In the novels we read, we would get introduced to a variety of characters, sometimes too many, and sometimes very few. Our first impressions of a character likely starts from the outside in, like in real-life, beginning with the way they dress, their initial actions, and their pattern of speech. Then we get to know them better through their behaviors and how they treat other characters’ actions and feelings. There are qualities a reader will notice at first glance and some qualities that require time and patience before they are discovered.
Names and Appearances
A character’s name can also create an important first impression. The names Tom Jones or Arthur Dent, for example, suggests an ordinary person, a bit of an everyman, and the character would most likely be just that. Charles Dickens gave his characters name that reflects their personality, such Mr. Thomas Gradgrind, a strict utilitarian who is only interested in cold facts and is constantly grinding that into others, and the teacher Mr. M’Choakumchild, who as his name suggests, smothered all the vitality out of his students. Mr. M’Choakumchild however, is a caricature, a character that can be summed up in only one statement or sentiment, and he has no defining characteristics other then being cruel to children. This type of character doesn’t have anything else revealed about them as they only exist as a plot device to facilitate the story, or to provide comedic effect, and they are quickly ushered off-screen once they have fulfilled their role.
The characters that are more important to the story can’t be summarized that easily, and we need time to get to know them properly. Most likely, an author won’t just tell you all the aspects of these characters’ personalities when we first meet them but it is possible we may learn about their appearances. For example, their hair color, or how they are dressed. Getting to know a character’s personality, temperament, likes and dislikes and their behavior towards others takes time.
A way we can learn about important aspects of a character is through a statement from an authoritative voice, such as the narrator or another character. They make a judgement about a character, telling us exactly what the character is like, and the reader is expected to go along with it. Unfortunately, this creates a static impression of the character, leaving little to no room for development or surprises. Worse is when the authoritative voice is biased towards the character, either positively or negatively. Or, as we learned in Part 1, they might be an unreliable narrator themselves and not know enough about the character to paint us an accurate picture. We may also later see the character acting differently from initially described due to differing circumstances, so when we meet the character themselves, our assessment of them may change.
Speech and Behavior
A more reliable way of judging a character is by looking at their behavior towards others and their conversations. Rather then simply accepting what we have been told, we can decide for ourselves through how a character conduct themselves in conversation and how they interact with other characters. So to take the first of these, how the character talk is always important, exposing their bias, their warmth or rage, their social status and their educational background. Do they sound smart, arrogant, or unconfident? Were they threatening or submissive?
As well as their words, another fundamental way of judging a character is through their actions. Is this the behavior of someone whose value system we share, and whom we approve of? If we’re in a similar situation, would we be acting in the same way? Characters are most relatable when they are neither entirely good nor completely bad.
Omniscient Narrators
So far, we have learned of two ways to know more a character, directly, when we are told something about the individual from a narrator or another voice, and indirectly, where we learn, gradually, about them through their actions and words. Another way for us to learn more a character is when get to dive directly into their heads and gain access to their inner thoughts.
We could find ourselves in a privileged position, where we are told directly what an individual is thinking, feeling, and wanting, even unconsciously, and therefore getting to know them better than any other characters in the novel. This obviously won’t be the case for every character, as we remain outsiders to them, only being able to guess what they are thinking.
There are various ways we could be granted access to the minds of characters and that depends on how the author chose to narrate. It could from a god-like omniscient perspective, where the narrator dips in and out of characters’ heads at will, affording us far more knowledge of each character than they have of each other and an understanding of how all their minds work.
First Person Narrators
A first person perspective is far more limited and gives us a far less complete rendering of consciousness. We would get access to the innermost thoughts and desires of a single character while only being able to extrapolate about the thoughts and motives of others. In fact, the unreliability and biased judgements are half the point of a first person perspective. In a murder mystery, our first person narrator may be running on guesses and incomplete information, keeping both us and the character guessing.
A first-person narrator, especially an unreliable or biased one, could also come off as elusive or somehow inscrutable, attempting to conceal something from the reader. But broadly speaking, this type of narrator provides a way for us to learn a lot about one character, while keeping us in the dark, or unable to make those conclusions about all the others.
Tech, Writing, and Culture 