Questions tagged [character-analysis]
Questions relating to the analysis of characters in works of literature: for example, their traits, construction, or other aspects. This tag should be used together with any relevant work, series, or author tags.
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Greek Alexander Romance - Plot device or other function of Alexander's surreptitious stealing of Persian drinking cups?
In one of the more common form factors of the Greek Alexander Romance (by Pseudo-Callisthenes), we have this passage, located in Book II, 15:
As they began to drink more deeply, Alexander had an idea:...
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Who is Mrs LeFay in "The Magician's Nephew"?
In The Magician’s Nephew, Andrew refers to his godmother, Mrs LeFay, who gave him the powder he used to make the rings. Other than this and a reference to her possessing "fairy blood", ...
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Is Emma's preoccupation with class and station typical of the time period or an aspect of her character?
In Jane Austen's Emma, the titular character is shown to spend a lot of time and effort thinking about class, rank, and station in society. She's worried about mixing with the lower classes, and ...
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What character traits define Ibsen’s Brand?
(I am not asking this for a school assignment. I’m not in school.)
I have not read Brand carefully. I want an introductory sense of if the content of the play accords with my understanding so far.
I ...
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Who is the protagonist and antagonist in the myth of Creation of Seasons by Dene?
I am a high school student who has to do a presentation on a myth. I have to explain the details of the myth such as the plot, conflict etc. It is very straightforward. Here is the myth.
There are 2 &...
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What is the significance of the ending of this short story "In the Wheels"?
The short story "In the Wheels" (available in full at that link, perhaps a 10-15 minute read) is mostly about car racing with a speculative-fiction twist, but there's a surprising (to me) ...
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Does Nick love Gatsby?
I recently asked this question: What is the significance of Nick being gay in the Great Gatsby?
In the time before I got an answer I arrived to a conclusion similar to what answerer (@Peter Shor) did. ...
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Jordan's line about intimate parties in The Great Gatsby?
“And I like large parties. They’re so intimate. At small parties there isn’t any privacy.”
When I read this quote from Jordan Baker I was (and am) puzzled as to the meaning. It seems like ...
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What is the significance of Nick being gay in The Great Gatsby?
On Literature SE there seems to be a general consensus that in the Great Gatsby the narrator, Nick Carraway, is gay (or at the very least sexually ambiguous).
What does "the master's body&...
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In Outer Dark, is the Tinker a good man?
He finds the infant and seems to want to take care of it. On the other hand, when we later encounter the child, it shows signs of grievous injury that it seems must have occurred (or probably) while ...
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In the Great Gatsby does Gatsby want Daisy because he is obsessed with wealth/prestige or does he want wealth because he is obsessed with Daisy?
At some points throughout the novel Daisy is objectified or otherwise synonymized with money (such as when her voice was described to be full of money). This, coupled with Gatsby's clear ambition from ...
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Where is it indicated that Charlotte has difficulty choosing between Albert and Werther?
I read The Sorrows of Young Werther for my literature class (our translation was from Corngold and its title substituted "Sufferings" for "Sorrows", but it's the same story). For a ...
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Inspiration behind Harlan Page Hasley’s depiction of old sleuth with superhuman strength
What inspired the author to portray a dime novel detective old sleuth as someone who possessed superhuman strength?
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History of Nick carter’s villain Dr Quartz’s creation
What inspired the creation of Nick Carter's villain Dr. Quartz? He is described to be an evil vivisectionist so smart that he is versed in every branch of science and usually enjoys cutting women’s ...
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The Glass Menagerie: Laura's fate
Is the ending of The Glass Menagerie (Tennessee Williams) tragic for Laura? The tragedy of Tom is plain to see; he is out living his dream but cannot enjoy a second of it because of his overwhelming ...
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Why does Georgia connect so well with the clown's song?
In Alice Oseman's Loveless, after several failed scenes where Georgia has difficulty acting romantic roles, Pip gets her to try being the clown in Twelfth Night. This goes swimmingly:
"Come away,...
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Satan's motivation in Paradise Lost
In Paradise Lost, Milton gave an explicit motivation for Satan's rebellion against God. All the angels were called the sons of God and thought of themselves as such, but then God called all the angels ...
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In "To Have and Have Not", what is Harry Morgan's motivation to betray the Chinese immigrants?
Having just reread Hemingway's novel To Have and Have Not, I'm fuzzy on the protagonist's motive for his betrayal of the Chinese immigrants. It's not hard to understand why this former cop has turned ...
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Does Faustus start with heroic dignity?
Does Faustus start out with heroic dignity in Christopher Marlowe’s play Doctor Faustus? Does he lose this dignity with his tragic error of making a terrible deal with the Devil?
I came across an exam ...
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Why is Hedda unable to free herself from the constraints of domesticity, while Thea is able to?
In Hedda Gabler, there exists the character foil of Hedda and Thea. Both of the characters have entered into marriages which have inhibited them from forming a 'free' sense of self and which reduce ...
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Is a book featuring a non-self aware Mary Sue automatically considered to be poor quality?
Is a book where the main character fulfills all of the criteria for being a Mary Sue, and where the trope is played straight rather than for illustrative or satirical purposes (for example, the ...
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How could the old woman's lover become rich, if it goes against the play's comic project?
I just finished reading Pluto by Aristophanes.
The comic project of the play is to obtain a more fair distribution of richness which is at the beginning given only to dishonest people (or to people ...
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What does the name "Hodel" mean?
In Isaac Bashevis Singer's short story "The Primper", Adele's real name is "Hodel":
Her two sisters and three brothers married in due time, but she, Adele - her real name was ...
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Why does Odysseus decide to leave without Philoktetes?
I am reading James Scully's translation of Philoktetes (also known as Philoctetes), in The Complete Plays of Sophocles, translated by Robert Bagg & James Scully. At one point, after getting ...
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Did P.G. Wodehouse ever parody Rex Stout?
An acquaintance with a silly nickname rings to beg that the narrator take his place at a charity dinner put on by his aunt.
That summary could describe the beginnings of several Bertie Wooster stories ...
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What do the names of Yasha's animals in "The Magician of Lublin" say about him?
In Isaac Bashevis Singer's The Magician of Lublin, our main character Yasha named his horses "Kara" and "Shiva", and refers to them as "Dust" and "Ashes:
He need ...
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How did Henchard change after the auction incident?
In the novel The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy, how was Henchard a changed person after the auction incident?
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"The Rocking Horse Winner" Characterization
I'm trying to analyze the characters Basset, Oscar, Hester, and Paul in D.H. Lawrence's short story "The Rocking Horse Winner", to know which ones are round characters and which ones are ...
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Did Satan feel genuine remorse for his actions and compassion for his subordinates?
Related: Is John Milton's Lucifer a tragic hero?
Towards the end of book 1 (starting around line 600 in my edition), Satan addresses his followers.
Above them all th' Arch-Angel: but his face
...
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What do the names of the Decameron characters signify?
The Wikipedia page for the Decameron claims (without citations) that:
Boccaccio himself notes that the names he gives for these ten characters are in fact pseudonyms chosen as "appropriate to ...
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Do the young women and men of the Decameron represent the Virtues and sections of the soul?
The Wikipedia page on the Decameron claims that:
Many details of the Decameron are infused with a medieval sense of numerological and mystical significance.[9] For example, it is widely believed[by ...
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What is Paul's character based on in "Code Name Verity"?
One of the major supporting characters in Code Name Verity is Paul, leader of the Damask resistance circuit. A superb organizer, he takes pride in how he'd never lost anyone in his circuit (before ...
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Why doesn't Shams give Kimya any closure?
Shams rejects Kimya and she dies. Why doesn't he comfort her, explain why he doesn't want to make love to her, or in some other way acknowledge her love? I expected them to have some kind of heart-to-...
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What exactly drove Humbert’s preference for preteens?
In the first four chapters, our narrator Humbert, after explaining his backstory, relates an experience in which he met, in his youth, a girl he was friends with. He even had a kind of relationship, ...
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What links Lily Briscoe's desire in To The Lighthouse to the desire of the old man in Slave Old Man?
The two books being compared are To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf and Slave Old Man (or The Old Slave and the Mastiff) by Patrick Chamoiseau. I have to write a thesis but am having a hard time ...
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What is the significance of Grendel being descended from Cain?
In the tale of Beowulf, the monster Grendel is said to be descended from the biblical character of Cain. This was surprising to me, as I'd thought Beowulf was a pre-Christian story given its setting ...
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Why is Jacques Kohn wearing a "father-murderer" collar?
In the description of Jacques Kohn in the beginning of Isaac Bashevis Singer's "A Friend of Kafka", he's described as wearing this:
Although he still dressed in the style of a dandy, his ...
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Why did Gatsby say "This is a terrible mistake" in "The Great Gatsby"?
In chapter 5 of The Great Gatsby, when Gatsby reunited with Daisy, he (Gatsby) followed Nick into the kitchen:
“Where are you going?” demanded Gatsby in immediate alarm.
“I’ll be back.”
“I’ve got to ...
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What did Vin mean by leaving Mare's flower picture for Sazed?
Mistborn series book 3, The Hero of Ages, end of chapter 10, as Vin leaves Sazed:
She left him alone in the tent. A few moments later, he returned to his shaving, and found something sitting beside ...
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What is the use of Mr. Hurst in "Pride and Prejudice"?
Mr. Hurst is like a shadow or thin air, saying nothing and doing nothing more than eating, so he has no use in the development of the whole story. Why does the author put such a man in the novel?
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Does Thomas the Tank Engine have free will?
In the story Thomas Comes to Breakfast, from Branch Line Engines by the Rev. W Awdry, Thomas's driver tells him:
"You know just where to stop, Thomas! You could almost manage without me!"
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What's the significance of The Idiot in Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian?
Toward the end of Blood Meridian, the gang encounters a man whose brother is so severely disabled that he is kept naked in a cage. Obviously, this character cannot speak and does not contribute to the ...
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Is the Erewhonian Nosnibor a satire on a real person?
The novel Erewhon published by Samuel Butler in 1872 is said to be one of the first dystopian novels.
The middle section of the book reads as a satire on the English Judicial system. By making the ...
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In Brave New World, how does Mustapha Mond get his red lips?
I never quite understood why Mustapha Mond had red lips. In Chapter 3 it states,
On the fringe of the little group stood a stranger- a man of middle
height, black-haired, with a hooked nose, full red ...
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Can Byronic heroes be funny?
I'm learning about the different hero archetypes. As far as I know, Byronic heroes are charismatic, passionate, and flawed, among others. But can they be humorous? I can't think of any examples off of ...
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Katherine Anne Porter's "HE": What is He?
I recently read Katherine Anne Porter's "He", and, after reading it twice, am still left in the dark about one thing. It is said that "Rolls of fat covered Him like an overcoat", ...
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Are Tigris in The Hunger Games and Tigris in The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes the same person?
In Mockingjay, the third book in The Hunger Games series, there is a minor character named Tigris. She is the owner of a shop in which Katniss and her team of soldiers take refuge during the assault ...
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Why does Sir Harry like Matthias's poem and not Basil's?
In Mattimeo, Chapter 29, the rescuers' party encounters Sir Harry, an owl who speaks in poetry for much of his dialogue. For one example, this is how he introduces himself:
"Why, pray, do you ...
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How does Bacchus fit into the Christian allegory of Narnia?
The setting and story of The Chronicles of Narnia are strongly linked to Christianity: Aslan, who sacrifices himself for a traitor in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe before returning to life, ...
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Was Ewing Klipspringer supposed to be a gay character in "The Great Gatsby"?
Was Ewing Klipspringer supposed to be a gay character in "The Great Gatsby"? My theory is that he is gay, considering there is textual evidence, and that he lives in Gatsby's home.
Here are ...