Characters Preparing to write about characterisation and voice

Introduction to characterisation and voice When writing about characterisation and voice you will still need to refer to themes and ideas.

Focus on the characters who express or embody those ideas.

Preparing to write about characterisation and voice

There are areas or types of character to focus on when writing about characterisation and voice:

•relationships between characters•heroes or villains•male or female characters•tragic or comic characters

Characterisation

Think about what the set of characters in your text are like.

Look at what characters say (dialogue) and what they do (action).

How are they described.How they are seen by other characters? Consider what happens to them at the end of their

story.

Voice

Voice means how we hear characters speak in dialogue..

how what they say makes them seem like living, breathing people.

It also refers to the voice of the author or narrator.

Identify the voice ….of a text ask the following questions:•How is the story told - what writing techniques are used?•What is the feeling or attitude of the narrator?•Do we get a clear sense of the narrator as a character in the story, with attitudes and feelings, or are the characters the only real people in the story?

Identifying character contrastslook for contrasts or contradictions - between

characters AND within each character. all effective characters have more than one side to

their personality.Look at how the relationships between characters

change over the course of a text. Think about what brings certain characters together

and what drives them apart.look at changes within a particular character. These

changes will often be the result of a conflict within the character that you'll notice early on in a story.

Typical contrasts within a character•A person who thinks or talks too much then finally learns to act.•A person who acts impulsively then finally learns to think.•A sociable character who finds time to explore and understand themselves as an individual.•A loner who comes to learn the value of friendship.•A victim who finally manages to stand up to a bully.•A strong leader who cares about the consequences of their actions or who listens to the voice of others.•A character who sacrifices something important to pursue a goal of their own.

Typical contrasts between characters•Characters who :think versus characters who feel.talk versus characters who act.

•Sociable characters versus solitary characters.

•Predators who prey on people versus prey people who become victims.

•Characters who lead versus those who care for others.•Characters who want one thing versus those who want another.

Writing techniques that create charactersNovels, plays and poems don't simply tell you what a character is like, they show you by:• describing what characters do• reporting what characters say• showing you what characters look like, what they are wearing, or the objects they are surrounded by• using imagery and metaphor to express aspects of their identity

TIP 1 when you are writing about characterisation, don't just

describe what characters are like. Always give evidence, and always give a range of language techniques the writer uses.

Identify the use of certain writing techniques:Examples of writers techniques

•possessives•repetition

•metaphor and form •punctuation •ambiguity

similes •imagery

Tip 2the type of person represented in a character will always

illustrate an aspect of the story's key themes.

Characters are not just people - they represent ideas.

If you are answering a question about how Steinbeck creates a sense of voice, you can make the following points: • setting - he sets the story in a real time and place • character - he creates distinctive, contrasting characters whose voices we can clearly hear • language - his characters use a dialect that identifies them strongly with the jobs they do and the place they live

in • imagery - he likes to use similes and metaphors to make points about character (Lennie is like a bear, showing he

is both sweet and likeable but also potentially dangerous) • structure - he has written the book as if it were a play, moving from scene to scene, with sections like stage

directions at the beginning of chapters, and dialogue dominating the storytelling The dialogue spoken in the book is the American-English dialogue spoken by migrant workers. The dialect is made more

memorable because Steinbeck also gives it rhythm and poetry (think of Lennie's "An' live off the fatta the lan'..."). The author's voice is also very important. When describing the setting of the story, Steinbeck's language is full of poetry.

He describes the setting as if it is paradise (for example when he talks of the "golden foot-hill slopes" of the Gabilan mountains).

When Lennie and George appear we are reminded of the story of the Garden of Eden in the Bible. People now live in an imperfect world. The dream of paradise (the farm with its rabbits) is contrasted with the difficult reality of their lives as migrant workers (we first see them when they have escaped from an incident).

This contrast is important to Steinbeck. So much so he gives the majestic Californian landscape a voice of its own: "The red light dimmed on the coals. Up the hill from the river a coyote yammered, and a dog answered from the other side of the stream. The sycamore leaves whispered in a little night breeze."

Concluding on characterisation and voiceAll novels, short stories, poems and plays are about people: that's why

we read them. Even if they seem to be about something else, they will be about people - for example a text that seems to be about nature, may actually about the way human beings destroy nature, or are made small and unimportant by nature.

Texts explore ideas by throwing opposing themes together so always look at how characters contrast. Look at how they are described and whether their words match their actions. Consider whether they 'sympathetic' (we are supposed to like them) or unsympathetic (we're not).

Above all, you need to listen to what characters say. Look closely at the dialogue and use your knowledge from the Spoken Language Study to see how characters reveal themselves though their own particular idiolect.