Character Analysis Essay Writing Guide

Naturally, human beings have specific defining traits and characters that distinguish them from each other. In the movie world, detectives and investigators who are trying to solve a crime or understand the reason why a crime was committed dig into the personality of the offender.

A character analysis essay is written to explain the steps and procedures that are initiated to understand people, their behavior and what motivates them to do certain things or behave in certain ways. Just as shown in investigative movies, real-life situations also involve an intense character analysis not only for crime-related purposes but also for understanding the nature of man. The inability to carry out character analysis can catch up with you especially when you need to know about the other or when you are asked to accomplish an academic task requiring you to do so. More so, character analysis can come from books whereby the student is asked to analyze the characters of the personalities. Such could occur in literature books, in comic books and in poems or even plays.

To write a character analysis essay, there are basic rules to be taken into consideration. Such rules define the scope of this process and provide great insights on how to write a character analysis essay without misrepresenting the characters of the people you are analyzing. In other words, ethical considerations are vital when telling about others who may not be there to defend themselves.

Types of Character Analysis Essays

Before starting the writing task, it is important that you understand the types of characters. This helps in pinpointing albeit via texts the exact characters of the casts or the people involved in the paper to be analyzed. The following are some of the characters that can be discussed in an essay:

• The antagonists also are known as the villains in some quotas: These are basically people or characters within a play a film or a book whose behaviors are not consistent with what the audience or the readers expect. They are considered as rabble-rousers or trouble makers and the opposite of heroes. Given their inconsistency, their character is most interesting to analyze. Furthermore, antagonists are not just human beings but also things, events, animals or things that have been given life by the writer. Cartoon, for example, can also be an antagonist depending on the role it is assigned. In the series Tom and Jerry, the cat is always seen as the antagonist.

• The protagonists also known as the heroes are the chief characters in any story. Their lives and actions are always consonant with the desires of humans and they come through in difficult situations.

• Majors: these are the dominant characters in any movie, book, or play. They play critical roles carrying the story to the very end. Major characters dominate the story as they are mentioned most of the time in plays and the story revolves in a setting that includes them.

• Minors: these characters play a significant role in developing the plot but their role is limited to specific objective and time. In most cases, they appear technically for in the films and in the starting paragraphs of a book before they fizzle away. Even though they have an influence on the character of the protagonists, the antagonists, and the majors, they are considered as minors because the writers of the scripts deliberately limit their appearances and roles to specific chapters.

• The static and the dynamic characters: this is all about consistency, the former portrays very consistent characters that do not change until the end of a play, a story in a book or a film but the latter’s characters are flexible and changing a lot. A character that is brought forth as brutal, and selfish if changed at some point to sweet loving and kind then the inconsistency defines the dynamism whereas that which remains to be naïve throughout the play or story is the static one.

• The characters that are stereotypical: these are those that characters that have widely fixed and oversimplified image or ideas of others or of things. They represent fixed beliefs that some people are the way they are because of the circumstances that a stereotypical character thinks made them so.

• Foils: these are the characters that are contrastable to the main characters throughout the story. They are a complete opposite of the main characters.

• All round characters also known as the three-dimensional characters: Movies about multiple personality disorder best describes such characters. Essentially, these characters have more than one personality which could go up to 10. They are a combination of several characters and almost all that have been mentioned in this paper.

Writing a Character Analysis Essay

Quite often, students get confused given that they are unable to distinguish between essays that describe a scenario or a personality and character analysis essays. How to write a character analysis essay requires that one understands the differences between the two articles.

Here are some of the tips that a student can use in writing a character analysis personality:

Mind Character Analysis Form:

Here, the following are the two most important forms to consider:

Writing the summarized version of the paper whereby summation of critical points on the plot and other crucial details are discussed before the characters are analyzed. This is known as part of the literary analysis paper

Writing a Separate Paper that Purely Puts Focus on One Personality

In general, a character analysis essay should comprise of the following:

• The main ideas or the thematic aspect of the story

• All the heroes that have been featured in the story

• The contestation or the conflict as presented in the story

• The evaluation or the critique or the overview as seen in the eyes of other viewers or readers

Given that analysis and especially other aspects such as plot and the rest that have been mentioned have to be considered, the words might limit the extent to which the analysis is to be done therefore a maximum of 250 words because you will need more words for the character analysis itself, the introduction and the conclusion.

The Basics When Writing a Character Analysis Essay

While writing the essay, the following are the basic requirements that should begin the process:

• Identification of the author’s original name

• Identification of the original name of the story

• Identification of the year when the work was published

• Crafting of a summary of the major events and subject of analysis

Some characters are presented as lovable, heroes amiable while others are just bad and controversial in every sense. The literature can subject them to hate, and distrust and criticism. Character analysis essay outlines such characters in a manner that the readers see them through the eye of the author.

A Brief Example of Character Analysis Essay

The book Othello by Shakespeare presents characters in the name of Macbeth and Othello who have been manipulated by someone. The act of manipulation, unfortunately, leads to a tragic end. The books theme center on a throne and there is greed as shown by Macbeth whose ultimate objective is to occupy the kingship throne. On the other hand, Iago’s is a schemer whose ultimate objective is to become a lieutenant. Their greed leads to power misuse as both try to achieve their objectives by abusing power. Vengeance as another theme is brought out by the ambitious Iago and Macbeth who carries out revenge. From the very beginning, they are brave, honorable and respectable soldiers. Othello is the villain, in that, at first he is celebrated as the military hero, but he quickly degenerates into some dictator and a villain. Lago is the manipulative character who doesn’t stop at one person but does his manipulative role effectively.

Writing character analysis essay requires consideration of topics that are common in nature. They basically include aspects such as totality of the perspective, characteristics that literary defines the casts and actors, the appearance of the characters, in addition to the presentation or rather the portrayal of the characters.

More crucially, there is need to put more emphasis on the characters’ roles either as protagonist or antagonistic, the driving theme of the story, the character’s background and their personalities either as transforming or rigid.

Writing a Character Analysis Essay the Details

In most cases subject of analysis as the characters come from the lecturer however, this can change and the student might have to choose their own characters to analyze. The choice should be such that the characters of analysis are those that are important and their roles affect the story in one way or another. The readers must be able to draw some valuable lessons from the analysis done on them and should be left without any doubt of their significance.

Character analysis essay examples are not only thoroughly analyzed but also harbor a deep knowledge acquired by reading and rereading of the content of analysis. Getting well acquainted with the source means you will be able to pinpoint the characters and their appearances in the text thus generating a great analyzed piece. Among the most critical aspects of consideration include:

• The description assigned to the characters by the author, the filmmaker or the director of the stage play

• The relationship of the character with other characters in the book

• The story is only moved when the characters are assigned by the author the task. In this case, you need to ask what role the character plays in as far as that movement is concerned

• All the characters are bound to face some difficulties at some point, therefore, it is imperative to ask about such challenges and focus on how they are overcome. What challenges does the character undergo?

• The words that have been used by the authors to describe the characters and their relationship with the context the author is trying to paint.

Ethically speaking, the society is expecting people to behave in some ways, in your character analysis essay, you should keenly be observant of such ethics checking on whether the adjustments made by the characters are contrary in the sense that they perpetuate injustice or they are acceptable in a sense that they blend well with the norms of the society portrayed by the writer.

Character Analysis Essay Outline

How to write a character analysis essay involves the use of outline as crafted below

1. Introduction

1. The background to the story is provided in this part to tell the readers more about the reason why the analysis is being done in the first place

2. This part also involves the introduction of the main author in addition to the title or the topic of analysis.

3. Then the last but not least aspect of a good introduction is to have a compelling thesis statement to drive the writing and show your purpose to the readers. At this point, it is advised that the character’s traits are stated and the extent to which they are influential in the entire story.

1. The body of the character analysis essay example as presented in the Outline

• Presentation of the traits that have been identified

• Presentation of their impact on the whole story

• Presentation of how the character traits portray the characters analyzed

1. The change of the Personality at the beginning of the Story

• Description of the character

• Consideration of the character’s beliefs, concepts of themselves, their actions and their attitudes

• Discussing how the change and how it impacts the character itself

• Discussing the influence of the character trait on the story

1. Describing the Character at the end of the Story

1. Here, the establishment of the character’s traits at the end of the story is done

2. Again, we check on the influence on the story

1. The conclusion to character analysis essay outline

Another considerable aspect is the lessons drawn from the character’s experience and the general feeling you as the writer has about the character.

Conclusion

To get to know the words used to describe such characters is vital in analyzing them. How to write a character analysis essay is a task involving an appreciation of the diversity in terms of traits as presented by the characters.

Furthermore, the organization of the character analysis essay just like in any other piece of writing is very important and should not be ignored. This takes the form of the outline and the sentence structure used. Never the less, the task is absolutely enjoyable and takes the least energy when the writer is well prepared and has read well.

There are several character analysis essay examples that have been used to offer guidance for those may be stuck. Otherwise, the concepts and ideas discussed above summarize the art of creating a good character analysis essay.