Benefits of the Study

9 readers have to read the whole story and draw a conclusion from that. The author usually just presents a brief description of the character. The rest is given to the readers to increase their imagination about the character through the story. According to Perrine, to be convincing, characterization must also observe three principles 1974, 69. The first principle is consistency in behavior that is characters must not behave one way on one occasion and a different way on another unless there is a clearly sufficient reason for the changes. The second is motivation; characters should be motivated in whatever they do especially when there is any change in their behavior. Readers must be able to understand the reason for what they do if not immediately or at least by the end of the story. The last principle is plausibility; characters must be plausible or lifelike. They must be relevant to the readers. Characters must have some traits which are the same as those of human beings in the real world. According to Murphy 1972, 161-173, there are nine ways of how an author may reveal the characters’ personality. These methods will give significant contribution to the readers in understanding the characters through characterization. Those methods are personal descriptions, character as seen by another, speech, past life, conversation of others, reactions, direct comments, thoughts, and mannerisms. The first is personal descriptions in which the author can describe a person’s character from the appearance and clothes. The description is focused in our mind’s eye and what is the physical appearance we see. 10 The second method is character as seen by another. Using this method the author describes a person character through the eyes and opinions of other characters in the novel. The third method is speech. In this method the author can describe the character through what that person says. Sometimes one’s characteristics can be clearly seen through their words. The forth method is past life. The author can give us a clue to describe the character through their past life events that have helped to shape that person’s character. The fifth method is about conversation of others. Using this method the author describes someone’s character through what they are talking about the person. The sixth method is the character’s reactions in facing a problem became people may have various ways to solves. Different people may have different ways. From their reactions, we will also get some clues to describe a character. The seventh method is direct comments. In this method; the author describes or gives comment on a person’s character directly so that it would be very easy for the reader to get the image of the character. The eighth method is thoughts. The author lets the readers know the character’s personality by stating explicitly what is in the character’s mind or what the character is thinking about. The readers are led to the mental process of the character that conveys the idea.