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As the name suggests, a character analysis essay is an essay that focuses on a character or characters and examines the character’s traits to determine how the drive the action in a work of literature. In many ways, a character analysis is like a criminal profile; it requires the reader to draw from the available information the author provides to come to educated conclusions about the character and then draw relationships between the character’s traits and the events of the story.
In the introduction of your character analysis essay, you will introduce your character to the reader. Usually, this will include giving the character’s name, the work of literature involved, the author’s name, and the character’s role in the story. This gives your reader a point of reference for the rest of the analysis. Oftentimes, you will focus on one aspect of your character’s personality and show how several different traits all contribute to that aspect.
The body of your character analysis essay is going to focus on describing the character. You want to make sure and include basic descriptions of some of the character’s main traits. Name, physical description, job, any history, how the character acts, and the character’s relationship to other characters can all play an important role in the analysis. A character analysis is not just regurgitating facts about the character; once you have described the character, it is then your job to analyze how these characteristics help motivate the character and drive the action in the story.
Finally, the conclusion of your character analysis essay should tie together any loose ends from the essay and reinforce the conclusions you reached about the character’s behavior and how it has impacted the story. If you initially chose to focus on one aspect of the character’s personality, the conclusion is where you will reiterate how that aspect was influenced by and/or influenced other parts of the character’s personality.