«That’s typical of you!» Says your girlfriend when you once again concentrated more on the sunset than on the path in front of you – and that’s why you stumbled. But is obstinacy actually a character trait?
Hopefully your girlfriend won’t have to write a characterization about you anytime soon. In such a way decisive character traits and peculiarities are described.
Construction and structure of an English characterization
You’ll probably come across characterization in English class when you’re looking at a book (or even a movie) for class. This book will have a story that happens because people act in it. These people have one characterwho decides how they act. Therefore, characterizing a person is often helpful to better understand why they are and act as they do in the story.
When writing a characterization, it’s important that you take the reader by the hand and slowly introduce them to the character. In order for you to succeed, you stick to the typical structure of a characterization three parts consists of: introduction, main part and conclusion.
Introduction – introduction
The initiation of a characterization can only one sentence exist. In this sentence you answer that most important questions via the text from which you take the characterization – in practice you answer the relevant wh-questions:
- who is characterized?
- Where does the character come from? So which book or movie?
- As do readers get to know the character?
- What is exciting about the character?
- When is it about the character?
- why do you characterize the character?
You also name the here author of the text and the text type.
To make the introduction more exciting, you can also put a quote at the beginning of the text that gives a first insight into the character of the character.
If the person you want to characterize appears in a specific chapter of a book or scene in a movie, mention that Chapter or the scene. You also give the readers a short summary history.
Example of initiating a characterization
Here is an example of an introduction to a characterization of the monster from the novel «Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus»:
The novel «Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus» was written by Mary Shelley and published in 1818.
The novel tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a scientist who brings a monster into being. He finds himself disgusted with his creation and thus leaves it behind. The monster is left to fend for itself and learns that humans are horrified of it, and it blames its creator for its abhorrent life.
In the following, I will characterize Frankenstein’s monster.
In this introduction you will find a sentence with the most important data on the original text, a short summary of the content and finally a name of the project – the characterization of the monster.
If you are interested in the content of the story, click on the «Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus» explanation to find out more about what happened and an analysis and interpretation of the content.
Bulk – mainpart
In the main part you then do the actual characterization. You proceed as if the readers are actually the person meet in real life would. Become first external features recognized, i.e. the appearance of a person. After that it will behavior met the person. Finally, one perceives how the person acts in dealing with other people and which ones Relationships she cares.
It also makes sense to start with the insights of direct characterization. Then you add your indirect characterization, i.e. the things that you can read from the person’s behavior. In addition, you can add a few words to the development of the character, if any.
This results in the following structure:
- External features and direct characterization: basic facts (e.g. name, age, appearance)
- Inner Features and indirect characterization: traits you infer from the character’s behavior (e.g. language, character traits)
- relationships and development: Dealing with other characters and possibly changing the character
Make sure you don’t just name obvious features. Also think about how your character appears to others through certain behaviors. It helps if you imagine getting to know the person in real life: How would their behavior affect you, what conclusions would you draw about their character?
In terms of content, you also name the setting or the opinion of the person on specific topics, if it comes up. Certain opinions on facts also allow insights into the character.
all your observations you prove in the text. This means that when characterizing directly, you quote the statements of other characters or the description of the character you are characterizing. With the indirect characterization, you refer to the text passage that brought you to the knowledge that you state in the characterization.
Example of the body of a characterization
Part of the main body of the characterization of Frankenstein’s monster might look like this:
The monster describes itself as «deformed and loathsome»1 and all humans shrink from its supernatural size and strength – it is about 2.4m tall. Frankenstein assembled the monster out of pieces of human remains he dug out in a graveyard.
Throughout the story the monster learns more about life, the world, and itself – it has a learning process. When it first encounters fire, it is excited about the warmth it gives and burns itself. After this incident, it is more careful and can use the fire to make food easier to eat. The monster is willing to learn.
Even though it commits crimes (it kills Frankenstein’s brother, childhood friend, and fiancé) it does not do so without remorse: When Frankenstein dies, it cries about the loss of its’ creator. It killed those people to get back at the creator that left it behind, but when the creator himself dies, it realizes that it did not want to destroy him, it wants to be loved by him.
The monster is lonely and seeking love: «I desire the company of a man who could sympathize with me; whose eyes would reply to mine».1
It wants to feel understood, part of a group and worthy of love. All this shows the difference of how the monster is seen by humans and how it sees itself and actually is.
This body is just one cutout of what an entire body of characterization would entail. However, you can find a description of it there appearance of the monster, as well as insights into it behavior of the monster and his character.
Formulations for the main part
Here are examples of phrases that can help you when writing a characterization.
You can also use these sentence beginnings be a help in making your text more varied.
German English firstly/secondlyerstens/zseitensadditionally; in addtionalso moreover furthermore finally finally all in all all in all In summary, …summary, …
You can find more of these sentence-connecting words and phrases in the «Connectives» statement.
Ending – conclusion
In the final part of your characterization you meet one overall assessment about the person you characterized. In doing so, you pick up the most important points or certain character traits again, which may now justify the person’s behavior or opinion in retrospect.
In the conclusion of the characterization you bring no more new insights, these all belong in the main part. In this part of the characterization takes Only you together and draw a final one Conclusion.
Example of the conclusion of a characterization
So now the end of the example characterization:
This concludes the characterization of Frankenstein’s monster. It is a lonely creature that is willing to learn and wants to be accepted. It cannot be labeled as simply evil, even though it does evil things.
After a brief summary of the characterization findings, a conclusion is given. The conclusion in this example of a conclusion is the statement that the monster cannot simply be labeled as evil.
Tips for writing a characterization
Here you have one overview about the most important things to consider when writing your characterization:
- Start your characterization with one introductory sentencewhich introduces the topic.
- Write your text in the simple present.
- use as many as possible matching adjectives for a detailed description.
- Leave a line between the introduction, the main part and the end to make the text clear.
- supporting documents Your statements with quotations from and references to the text.
To statements with quotes To be able to prove it correctly, you should know how to quote correctly in English:
- if you have your information from several lines on one page, you write z. E.g.: p.6 ll.10-12
- if it’s just a line on a page, you use e.g. E.g.: p.6 l.11
- if you refer to several pages, you write e.g. B.: pp. 6-7
So you see that «p.» (= page) for a page and «pp.» stands for several pages. The same applies to the lines beginning with «l.» (=lines) or «ll.» be abbreviated. You always write these receipts to the end of the sentence (before the period) in brackets.
Furthermore, the following tips may be relevant for writing your characterization:
- Imagine yourself becoming the person you characterize meet in real life. How would you perceive and describe the person based on their behavior?
- Ask yourself how you would feel if you were in the situation of the person to be characterized – how would you feel feelwhat would you think? Use these thoughts in your characterization if you can prove them in the text.
- mark all of you reading the text Place, which are somehow related to the person you are supposed to characterize in one color. This will make it easier to find the citations or references for your characterization later.
Different types of characters
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