Narrative Overview

Characterisation

Characterisation is the process by which the personality of a character is revealed. This can be through direct characterisation or indirect characterisation. Direct characterisation tells the audience what the personality of the character is.

For example, the studious boy and the polite girl were both well behaved and did what their teachers asked. Here, the writer is directly telling the audience the personality of these two young people. The boy is ‘studious’ and the girl is ‘polite’.

Indirect characterisation shows the personality of a character. There are five different methods of indirect characterisation (STEAL).

• Speech: What does the character say? How does the character speak?
• Thoughts: What is revealed through the character’s private thoughts and feelings?
• Effects: What is the character’s effect on other people? How do other characters react to him/her?
• Actions: What does the character do? How do they behave?
• Looks: What does the character look like? How do they dress?

The following clip from Eastenders is an excellent example to test your knowledge of characterisation.

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