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Characterization as Textual Analysis in Drama


Characterization:
Characters are the persons in a dramatic work. The playwright endows them with moral and dispositional qualities which are expressed in their words and actions. The reasons for the character’s action, his speech, his temperament constitute his motivation. In textual analysis, one could evaluate the character though the stage direction where some playwrights have some comments on the character’s disposition, his age, his physical attributes, his mode of dressing and other information that could be found there. The next thing is to evaluate his interactions with other characters through which we discover whether he is a flat or round character. A flat character remains unchanged in his outlook and dispositions from the beginning to the end but a round character could undergo a gradual or radical change which is brought about by events in the play. It is difficult to predict the actions of a round character because he is usually very close to real human beings.
Anything if written about a character must be contained in the text. We should therefore not infer, guess or suggest a characteristic moral disposition or physical 'attribute that cannot be identified in the text. For instance, we can rightly say that Baroka in The Lion and the Jewel is a crafty rogue who excels in self-indulgence. One of the characters said that about him and his action too in the scene where his current wife is pulling the hairs in his armpit and also in his seduction of Sidi.

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