own interest, impartial and its breaches is associated with feelings of guilt, shame,
regret, etc.
In literature moral is a message conveyed or a lesson to be learned from a story or event. The moral may be left to the hearer, reader or viewer to determine
for themselves, or may be explicitly encapsulated in a maxim. However, other morals can often be taken from the story itself; for instance, that arrogance or
overconfidence in ones abilities may lead to failure or the loss of an event, race, or contest. The use of stock characters is a means of conveying the moral of the
story by eliminating complexity of personality and so spelling out the issues arising in the interplay between the characters, enables the writer to generate a
clear message. With more rounded characters, such as those typically found in Shakespeares plays, the moral may be more nuanced but no less present, and the
writer may point it up in other ways for example: the Prologue to Romeo and Juliet.
2.2. Character
Before discussing characterization, we have to know something about the characters. Character is an important element in novel because without them story
will not exist. Character is a person who acts in the story. Generally, characters are divided into two classes, namely the major character and minor character.
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Dictionary of Literary Terms 1972:70 defines that:
Character is the aggregate of traits and features that form the nature of some person or animal. A person represented in a story, novel, play, etc.
Characters also refer to moral qualities and ethical standards and principles. In literature, character has several meanings notably that a person
represented in a story, novel, play, etc. In 17
th
century England, a character was a formal; sketch or descriptive analysis of a particular virtue or vice as represented
in a person, what is now more often called a character sketch.
E.M. Foster 1990 distinguishes two kinds of characters, those are:
1. Flat: a flat character is constructed round a single idea or quality; he is unchanging, static; at the end of the novel he I essentially what he has been
throughout. His every response is predictable, the readers can anticipate exactly the character will react.
2. Round: quite the opposite is a character portrayed in the round. He is profoundly altered by his experiences. His responses take us by surprise. He does
not embody a single idea or quality, but is much more complex.
Literary work usually portrays some different types of characters; the dimensions the characters assume and the roles they are given. Some types of
characters are,
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1. Stereotypes
A stereotype is a conventional character representing a particular group or class or occupation. Because the character is conventional, he acts according to set
patterns. His appearance is familiar, his speech is predictable, and his actions are standardized. Stereotyping is a simplified way of looking at people representative
of a group rather than as individuals.
Stereotypes often seem true experience, not because they are exact replicas of people who walk in the streets, but because people whom we meet show some
of the same traits of talking, dressing, and acting associated with types. Unquestionably, stereotypes in literature have had their effect in social attitudes.
Despite the serious social and personal implications of stereotyping, it persists in literature as a quick means of characterization. The typical senator, the typical
servant-these are all characterization that may be used by writer for a purpose, perhaps for comedy or satire. Stereotypes may also be related to races and ethics
group. As an example, it is often said that the Irish are people who easily get angry.
2. Stocks characters
Closely related to stereotypes are stock characters. Even though the word ‘stock’ has close association with drama, stock figures appear in other genres as
well. They are figures who because of their customary associations with dramatic situations have become conventions.
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Today we tend to identify the stock villain with the snarling, mousthached character of 19
th
century melodrama, but that figure is only an exaggerated portrayal of a long tradition. Among other stock figures, one could talk of
traditional scapegoats and fallen women.
3. Allegorical and symbolical characters
Allegorical characters are usually not given human names; they represent human attitudes and emotions. Allegorical characters are not symbolical ones.
Any character may be interpreted as symbolical when it appears that his actions and words seem to represent some thought, view, or quality. A symbolical figure
is one whose accumulated actions lead the readers to see him as something more than his own person, to see him as the embodiment of redemptive power or hope.
4. Full-dimensional characters
Full dimensional characters in literary works are usually described at greater length and revealed in more detail-they are capable of greater
individuation. No doubt, many people whom we encounter casually and see only as stereotypes- the waitress, the cab driver, the servant-would be interesting
subjects for study, but, just as in life, literature does not permit us to know every character equally well. Leading characters of a literary work are drawn in full;
others are only sketched in to fill out the scene. Though poetry ordinarily does not permit the same space for character development that fiction and drama do, it is
still possible to describe the full dimensionality of its characters.
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The very length of fiction and drama permit the possibility of presenting characters that grow and change over a period. A novelist like Charles dickens
often accounted for the full lifespan of his characters, from birth to death.
Now let us see what the meaning of characterization is. Characterization is the author’s way of describing his characters in a literary work; or it is the
author’s means of differentiating one character to another. Characters are closely related to the plot because character means actions, while actions from the plot of
literary work.
Dictionary of Literary Terms 1972:71 defines that:
The creation of images of imaginary persons in drama, narrative poetry, the novel and the short story is called characterization. In effective narrative
literature, fictional persons, through characterization, become so credible that they exist for the reader as real people.
Every reader is interested in people, or should be, because people are the most important single factor in individual lives. In fiction, a reader, primarily
interested in individual concerned, has a natural tendency to identify with the ‘hero’ and to hate the ‘villain’ or to feel “for” “with” one individual or group and
“against” another. Writers uses any or all several basic means of characterization: a
characters is revealed by 1 his actions, 2 his speech, 3 his thought, 4 his physical appearance, 5 what other characters say or think of him. Without
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characterization no thesis, no plot, and no setting can developed genuine interest for a reader or cause him to care what happen, to whom, and why.
It is difficult to identify with a character that one does not know or understand. This is why characterization is important in fiction. Before a writer
can make his reader sympathize with or oppose a character, that character must come alive. The reader wants to be able to visualize him-to see him act and hear
him talk. Characterization, no mere by –product, is an essential part of plot. Character generates causes plot and plot result from, and is dependent upon,
character.
An author may present his characters in two general ways, those are,
1. Directly, telling his readers the characters’ qualities.
2. Through actions, showing the characters’ deeds by which his
characters may be revealed.
It has often been assumed that characters in a literary work can be judged from four levels characterization. These four levels of characterization are helpful
for us to see the very basic description of characters. The four levels of characterization are:
1. Physical: physical level supplies such basic facts, as sex, age, and size. It is the simplest level of characterization because it reveals external
traits only.
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2. Social: A social level of characterization includes economic status, profession, religion, family and social relationships –all those factors
that place a character in his environment. 3. Psychological: this level reveals habitual responses, attitudes, desires,
motivation, likes and dislikes –the inner workings of the mind, both emotional and intellectual which lead to action. Since feeling, thought,
and behavior define a character more fully than physical and social traits and since a literary work usually arises from desires in conflict, the
psychological level is the most essential parts of characterization.
4. Moral: moral decisions more clearly differentiate characters than any other level of characterization. The choices by a character when he is
faced with a moral crisis show whether he is selfish, a hypocrite, greedy, miserly, or he is the one who always acts according to his belief. A
moral decision usually causes a character to examine his own motives and values, and in the process, his true nature is revealed both to himself
and to the readers.
Reading a literary work, we often feel sympathy for a character; on the other hand, we may feel unsympathetic for another. A character’s honesty,
boldness, or suffering may create a moving story that stirs our emotion and feeling. On the contrary, a character who is wicked, cruel, dishonest, etc, may give
rise to our dislike. The ability of an author to describe his characters makes a reader feel that he is watching the reality of human life, and, consequently, the
literary work becomes more interesting.
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Millie and Yates 1982:228 say, “There are at least six methods by which an author can show characters”. They give an example of some ways that we may
follow. The character describes in the example below has a strong will and won’t give up.
1. by what the person says:
“Give up? Don’t be silly. I haven’t even started yet” 2.
by what someone else says: “Jenkins? A bulldog is a quieter compared to him”.
3. by his or action:
Wearily Marlene straightened her shoulders, took a deep breath, and tried again, as she had trying for hours, to make the figure balance.
4. by indicating his or her thoughts:
So they thought she would give up. What a laugh She’d show them’ 5.
by the way that other people treat him or her: Here was a mission on which only a person who would never quit
could succeed. The colonel’s glance went swiftly down the eager line standing before him. Then, “banter you’re the one,” he barked.
6. By the author’s direct words: Sophia was a person who never gave up.
Roberts and Jacobs use five ways to present characters:
1. Action. What characters do is our best way to understand what they are. For example, walking in the woods is creation for most people, and it
shows little about their characters.
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2.description, both personal and environmental. Appearance and environment reveal much about a character’s social and economic status,
of course, but they also tell us more about character traits.
3.dramatic statements and thought.
4. statements by the other character 5. statement by the author speaking and storyteller or observer.
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2.3. Novel
