and professor of English at Illinois Wesleyan University. He is also president of The John Updike Society, which owns The John Updike Childhood Home in Shillington, Pennsylvania, and is turning it into a museum.

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Model Essay on Identity

An Essay by Eileen for Option #1 of the Common Application

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Eileen's application essay on being a wallflower works beautifully for two of the 2020-21 Common Application essay prompts. It could clearly fit under the popular Option #7, "topic of your choice." But it also works nicely with Option #1 : "Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story." Eileen's essay, as you'll see, is very much about her identity, for being a wallflower is an essential part of who she is.

Eileen applied to four New York colleges that vary widely in size, mission and personality: Alfred University, Cornell University, SUNY Geneseo and the University of Buffalo. At the end of this article, you'll find the results of her college search.

Wallflower I wasn't unfamiliar with the word. It was something I remembered hearing since I was able to grasp the fine art of polysyllabic language. Of course, in my experience, it had always been subtly laced with negativity. They told me that it wasn't something I was supposed to be. They told me to socialize more — okay, maybe they had a point there — but to open up to strangers I didn't know from Adam? Apparently, yes, that was exactly what I was to do. I had to 'put myself out there,' or something. They told me I couldn't be a wallflower. Wallflower was unnatural. Wallflower was wrong. So my impressionable younger self tried her best not to see the inherent beauty in the word. I wasn't supposed to see it; no one else did. I was terrified to recognize its rightness. And that was where Charlie came in.

Before I get any further, I feel obligated to mention that Charlie is not real. I question whether that makes a difference — it shouldn't, really. Fictional, factual, or seven-dimensional, his influence in my life is indisputable. But, to give credit where credit is overwhelmingly due, he comes from the brilliant mind of Stephen Chbosky, from the universe of his novel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower . In a series of anonymous letters to an unknown friend, Charlie tells his story of life, love, and high school: of skirting the fringes of life and of learning to make the leap. And from the first sentences, I was drawn to Charlie. I understood him. I was him. He was me. I felt acutely his fears of entering high school, his just-barely-perceptible separation from the rest of the student body, because these fears were mine as well.

What I didn't have, the singular distinction between this character and myself, was his vision. Even from the very beginning, Charlie's innocence and naiveté gave him an unparalleled ability to see beauty in everything and to acknowledge it without hesitation, exactly as I'd longed to allow myself to do. I had been scared to be the only one to value being a wallflower. But with Charlie came the promise that I wasn't alone. When I saw that he could see what I wanted to see, I suddenly found that I could see it, too. He showed me that the true beauty in being a wallflower was the ability to acknowledge freely that beauty, to embrace it for everything it was while still managing to 'put myself out there' on a level I hadn't thought myself capable. Charlie taught me not conformity, but the honest, open expression of myself, free from the vise-like fear of being judged by my peers. He told me that sometimes, they were wrong. Sometimes, it was okay to be a wallflower. Wallflower was beautiful. Wallflower was right.

And for that, Charlie, I am forever in your debt.

Discussion of Eileen's Admissions Essay

The minute we read her title, we know that Eileen has chosen an unusual and perhaps risky topic. In truth, the topic is one of the reasons to love this essay. So many college applicants think their essay needs to focus on some monumental accomplishment. After all, to get admitted to a highly selective college one needs to have single-handedly rebuilt a hurricane-ravaged island or weaned a major city from fossil fuels, right?

Obviously not. Eileen tends to be quiet, thoughtful, and observant. These are not bad traits. Not all college applicants need to have the type of exuberant personality that can psych up a gymnasium full of students. Eileen knows who she is and who she is not. Her essay focuses on an important character in fiction who helped her be comfortable with her own personality and inclinations. Eileen is a wallflower, and she is proud of it.

Eileen's essay readily acknowledges the negative connotations bound up in the term "wallflower," but she uses the essay to turn those negatives into positives. By the essay's end, the reader feels that this "wallflower" could fill an important role within a campus community. A healthy campus has all types of students including those who are reserved.

Eileen may be a wallflower, but she clearly has a sprightly mind. The essay takes its subject matter seriously, but it also has no shortage of wit and humor. Eileen takes a self-deprecating jab at herself for needing to socialize more, and she plays with the idea of what is "real" in her second paragraph. Her language is often informal and conversational.

At the same time, Eileen is never flip or dismissive in her essay. She takes the essay prompt seriously, and she convincingly shows that fictional Charlie had a profound influence on her life. Eileen strikes that difficult balance between playfulness and seriousness. The result is an essay that is substantive but also a pleasure to read.

The Writing

Eileen has accomplished an impressive task by covering her topic so well in under 500 words. There is no slow warm-up or broad introduction at the start of the essay. Her first sentence, in fact, relies on the essay's title to make sense. Eileen jumps into her topic immediately, and immediately the reader is drawn in with her.

The variety of the prose also helps keep the reader engaged as Eileen makes frequent shifts between complex and simple sentences. We move from a phrase like "the fine art of polysyllabic language" to a deceptively simple string of three-word sentences: "I understood him. I was him. He was me." The reader recognizes that Eileen has an excellent ear for the language, and the essay's pacing and rhetorical shifts work well.

If there is one criticism to offer, it's that the language is a little abstract at times. Eileen focuses on "beauty" in her third paragraph, but the exact nature of that beauty is not clearly defined. At other times the use of imprecise language is actually effective — the essay opens and closes with reference to a mysterious "they." The pronoun has no antecedent, but Eileen is abusing grammar deliberately here. "They" is everyone who is not her. "They" are the people who don't value a wallflower. "They" are the force against which Eileen has struggled.

Final Thoughts

While "I'm a wallflower" may be a conversation stopper at a social event, Eileen's essay is remarkably successful. By the time we finish the essay, we can't help but admire Eileen's honesty, self-awareness, sense of humor, and writing ability.

The essay has accomplished its most important task — we have a strong sense of who Eileen is, and she seems like the type of person who would be an asset to our campus community. Remember what is at stake here — the admissions officers are looking for students who will be part of their community. Do we want Eileen to be part of our community? Absolutely.

The Results of Eileen's College Search

Eileen wanted to be in Western New York State, so she applied to four colleges:  Alfred University ,  Cornell University ,  SUNY Geneseo  and the  University of Buffalo . All schools are selective, although they vary greatly in personality. Buffalo is a large  public university , SUNY Geneseo is a public liberal arts college, Cornell is a large  private university  and member of the Ivy League, and Alfred is a small private university.

Eileen's essay is clearly strong, as were her test scores and high school record. Because of this winning combination, Eileen's college search was highly successful. As the table below shows, she was accepted at every school to which she applied. Her final decision was not an easy one. She was tempted by the prestige that comes with attending an Ivy League institution, but she ultimately opted for Alfred University because of both the generous financial aid package and the personal attention that comes with a smaller school.

• "My Dads" - Sample Common Application Essay for Option #1
• Common Application Essay, Option 1: Share Your Story
• Sample Application Essay - Porkopolis
• Addressing Diversity in a College Application Essay
• Tips for an Admissions Essay on an Influential Person
• Sample College Admissions Essay - Student Teacher
• College Application Essay - The Job I Should Have Quit
• Sample Common Application Essay for Option #5
• Tips for the Pre-2013 Personal Essay Options on the Common Application
• UC Personal Statement Prompt #1
• "Handiwork" - Sample Common Application Essay for Option #1
• Common Application Essay on a Meaningful Place
• Common Application Essay Option 3 Tips: Challenging a Belief
• Striking Out: Sample Common Application Essay
• How to Write an Outstanding College Application Essay
• A Sample Essay for Common Application Option #7: Topic of Your Choice

Screen Rant

15 best quentin tarantino movie characters, ranked.

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Every Song In Jackie Brown

Pulp fiction: jules' 15 most articulate quotes, kill bill: the 20 most powerful quotes.

Director Quentin Tarantino has created quite a few characters over the course of his career, but only 15 of them can be considered the best. Quentin Tarantino has made a confusing number of movies in his career, and he's filled them with colorful characters. Some of Tarantino's best movies have found success primarily because of those characters, and some of them have even been elevated to pop-culture icon levels. With so many iconic characters, however, it can be hard to pick just one as the best.

Tarantino has made a wide variety of films since he made his first short film, My Best Friend's Wedding , in 1987. That means he's also created a huge array of characters with different personalities, accomplishments, roles, and other details. The best Tarantino characters all have a few things in common, though. They all excel in at least one thing, whether it be their emotional stories, their importance to the film, or just plain old coolness. These 15 Quentin Tarantino characters all do something the best.

Every Quentin Tarantino Cameo In His Own Movies (& Where To Spot Them)

Quentin Tarantino has either played a character or lent his voice to an off-screen presence in almost every movie he has made. Let's take a look.

15 Major Marquis Warren

Played by: samuel l. jackson.

One of the most compelling characters Quentin Tarantino has created, and the best character in The Hateful Eight , was Major Marquis Warren. Seeing Samuel L. Jackson as a bounty hunter in the Old West was interesting enough in its own right, but Warren also got a few chances to shine as a character . Warren basically plays the role of a classic detective in The Hateful Eight , and his powers of deduction make him incredibly interesting. He also has some fascinating quirks, like his Lincoln letter, and some great lines, like his threats, that made Warren an iconic Tarantino character.

The Hateful Eight

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Quentin Tarantino's 2015 Western incorporates elements of the mystery and thriller genres. Set in 1877, The Hateful Eight follows eight strangers who seek refuge from a blizzard in an isolated stagecoach stopover. Starring Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Walton Goggins, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern, and Channing Tatum, The Hateful Eight was inspired by the Western TV shows of 1960s.

14 Max Cherry

Played by: robert forster.

Quentin Tarantino is known for his over-the-top style, his flashy set pieces, and his devastating violence. Just about the only things that are nuanced about his films are the dialogue, which is purposefully written to be as natural as possible, and one character: Max Cherry in Jackie Brown . Robert Forster's Max Cherry was straightforward, he was clear, and he didn't mince his words, which made him a unique entry to Tarantino's list of characters. Max also had incredible chemistry with Pam Grier's Jackie, which makes him one of Tarantino's best love interests to this day.

Jackie Brown

Jackie Brown is a 1997 crime thriller directed by Quentin Tarantino. Pam Grier stars as a flight attendant who outsmarts the authorities, her boss, and a ruthless killer after smuggling cash for a gunrunner. The movie counts with an all-star cast that includes Samuel L. Jackson, Robert De Niro, Robert Forster, Michael Keaton, and Bridget Fonda.

13 Cliff Booth

Played by: brad pitt.

Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood was quite a few things all at once, but Brad Pitt's Cliff Booth tied it all together admirably. Cliff was a stunt double, fixer, personal assistant, and several other things, which let him connect all the various threads in the movie. From his run-in with the Manson family to his friendship with Rick Dalton, Cliff was great in all the situations he found himself in. He was also responsible for both of the fight sequences in Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood , and both his imagined fight against Bruce Lee and his real fight against the Mansons were delightful to watch.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, which takes place in Los Angeles in 1969, at the height of hippy Hollywood. The two lead characters are Rick Dalton, the former star of a western TV series, and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth. Both struggle to make it in a Hollywood they don’t recognize anymore, but Rick soon realizes he's the next-door neighbor of the infamous Sharon Tate.

12 Rick Dalton

Played by: leonardo dicaprio.

While Cliff provided quite a bit of action and excitement in Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood , Leonardo DiCaprio's Rick Dalton was still the film's best character. Dalton was the vehicle Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood used to deliver its main message and really sell the idea that the golden age of Hollywood was dying . He also had some great moments in the movie, from his scene in Lancer to his use of a flamethrower. Though he's not a typical Quentin Tarantino protagonist, he is among the best.

Every Song In Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood transports audiences to 1969 Hollywood with a soundtrack featuring Paul Revere & the Raiders, Deep Purple, and more.

11 Mr. White

Played by: harvey keitel.

Reservoir Dogs was an incredibly impressive debut film for Quentin Tarantino, and its success was thanks in large part to Harvey Keitel's performance as Mr. White . Reservoir Dogs was an almost entirely character-driven story - the diamond thieves spend most of their time in the same warehouse - so having strong personalities was very important. Even with as many iconic performances as the movie had, though, Mr. White managed to stand out. He's the most moral of a group of hardened criminals, his mercy keeps the entire film going to its tragic conclusion, and he essentially delivers the main message of Reservoir Dogs through his death alone.

Reservoir Dogs

Quentin Tarantino's feature-length debut Reservoir Dogs is an ensemble movie starring Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, Lawrence Tierney, Chris Penn, and Edward Bunker. The 1992 film centers around a group of criminals who begin to suspect one of them is an undercover cop when their supposedly perfect diamond heist goes wrong.

Played By: David Carradine

The Kill Bill duology is a classic tale of revenge, but the main reason it feels so unique and special is because of its central antagonist: David Carradine's Bill. In Kill Bill , Tarantino made the brilliant move of hiding Bill's face entirely, which granted him a massive amount of mystique, especially after the church massacre . Kill Bill: Volume 2 then made Bill even more interesting by letting Carradine really shine in the role. Bill was fascinatingly manipulative, strangely charming, and incredibly complex. Kill Bill wouldn't have been the iconic duology it is today without Bill, which easily makes him one of Tarantino's best.

Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill is a classic tale of betrayal and revenge. When the Bride (Uma Thurman) awakens from a four-year coma, she sets out to settle the score with the team of assassins that betrayed her at the behest of her former boss, Bill (David Carradine). Tracking and killing the world-class assassins isn't easy, but the Bride uses all the tools at her disposal in her relentless pursuit of revenge.

9 Calvin Candie

The only thing Quentin Tarantino likes more than a strong protagonist is a strong villain, and Calvin Candie is proof of that. Though he's only introduced in the second half of Django Unchained , Leonardo DiCaprio managed to make Candie one of the film's most memorable characters . From DiCaprio's hand injury in Django Unchained to Candie's blinding rage and abhorrent speech about phrenology, Calvin Candie is one of Tarantino's best antagonists. The Southern slaver is extremely easy to hate, which makes the righteousness of Django's quest all the better, and makes Candie an important part of the film.

Django Unchained

Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained follows Jamie Foxx's Django, a Black slave who is freed before becoming a bounty hunter. After meeting German dentist-turned-bounty-hunter Dr. King Schultz, Django sets off to free his wife from the cruel and charismatic plantation owner Calvin Candie. Christophe Waltz stars alongside Foxx, with Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson, and Kerry Washington rounding out the cast of Tarantino's revisionist Spaghetti Western. 

8 Aldo "The Apache" Raine

Quentin Tarantino is known for writing colorful and slightly oddball characters, but there's something about Aldo Raine's quirks set against the backdrop of World War II that make him stand out. Brad Pitt's Aldo gave Inglourious Basterds some much-needed comedic relief through his thick southern accent, his harebrained scheme to speak Italian at the movie premiere, and more . Despite his humor, however, Aldo also had chances to be incredibly cool, like in his speeches to the Basterds and his opinions on Nazi uniforms. As the leader and commander of the Basterds, Aldo Raine made quite a name for himself.

Inglourious Basterds

In Nazi-occupied France, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" execute a mission to terrorize the Third Reich. Simultaneously, a young Jewish cinema owner plots to kill Nazi leaders attending a premiere at her theater. Both plans converge in a high-stakes showdown filled with action and revenge​.

7 Mia Wallace

Played by: uma thurman.

Mia Wallace was a bit of a surprise standout in Pulp Fiction , given how many great characters there already are in the film. Though she's essentially a side project for Vincent Vega, Uma Thurman was able to make Mia an instant hit. She's unusual in an interesting way, she has some great dance moves, and she provided a great look into Vincent's character in a variety of scenarios. She was also responsible for one of Pulp Fiction 's most nailbiting scenes when she accidentally snorted Vincent's heroin, so Mia was a very important and appreciated part of the movie .

Pulp Fiction

Quentin Tarantino's classic tale of violence and redemption follows the intertwining tales of three protagonists: hitman Vincent Vega, prizefighter Butch Coolidge, and Vincent's business partner Jules Winnfield.

6 Vincent Vega

Played by: john travolta.

Vincent Vega has some of the most screen time of any character in Pulp Fiction , and he made good use of it. From his near-constant need to use the bathroom to his hilarious mistakes like shooting Marvin in the face and letting Mia overdose, Vincent is one of the most memorable characters in the movie. John Travolta also did a great job at giving Vincent a lot of memorable and humorous qualities, from the chemistry he had with Mia to his conversations with Jules . There's a reason Pulp Fiction marked a career comeback for Travolta, and it's because Vincent was such a great character.

Pulp Fiction: Why Vincent Vega Was In Amsterdam

In one of the most memorable scenes from Pulp Fiction, Vincent Vega talks about his time in Amsterdam, but what was he doing there? Let's take a look.

Played By: Jamie Foxx

While he's not an original Tarantino creation, Jamie Foxx's Django is easily one of both the actor's and the director's most iconic characters. Throughout Django Unchained , Django gets so many chances to be incredibly cool, from lines like " I like the way you die, boy ," to his final scene of walking away from the exploding Candyland . He's also one of Tarantino's most sympathetic characters: Django's quest to save the love of his life from brutal slavers is incredibly easy to root for, and all the violence he carries out during that quest is satisfyingly righteous. Django is a treat to watch throughout the film.

Django Unchained: Django's 14 Greatest Quotes

Django Unchained is some of Quentin Tarantino's best work, and it provided a lot of powerful and hilariously memorable quotes.

4 Jackie Brown

Played by: pam grier.

Quentin Tarantino's first titular character, Pam Grier's Jackie Brown, is also one of his greatest. Grier is fantastic in the role of a flight attendant turned criminal mastermind, and everything else Jackie Brown demanded of her. Throughout the movie, Jackie can be tender and loving like she was with Max, cold and distant like she was with the police, and absolutely brilliant and opportunistic like she was with Ordell . She's also extremely mature and relatable, which makes both her and Jackie Brown very unique for the director. Jackie is probably one of Tarantino's most varied characters, and also one of his best.

Director Quentin Tarantino is renowned for the songs in his films. His most underrated movie, Jackie Brown, has one of his grooviest soundtracks.

3 Jules Winnfield

Samuel L. Jackson is one of the few actors to play two iconic Quentin Tarantino roles. Jackson played Jules in Pulp Fiction , and both his performance and his character have become legendary . A big reason Jules is so memorable is because he's one of Tarantino's coolest characters - from his "BMF" wallet to his quotations of fictional Bible verses - but he also has a great character arc. By the end of Pulp Fiction , Jules goes from a hardened criminal who's cool under pressure to a merciful man who has had a religious reawakening, making him one of the few Tarantino characters with a happy ending.

Samuel L. Jackson was amazing in Pulp Fiction, and we've compiled some of Jules' most articulate quotes to remember and enjoy.

2 The Bride

Perhaps the most instantly recognizable character in Tarantino's movies is The Bride from the Kill Bill duology. Her yellow tracksuit, Hattori Hanzo katana, and iconic portrayal by Uma Thurman have elevated the Bride to icon status, but those aren't the only reasons she's one of the director's greatest characters . The Bride is one of the strongest female protagonists in any movie, able to cut through an entire club filled with Crazy 88s, but she's also incredibly human. She's driven by revenge, rage, and a huge pit of grief at losing her daughter, and such relatable motivations - coupled with her incredible style - made the Bride a legend.

Quentin Tarantino is known for his snappy dialogue and the Kill Bill movies delivered their fair share of showstopping quotes. Here are the best ones.

1 Hans Landa

Played by: christoph waltz.

It's hard to pick just one Tarantino character to consider the best, but if anyone has a case to make for the title, it's Christoph Waltz for his rendition of Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds . He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2010 for his portrayal of a ruthlessly efficient and disturbingly whimsical Nazi officer, and it was well-earned. Landa was far and away the easiest Tarantino villain to hate. He was entertaining to watch, he effortlessly and seamlessly switched his scenes between humor and gripping suspense, and Hans Landa is one of the best villains in Quentin Tarantino 's filmography.

Quentin Tarantino

Discover the latest news and filmography for Quentin Tarantino, known for Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill.