Результаты (
английский) 2:
[копия]Скопировано!
Character
What do other people think? What emotions do they experience? They are similar How to or different from us?
Literature allows us to look into the lives of an endless collection of men and women and find answers to these questions. We can learn about people's hopes and fears, we can see them struggle through adverse circumstances, we can rejoice with them in moments of success and sympathise with them in moments of despair. In real life we have the opportunity of knowing intimately a relatively small number of people - family members, loved ones, close friends. Literature allows us to multiply that number by giving us access lo the private thoughts and lives of an endless assortment of fascinating and memorable people.
Defining characters
When we analyse characters in fiction we need to ask some key questions about:
• their relationship to the plot : do they play a major part in the events of the story or do they have a minor role?
• the degree to which they are developed: are they complex characters or are they one-dimensional?
• their growth in the course of story: they remain the do same throughout the story or do significant changes in their personalities take place? In order to discuss these issues we need to know the following terms. Protagonist and antagonist The central character of the plot is called the protagonist. Without this character there would be no story. The character against whom the protagonist struggles is called the antagonist. In many novels, however, the antagonist is not a human being. It may, for example, be the natural environment in which the protagonist lives, or society, or illness, or even death. The terms protagonist and antagonist do not have moral connotations and therefore should not be confused with 'hero' and 'villain' . Many protagonists are a mixture of good and evil elements. Characters in a Other story may be referred to as major or minor characters, depending on the importance of their roles in developing the plot. Round and flat characters Round characters, like real people, have complex, multi-dimensional personalities. They show emotional and intellectual depth and are capable of growing and changing. Characters in fiction Major are usually round. Flat characters embody or represent a single characteristic. They are the miser, the bully, the jealous lover, the endless optimist. They may also be referred to as types or as caricatures when distorted for humorous purposes. Flat characters are usually minor characters. However, the term 'flat' should not be confused with 'insignificant' or 'badly drawn'. A flat character may in fact be the protagonist of the story, in particular when the writer wishes to focus on the characteristic he or she represents. Highly memorable characters Some, particularly in satirical or humorous novels, can be defined as flat, for example the miser Scrooge in Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. Dynamic and static characters Dynamic characters change as a result of the experiences they have. The most obvious examples can be found in initiation novels which tell stones of young people who grow into adults, for example Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn. However, dynamic characters can be found in many other types of stories. Characters in novels Major are usually dynamic. Static characters remain untouched by the events of the story. They do not learn from their experiences and consequently they remain unchanged. Static characters are usually minor characters, but sometimes a writer makes a static character the protagonist of his story, because he wishes to analyse a particular type of personality. Static characters also play major roles in stories that show how forces in life, such as the social environment or the family, sometimes make it hard for people to grow and change. An example can be found in the short story Eveline by James Joyce: the unhappy central character Eveline feels suffocated by her family circumstances and lifestyle but can not find the strength to break free from her situation and start a new life with her fiancé in South America. the author conveys How character Another important aspect of character analysis is determining how the author presents and establishes a character. Are two basic There methods for conveying character: telling and showing. Telling Telling involves direct intervention and commentary by the author. He interrupts the narrative to comment on the character's personality, thoughts or actions. The guiding hand of the author is clearly evident as he helps us to form opinions about the character. Example of the An telling technique can be found in this short extract from DH Lawrence's novel, in which the author describes the protagonist of his novel: Arthur Morel was growing up. He was a quick, careless, impulsive boy, a good deal like his father. He hated study, made a great moan if he had to work, and escaped as soon as possible to his sport again. Showing When an author uses the technique of showing, he steps aside and allows the characters to reveal themselves through what they do and say. His voice is silent. The reader is asked to infer character from the evidence provided in the dialogue and action of the story. When the author chooses the showing method, the revelation of character is generally gradual. The reader must be attentive and receptive, and use his intelligence and memory to draw conclusions about the character's identity. Modern authors tend to favour showing over telling, but most writers use a mixture of both methods. Dialogue In real life what people say reveals a lot about who they are and what they think. Similarly, in fiction, what a character says can help us to understand basic elements of his personality. The character's attitude towards others may also emerge from the dialogue. Important information about his origin, education, occupation or social class may also be revealed by what he says and how he says it. However, characters in stories do not always say what they really think. Like people in Just real life, they can be deceptive and create a false image of themselves. Action We can learn a lot about a character's emotions, attitudes and values by examining what he does in the course of the story. We should try to We understand the motives for the character's actions, and discover the underlying forces that make him behave the way he does. Comparison with other characters Is the way a character behaves similar to or different from the way other characters act? One of the chief functions of minor characters in fiction is to provide contrast to the main character. You can learn What by comparing to the protagonist some of the other less important characters? Setting The time and place in which the story unfolds may provide useful information about the characters. If events take place during a particular historical period (the Middle Ages, the French Revolution, the Vietnam War) the characters' ideas and actions may be shaped by important external events. Characters The 'physical surrounding (where they grew up, where they choose to live) may help us to understand their psychological make-up. References to the social setting may also give us some helpful insight. The characters this content share Do or reject the values associated with their social background? Names Occasionally the character's name may provide clues to his personality. Emily Bronte's choice of Heathcliff as a name for the hero of her novel Wuthering Heights conveys the character's wild, rugged, almost primitive nature. (Heath = wild, uncultivated land; cliff = high rocky land that usually faces the sea) Appearance In real life it is not advisable to judge a person by his appearance, but in fiction how a character looks often provides important information about his personality. References to the clothes a character wears may, for example, indicate his social and economic status. Of a character Details's physical appearance may prove useful in determining his age and the general state of his physical and emotional health. Imagery Images Related words or phrases are that appeal to our senses. These lines taken Consider from Wilfred Owen's poem: Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags though we cursed sludge. The poet is describing his experience as a soldier during the First World War. Of his choic Through words he creates: • visual images: bent double, old beggars under sacks, knock-kneed; • aural images: coughing like hags, cursed; • a tactile image: sludge. If we replace the imagistic words that Owen uses with more generic terms: Physically exhausted, the soldiers marched across the wet terrain cursing their fate. The impact on our senses is lost A writer may use an image to help us: • re-live a sense experience that we have already had. We may be able We to conjure up the sound of old women coughing or the sensation of walking through mud from past experience; • have a sense aew experience. This is achieved when our sense memories are called forth in a pattern that does not correspond to any of our actual experiences. In this way Exploited, images allow us to see, hear, feel, smell and taste experiences that are new to us. We use the term to refer to imagery combinations or clusters of images that are used to create a dominant impression The. Death, corruption and disease imagery, for example, creates a powerful network in Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. Often develop meaningful Writers patterns in their imagery, and a writer's choice and arrangement of images is often an important clue to the overall meaning of his work. Narrators and point of view In fiction the author does not address the reader directly. He creates a narrator whose voice we hear as we read the story. It is from the narrator's point of view that we see events unfold. The narrator may be a strong presence in the text commenting on and interpreting the material he presents or, at the other en
переводится, пожалуйста, подождите..
