How to Analyse a Character in a Prose Passage

What are they like:

• Personality traits
• Relationships between characters
• Realistic/Simple, Caricature
• Serious, comic, other

How are they presented:

• First/third person narrative
• Diction, syntax imagery, metaphor
• Appearance
• Dialogue between characters
• Actions
• What others say about them
• Relation to the setting
• Literal/Figurative description

The role they play:

• Do they develop?
• Do they contrast someone or something?
• Are they presented in conflict?
• Do they do anything surprising or unexpected?
• What reaction do they invite from the reader?

Their significance:

• Do they illustrate a theme or motif?
• Do they tell the reader anything about cultural context or values?
• Is their gender an important issue?
• Are they used in a figurative or symbolic manner?