Characterization describes the way a writer or actor creates or implies a character’s personality, their inner life and psyche. Two main ways to reveal your characters are direct characterization and indirect characterization. What are these character creation techniques? Read on for examples of characterization that illustrate both: Show
Guide to direct and indirect characterization: Contents
Let’s delve into using both characterization devices: To begin with a definition of direct characterization, this means the author explicitly tells the reader a character’s personality. For example, explicitly telling the reader a character is kind, funny, eccentric, and so forth. Direct characterization exampleHere’s an example of direct characterization from Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse (1925). Woolf explicitly shows what characters think of one another. In the example, an artist staying with the Ramsay family, Lily Briscoe, thinks about Mr Ramsay whom a man Mr Bankes has just called a hypocrite:
This is direct characterization – through Lily, Woolf describes Mr. Ramsay’s traits directly. It’s telling (direct characterization typically is), but because we read it as one character’s opinion of another, it also shows us how Lily feels, whether or not she agrees with the statement that Mr. Ramsay is a hypocrite. Through Lily, we learn Ramsay is ‘absorbed in himself’ or self-absorbed, tyrannical – we read direct statements about Ramsay’s personality that help us picture him and how he comes across to others. What is indirect characterization?‘Indirect characterization’ shows readers your characters’ traits without explicitly describing them. To give simpler examples of direct vs indirect characterization, for direct you might write, ‘Jessica was a goofy, eccentric teacher’. For indirect revelation of Jessica’s character, you might write instead, ‘Jessica had named the stick with a hook on the end she used to open the classroom’s high windows Belinda and would regale her children with stories of Belinda’s adventures (even though they were fourteen, not four)’. In the second example of characterization above (the indirect kind), it is inferred that Jessica is goofy and eccentric. She names inanimate objects and tells teenagers stories of make-believe that would probably be better-suited to younger children. Indirect characterization invites your reader to deduce things about your characters, without explicitly telling them who they are. Indirect characterization exampleHere, John Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath (1939) shows a character’s personality indirectly. Steinbeck doesn’t say that hitchhiker Joad is a down-and-out, blue-collar worker. Instead, the author creates indirect characterization through the items a worker in this context would perhaps have: whiskey, cigarettes, calloused hands:
Types of indirect characterizationWhat types of indirect characterization are there? Any writing that helps us infer or deduce things about a person’s psyche, emotions, values or mannerisms. For example:
So how do you use direct and indirect characterization well? Read tips for each: 8 tips for using direct and indirect characterization
Avoid overusing direct characterizationDirect characterization is useful shorthand. Instead of pages of a scene showing exactly how a character is mean, you could start with ‘He was mean.’ This is where balance is key, and overusing direct character revelation is wise to avoid. If, for example, you wrote, ‘He was mean. He was petty and generally unkind, so that neighbors crossed the street when he passed,’ that mixes some indirect characterization with the direct type. Neighbors crossing the street is a visual that indirectly implies avoidance and discomfort or possible dislike. If you were to only tell readers about your characters’ traits without weaving in illustrative showing (which give indirect inference about who your characters are), the effect would be:
Make a Strong Start to your BookJoin Kickstart your Novel and get professional feedback on your first three chapters and story synopsis, plus workbooks and videos. Learn More Example of blending direct and indirect character detailThe opening of Toni Morrison’s powerful novel Beloved characterizes a house that is haunted by the ghost of an infant. Note how Morrison moves from the direct characterization of the first sentence to specific, visual details:
Be direct with key detailsThe trick to effective direct characterization is to reserve it for key details you want to establish upfront. In the example of blending indirect and direct character description above, Morrison starts with direct, broad detail. A sense of spite that drives boys in the family from a home filled with the ghosts of a corrosive, violent history. If you were to write a retelling of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol you might start with ‘Scrooge was stingy’ and then similar flesh this key detail out with the illustrative, supporting detail. The indirect characterization you then add on to key details gives further texture, color, specificity to your characters. It helps, of course, to know your characters inside out:
Support direct character statements with scenesThe example above from Beloved shows how indirect characterization supports direct descriptive statements. The boys Howard and Buglar fleeing from mirrors that seem to shatter by themselves or tiny hand prints appearing in a cake, for example. These specific images and incidents support the suggestion that the home at 124 is haunted by a ‘spiteful’ (or rather, determined-to-be-known) presence. If you tell your reader a character is kind, think of dedicated scenes as well as passing moments that support the direct revelation. Maybe your character gives up a seat on public transport for an elderly person. Maybe they help a neighbor get a pet that has run out of an open gate into a busy road to safety. Indirect characterization is useful because it shows your reader the type of actions your character is likely to take. This in turn enables your reader to make educated, qualified guesses about how your characters’ might react in situations whose outcome is not yet known. Through this, one ‘gets to know’ characters as though they were real people. Imply character through action and reactionAction and reaction provide useful ways to tell your reader who your characters are indirectly. For example, Sarah has a vase that belonged to her grandmother that she cherishes, and her hyperactive son knocks it over and breaks it. Does she scold him to be careful? Lash out? Show a mix of anger and understanding? Think about what you want your reader to infer about a character from the way they react, even in incidents or situations that are trivial or secondary to your story’s main plotline. In this way every scene, every incident, will contribute toward building your characters’ personae. Tell direct details that serve concisionOne of the benefits of direct characterization is that it allows you to be concise. Direct characterization is useful, for example, when a narrator is recapping prior events that are useful to the present story but not its main focus. For example, in the first page of Nick Hornby’s Slam, a novel about a sixteen-year-old skater named Sam:
At this point in the story, the reader doesn’t need lengthy exposition about why Steve was a rubbish boyfriend. So the direct, telling characterization suits the purpose of this part of the story – catching the reader up on what has been happening in the teenaged protagonist’s life. There is still balance between indirect and direct characterization in this example. The second example Sam gives tells us (through Mrs Gillet’s action) that the teacher is caring and sees artistic potential in Sam, without saying so explicitly. The part or unique incident suggests the whole of the teacher-student relationship. Use dialogue to characterize indirectlyDialogue is a fantastic device for characterization because it may move the story forward while also telling your reader who characters are. If, for example, there is banter and characters tease each other, it may imply an ease and familiarity (compared to stiff formality between strangers). Note, for example, how Hornby creates a sense of how awkward Rabbit is (an 18-year-old skater at Grind City, a skate park Sam frequents) in the dialogue below:
In this brief exchange, we see through the awkward, stop-start flow of conversation how Rabbit lacks social graces and awareness and (in the ensuing dialogue) reveals he has a crush on Sam’s mother. Let narrative voice give characterAnother useful way to use indirect characterization is to give an involved narrator (a narrator who is also a character in the story) a personality-filled voice. In the above example of characterization via dialogue, for example, Sam’s asides to the reader (‘Well, now you know’ and ‘See what I mean about Rabbit being thick?’) create the sense of a streetwise, slightly jaded teenaged voice. Think of ways to inject characters’ personalities into their narration. What subjects do they obsess over (it’s clear Sam loves skating from the first few pages of Slam)? How do they see others (Sam appears fairly dismissive and a little cocky, from referring to his mom’s ‘rubbish’ boyfriend to his blunt description of Rabbit as ‘thick’). Use language in narration your character would use based on demographic details such as age, cultural background or class identity. The casual, clipped language Sam uses in the example above suggests the awkward and ‘too cool’ qualities of a teenaged boy. Read examples of direct and indirect characterizationTo really understand the uses of direct and indirect characterization (and how to blend to two to show and tell, describe and imply), look for examples in books. You could even write out the descriptions you love, to create your own guide to dip into whenever you’re creating characters. Create believable, developed characters. Finishing a book is easier with structured tools and encouraging support. What is a direct characterization?Direct characterization.
The writer makes direct statements about a character's personality and tells the reader or viewer what the character is like. Direct characterization tells the reader or viewer.
What are examples of direct and indirect characterization?For example, indirect characterization describing a protagonist might read, “John snapped at the man without warning,” whereas direct characterization would say simply, “John was short-tempered.”
What is a good example of characterization?Direct Characterization tells the audience what the personality of the character is. Example: “The patient boy and quiet girl were both well mannered and did not disobey their mother.” Explanation: The author is directly telling the audience the personality of these two children.
How is direct characterization shown?What is direct characterization? To begin with a definition of direct characterization, this means the author explicitly tells the reader a character's personality. For example, explicitly telling the reader a character is kind, funny, eccentric, and so forth.
|