Character

Characterisation

The people in a narrative are called characters rather than persons to emphasise the fact that they are only representations of people, constructed by an author to fulfil a certain function in a certain context. We form a mental construct of characters from the information we are given but also add some ideas from our own experience and imagination 

The main questions for an analysis of character are:

1) Techniques of characterisation: HOW does the text inform us about       character and
2) Character functions: WHAT FUNCTION do characters have in the       narrative.

	by the narrator (authorial)	by the character (figural)
		another character	self-characterisation
explicit	description or comment	description or comment (simultaneously implicit self-characterisation)	description or comment
Implicit	report of character's actions and/or thought, description of outward appearance and circumstances, contrasts and correspondences	as implied by choice of expression and description of appearance and circumstances	use of language or gesture, expression, attitudes unconsciously expressed, characteristic props

Actions

While characters may say all kinds of things, it’s what they do that shows what they’re really made of. Example: Atticus says that Mr. Underwood "despises Negroes, won't have one near him" (16.5), but when a lynch mob threatens both Tom and Atticus, Mr. Underwood is waiting with his shotgun to defend them. And after Tom’s death, Mr. Underwood’s editorial in The Maycomb Tribune takes a much stronger stance in Tom’s favor than most Maycomb citizens are willing to hold to.

Direct Characterization

The novel often sums up its characters in a few words: Miss Stephanie Crawford is "a neighborhood scold" (1.50), Boo Radley is "a malevolent phantom" (1.43), and Mrs. Dubose is "plain hell" (1.14). While these capsule descriptions are sometimes accurate, most of them become more complex and nuanced through the other "Tools of Characterization" as the book progresses, suggesting that people are rarely as simple as they might seem at first.

Family Life

Aunt Alexandra believes each family has a "streak" (13.26), but characters’ home lives do just as much to show what they’re like. When Scout says to Miss Maudie, "Atticus don't ever do anything to Jem and me in the house that he don't do in the yard" (5.53), it tells us that Atticus cares more about actually doing right than just making people believe that he does so. The image that Atticus builds up at Tom’s trial of Mayella’s depressing home life tells the reader as well as the jury that she’s terribly lonely, and might latch on to anyone who shows her a moment’s kindness. And part of the mystery of Boo is wondering about how he lives at home: whether his house is a sanctuary or a prison, and whether his family is his protectors or his jailors.

Location

The first warning bell that signals to Scout that she and Miss Caroline might have some difficulty communicating is that the teacher is from North Alabama, on the other side of the state from Maycomb. Even within Maycomb, where a character lives tells you something about them. The Ewells don’t live by the dump just because it’s cheap, but because they’re Trash. The Cunninghams out in the woods are on the fringes of Maycomb society as well as geography, and live a self-sufficient existence that doesn’t have much to do with the town itself. (And the Cunningham’s settlement, Old Sarum, shares its name with an early English village, suggesting that they look more to the past than the future.)

Speech and Dialogue

How a character talks can often tell you more than what they say. In racially-divided Maycomb, one word in particular is a marker of where a character stands: "nigger."

The word first appears in the text when Scout echoes something Calpurnia said, showing from the start that its usage is more complicated that just a nasty way for whites to put down African-Americans: Calpurnia isn’t looking forward to hip-hop and reclaiming the word, but using it to talk about a particular kind of African-American person. Calpurnia uses the term again when she’s addressing Lula, showing it has power as an insult even within Maycomb’s African-American community. Calpurnia’s use of the word suggests her sense of difference from that community (what Scout calls her "double life" [12.138]), but also raises questions about attitudes towards race among African-Americans in Maycomb that the novel doesn’t really address.

Atticus never uses the word "nigger," except when he’s explaining to Scout why she shouldn’t say it, or why she shouldn’t get into fights when other people call Atticus a "nigger-lover."

"Scout," said Atticus, "nigger-lover is just one of those terms that don't mean anything – like snot-nose. It's hard to explain – ignorant, trashy people use it when they think somebody's favoring Negroes over and above themselves. It's slipped into usage with some people like ourselves, when they want a common, ugly term to label somebody." (11.107)

Is Atticus right? Does the term really have no meaning except as a way to put others down? Whether the answer to these questions is yes or no, the common usage of "nigger" in the text speaks not only to the attributes of individual characters, but also of the norms of the community in which they live.

The keys to studying a character are as follows:

• know what the key episodes are in which the character is involved. 
• Select episodes that typify the character and show different sides of him/her
• study what the character says and does and what others say about him/her;
• remember to think about the character’s relationships with other characters
• think about what Harper Lee makes the reader feel about the character and think about how she does that. 

It may be what the character does, what s/he says, the language s/he uses, the language used to describe him/her think about whether the character has a specific purpose in the novel. Mrs Dubose, for example, is a scary and unpleasant person, but she does represent a certain kind of courage.

Let’s think about the character of Miss Maudie. The main episodes she is involved with are:

1. her introduction in Chapter V
2. the destruction of her house by fire in Chapter VIII
3. her reaction to the trial in Chapter XXII
4. her behaviour at the Missionary Circle in Chapter XXIV.

Let’s look at the first of these episodes in some detail. Some points about her we could
note are:

• she lets the children play on her lawn (page 48)
• Scout says ironically ‘Miss Maudie hated her house’ (page 48)
• she loves gardening (page 48); she is associated with what is ‘natural’
• she is formal (page 48)
• she is generous, baking cakes for the children (page 48)
• like Atticus, she answers the children honestly about Boo Radley (page 49)
• also like Atticus, she tries to steer them away from awkward topics (page 49)
• she has known the Finch family for a long time (page 50)
• she is a liberal, inveighing against the ‘foot-washing Baptists’ (page 50)
• she teaches the children (about Miss Stephanie being a gossip) (page 50)
• she has a sense of humour (‘Stephanie Crawford even told me once she woke up in the middle of the night and saw him [Boo] looking in the window at her. I said what did you do, Stephanie, move over in bed and make room for him? That shut her up a while’) (page 51)
• she lightens heavy topics (mention of the pound cake on page 52).

Other important aspects of Miss Maudie are:

• her concern for others even as her house is burning
• her stoicism about the fire
• she makes sure the children understand what Atticus is like
• the ways her body language reassures and supports Scout
• her independence from the bigotry of the ladies at the Missionary Circle
• her sharpness of tongue with Mrs Merriweather
• her understanding of politics
• her admiration for Atticus
• her love for the children.

Activities

1. Take notes on Miss Maudie's character in the other three noted incidents
2. Having looked at the details of the text showing Miss Maudie’s character, try to arrive at some formulations that show just what she is like and what she represents.  Think about the formulations below. First, decide how far you agree with them, then find some evidence to support them.  
1. Miss Maudie represents what is natural in the novel.
2. She is a moral yardstick
3. She represents love.
4. She represents what Harper Lee admires about women.

Atticus Finch

Father of Jem and Scout, Atticus Finch sits on the Alabama State Legislature and acts as Maycomb's leading attorney. The epitome of moral character, Atticus teaches his children and his community how to stand up for one's beliefs in the face of prejudice and ignorance by defending a black man, Tom Robinson, wrongfully accused of raping a white woman. The voice of reason in the town of Maycomb and in the novel, Atticus dispels the wisdom and logic that is the core of the novel. He is a man that goes beyond the word tolerance; tolerance is merely to put up with something. Atticus looks at everyone and tries to understand who they are and where they are coming from. And he quietly and subtly passes on wisdom to his children about taboo subjects like racism.

He is looked up to by his family and his friends who "trust him to do right". Atticus Finch sets a standard of morality that no other character in the book comes close to matching. Atticus is a studious man whose behaviour is governed by reason. Once he decides that a given course of action is right, he perseveres regardless of threats or criticisms. But Atticus is not a crusader. He does not go looking for causes to champion. The Tom Robinson case was not one he volunteered to handle- the judge assigned him the case because he felt Atticus would do his best to win. Atticus's desire to avoid conflict when possible is another quality that the author obviously wants us to admire. Atticus stands as one of literature's strongest and most positive father figures..

At times, Atticus may almost seem a caricature of goodness. Never once does he falter or think ill of people. But in Harper Lee's capable hands, Atticus seems believable and true.

Activities.

1. Read the following excerpts from the novel about Atticus:
1. Scout's attitude to her father
2. His response to Scout's school troubles
3. Atticus and Miss Maudie's burning house
4. His attitude to bringing up children
5. Tim Johnson
6. Mrs Dubose
7. His attempt to reprimand the children
8. The crowd and lynchmob
9. Summing up
10. Bob Ewell spitting
2. Identify any significant quotes
3. What do they show us about Atticus?
4. How does Lee use language to portray him?
5. Do they link to any key ideas/themes
6. Give 5 strong adjectives for Atticus
7. What type of character is Atticus? Give evidence to explain.
8. Paragraph response: Atticus Finch is an agent of change

Scout

Scout is a very interesting character, as she is the narrator we see the events through her eyes: a naive, impressionable child.  This decision on the part of Lee is a very interesting one, and heavily influences the story.  Through Scout, we see the true nature of the bildungsroman - the innocent through to the experienced.  The exploration of themes, characters, events and ideas through Scout's eyes are a fundamental aspect of the narrative, and shapes the way that we as a reader interpret events.