Paper instructions:
Analysis is a fairly straightforward concept: it involves answering a “how” or “why” question. Character Analysis is an attempt to define a character’s inner qualities that determine how he or she reacts to various conditions or attempts to shape his/her environment. In other words, you are attempting to explain why a character does what he/she does. Here are some things that might help you to analyze a character (no need to cover all of them in your essay):
A. Consider the character’s name and appearance. What do these reveal about the character?
B. Consider if he/she a static (unchanging) or dynamic (changing) character. Analyze why a character changes or fails to change as a result of the story’s events.
C. Consider how the author discloses the character:
1. By what the character says or thinks.
2. By what the character does.
3. By what other characters say about him/her.
4. By what the author says about him/her
What do these words or actions tell us about what kind of “personality” the character has?
The introduction of a character analysis essay should tell the reader the name of the story that you are analyzing as well as the author’s name. Most introductions also help to inform the reader which aspect of the story will be analyzed. For a character analysis, you’ll want to tell the reader which character or characters you’ll be analyzing, and what aspect of the character’s personality you’ll be focusing on. The thesis should give the reader your theory about the character. In the sample essay on “Eveline,” for example, the writer advances the interpretation that Eveline decides not to leave with Frank for three very specific reasons. The interpretation of any character or story is up to you; you just need to make sure that you can present enough evidence to convince the reader that your interpretation is a valid one. One way of looking at the thesis is that it is the answer to the how or why question that you began with (in the sample essay, the question is “why doesn’t Eveline leave with Frank?”). Note that you do not have to state the question explicitly; we should be able to figure out your question from your thesis. Your first paragraph should contain a unifying thesis—one which clearly states one central assertion which all of your body paragraphs support (even if that idea has several parts to it).