Terminology linked to characterisation

Bravado The outlandish and extravert way in which a tragic hero or heroine acts out his or her role. There is relish and even enjoyment in the whole-hearted embracing of the danger, bravery and immorality of the tragic path he or she has freely undertaken. In Shakespeare the bravado is seen in terms of a self-conscious adoption of theatricality. Hamlet, for instance, zestfully plays a number of teasing roles (including the staging of a play) in order to distract those who are trying to investigate his strange behaviour. The bravado of a tragic figure is what makes him or her both attractive and reprehensible.

Caricature The deliberate distortion or exaggeration of a character's features or manners in order to ridicule or amuse. The reaction of reader or audience is often affectionate amusement. Sometimes the term is used against an author when it is suggested that his or her characters are near to caricature. But this criticism can only be used if the author aimed at creating a fuller character and failed.

Character and Characterisation Character is the name we give to the figures we encounter in narratives; characterisation is the way in which the character has been created.

CodeA fashionable term that has at least two distinct meanings. (i) it can refer to the set of beliefs by which a character in a book tries to live his or her life. For instance, Great Expectations is about Pip's attempts to live by what he regards as the code of a gentleman. (ii) Its second meaning is the set of conventions of meaning authors employ and readers recognise. Allegory is a code because the author directs the reader, usually through names and representative actions, to read the book in a particular way.
The term can be used in a wider sense to refer to any means by which an author creates his or her meaning. Understanding a work therefore can be said to be a matter of recognising the code of meaning the author is employing. A word of warning is however necessary: many books are subtle in the way in which meaning is made, so any simple idea that once a reader has got hold of the 'code' the meaning can be 'cracked' is a grossly misleading one.

Empathy/Sympathy       Empathy is the imaginative act in which we put ourselves in somebody else's place; sympathy is the feelings we have (usually of understanding pity) for someone's plight. Literature need not demand either of these responses from a reader; quite often it's differences and distance rather than similarity and closeness that characterises our reactions to the characters in literary works. (It's hard trying to imagine what it must feel like being Cleopatra or Macbeth.)
When we are asked to respond, the feeling that is demanded is usually sympathy (we might pity the terrible misunderstanding of Othello) but sometimes characters invite us to see their plight as ours. There are elements of this in Hamlet when he speaks in plurals rather than in singulars: 'Thus conscience does make cowards of us all'. By speaking of 'us' rather than 'me', Hamlet invites us to see his state as ours and so empathise.

Epiphany      James Joyce used this word to indicate those moments of illumination that often come to characters, particularly those in short stories, at the climax of the plot. An epiphany can be something seen or understand or something familiar which, for the first time, is seen for what it is. It's useful when writing about those moments of insight that come to Katherine Mansfield's characters, often at the very end of the story.

Expectation    The effect of being led to think that something is going to happen. Short stories, novels and plays all build up expectations in readers and audiences. Expectations are built upon what is known about events and characters, and also on what the characters themselves expect to happen. Whenever you write about expectation, you should stress that it is the author, or playwright, who is responsible for creating it.

Flat and Round Characters.    Terms introduced by E. M. Forster to indicate characters in novels who have little personal identity (flat), and those who are given much more individuality (round). You should use the terms with care, because characters in novels are rarely simply flat or round. (See also Stock character.)

Focus     A useful term to deploy when talking about how an author is presenting some- thing. For instance, one of the ways in which Wuthering Heights works is though the difference in focus between the steady Nelly who narrates events with a broad, though not necessarily deep, understanding and Cathy and Heathcliff who are almost obsessive in their preoccupations with their own feelings.

Knowledge     Knowledge in literature means what it means in any context - that which you have good reason to think is true. In literature it's sometimes important to keep in mind what characters know and what they think they know. Such knowledge is often to be seen in relation to what other characters know and what the reader knows. Usually knowledge gives a character advantage and power. There is a chilling moment in The Woman in White when it's disclosed that one of the villains has dishonestly come by all the knowledge that the heroine has painstakingly gathered. From that moment the reader knows that she is at his mercy.

Mental Landscape  The effect created when a landscape is portrayed in terms of the feel- ings of the author or character, who views it. The outer world thus reflects the inner world of thoughts and feelings. The effect is particularly prominent in late eighteenth-century and much of nineteenth-century literature. Mental landscapes are often strangely impressive. In Wordsworth's The Prelude there is a passage in which the poet descends from the Alps through a deep ravine; the vast and sublime landscape echoes the workings of his own imagination. Sometimes a mental landscape works by using words appropriate to both the external scene and the state of mind. In Tennyson's 'Locksley Hall' the protagonist speaks of the 'dreary, dreary moorland'; the word 'dreary' applies to what he can see and how he feels.

Narrator     The narrator is one who tells a story. The narrator can, but need not, be the novelist. Narrators can tell their stories, or narratives, in the first or the third person. If the story is told in the first person, there is only access to the mind of the narrator. If, however, the story is narrated in the third person, it is possible to see into the minds of all the characters. When an author knows everything that goes on in characters' minds, he or she is called an omniscient (all-knowing) narrator. (See also Primary narrator and Retrospective narrator.)

Pathos    The arousing of tenderness, pity or sorrow in a reader or an audience by the presentation of a sad or moving scene. The pity of reader or audience is often due to the helplessness of the characters. Thus, the distraught Ophelia's speech about the sad decline of Hamlet at the end of Act III, Scene 1 is full of pathos. When writing about pathos, you should strike a balance between showing how the emotions are aroused and recording what you feel about the scene.

Persona    A specially created voice or self in a poem, novel or short story. In most cases a persona speaks in the first person singular, though in some cases, particularly poems, this need not be so. Personas give works unity by showing the reader that everything in the work is the expression of a particular viewpoint. Because of this, it is wise to discuss personas in terms of tone and attitude. You should remember that a persona is not to be identified with the writer, and that a writer can adopt as many personas as he or she chooses.

Primary Narrator    In multiple narrations the primary narrator is the first that the reader meets. Subsequent narrators may be called secondary, tertiary and so on, though usually there's no need. The point about the primary narrator is that even if the role is a minor one, as in Lockwood in Wuthering Heights, the term is still the one to use. (See also Multiple narration).

Protagonist    Originally the hero in a Greek play, but now it is also used to mean the speaker in a narrative poem or dramatic monologue. The protagonist is usually a specially created voice. The poet can thus explore a realm of experience different from his or her own. When writing about the protagonist of a poem, you should make sure that you don't confuse him or her with the author of the poem.

Reliability     The extent to which what a narrator says can be trusted. In much fiction the issue doesn't arise but when it does, as in for instance Lockwood's and Nelly's narratives in Wuthering Heights, it raises interesting questions of perspective, contrary judgements and the extent to which the reader endorses what the narrator is saying. (See also Multiple narration, View and viewpoint.)

Stock Character  A character in a play or novel who is no more than a representative type. Such characters have no individuality and usually possess only one or two characteristics. They are often comic. (See also Flat and round characters.)

Subjective and Objective   A thought is subjective when it is concerned with the personal reaction of somebody, and objective when it ignores what the individual feels about something but concentrates on the object itself. Writing about literature should always be a blend of both. You should write about the words of a poem, novel or play, and about your subjective reactions to these.

Subversion   A popular word for any way in which the language of a book allows the reader to see the events critically and thereby make judgements about the characters. One of the teasing aspects of The Great Gatsby is the way in which Nick's enthusiasm for some aspects of Gatsby's life subverts him in the eye of the reader and makes him a narrator whom we think carefully about when it comes to the issue of trust.

Tone    The emotional and intellectual attitude, manner, or poise of a piece of writing. A useful way of assessing the tone of a work is by asking how the author is speaking to you - the reader. In ordinary conversation you would pick up the tone from the way the words were delivered; when you are dealing with words on the page, you should allow their diction, rhythm and sounds to do this for you. Because tone is emotional, you must always try to characterise it. Thus, you may say the tone of a work is intimate, sly, innocent, hectoring, aggressive or fierce. You should remember that all literary works have a tone, and though it is sometimes difficult to detect, you can always try to discuss it.

View, Viewpoint   How an author regards and thereby invites the reader to regard the events of a narrative. The interesting questions to ask are the closeness of the author to the characters and events, the moral light in which they are regarded and any changes that occur in the author's perspective. Charlotte Brontë is very close to Jane Eyre but distant from most of the other characters; George Eliot views everything as a matter of moral concern but is always deeply understanding of human failure, and Dickens shifts the perspective in Great Expectations so that we are sometimes invited to look at things morally and at other times only as the material for comedy.