Characterization

Characterization is the system of artistic means and devices by which a writer creates the image of a personage and reveals their nature, psychology, and worldview. The main means of characterization include: the portrait (description of appearance), speech characterization (a personage's individualized speech), deeds and behavior in conflict situations, psychological analysis (inner monologue, the 'dialectics of the soul'), self-characterization, characterization by other personages and by the author-narrator, the 'telling' name, landscape and objects as a means of indirect characterization, and the detail. Characterization may be direct (immediate authorial evaluation) or indirect (character is revealed through action). Mastery of characterization is one of the chief criteria of the artistic worth of an epic or dramatic work. Diverse, psychologically motivated means of characterization were used by Panas Myrny, Ivan Franko, Volodymyr Vynnychenko, and Valerian Pidmohylny.