Characterization Essays (Examples)

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. . I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!' (139). Perhaps the scene of Heathcliff digging up her grave eighteen years after her death is the most compelling because it represents the force of their love and how time or distance could not separate them. Cathy serves as a constant reminder with her eyes and Nelly even notices this similarity and how it upset Heathcliff. e read he "walked to the hearth in evident agitation" (254). Heathcliff is stricken with her loss noting even the floor captures her features. He says,, "In every cloud, in every tree -- filling the air at night, and caught by glimpses in every object by day, I am surrounded with her image!" (255). The two are clearly obsessed with each other but their obsession is unhealthy. e often want to think of the star-crossed lovers that have the….

This contrasts the identification process of medieval works, in which the reader was encouraged to identify with a hero's inhuman qualities -- inhuman virtue in the case of books of chivalry. In those works the reader was called to identify himself with a god -- or even God proper -- but in Hamlet the reader is called only to identify himself with another, equally flawed man.
Finally, in the question of denouement the treatment is also renaissance; the answer, ambiguous at best. Whether Hamlet leaves Denmark improved is anyone's guess; whether anyone in this story was able to make a difference is tangential to the question. The question, it seems, is not whether Hamlet will be able to overcome his uncle, but whether he will be able to overcome himself. The treatment implies that even if a man is able to overcome himself, it may still be impossible to change….


The characters in the film are multi-layered. hen we get below the surface we find that these members of the aristocracy do not present a favorable appearance at all. Their hidden world is one of scandal. Renoir's characters go beyond a love triangle. They come to represent many complex relationships and interactions. There are love triangles within love triangles and many innuendos throughout the film. The revelation of these many layers makes it much more like the world with which the audience is familiar.

The four main characters are in a tangled web of love and adultery. Andre is in love with wife of the owner of the estate, Robert. Robert has a mistress named Genevieve. hen Marceau is caught poaching on the estate, he quickly falls in love with the maid, Lisette. Lisette does not spurn his advances, but she is married to Schumacher. These characters appear to be dignified….

Her insistence of turning down the dirt road is what gets the family into trouble. She expects the family to do things her way and she expects everyone to live by her standards. She thinks much of herself and her heritage and tells John, "I wouldn't talk about my native state that way" (O'Connor 1938). hen his comment to her is "Tennessee is just a hillbilly dumping ground" (1938), she states, "Children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else. People did right then" (1938). Here we see evidence of how the grandmother believes she is better than the younger, disrespectful generation. Hers is a generation that did the right thing and this frame of mind helps us understand her naivety and gullibility when it comes to the Misfit. She attempts to reason with the Misfit and then has the audacity to ask him….

The drama is tragic but what makes it more tragic is how the father passes down the doomed dreaming legacy to his sons. Robert Spiller observes that illy Loman is Miller's "most beautifully conceived character" (Spiller 1450), who dies at the end of the play, "still believing in the American success myth that killed him and infected his sons" (1450). The man is to be admired because of his humanity but reviled because of his irresponsibility. illy once tells Biff that one summer, he will take him and his brother on the road with him and together they will look at all of the towns across America. He claims that the country is "full of beautiful towns and fine, upstanding people. And they know me, boys, they know me up and down New England... I have friends." (Miller 1044). This is an outright lie and while we know that….

Characterization of Shimamura in Kawabata's Snow Country
Shimamura reads a great deal about the Occidental ballet without ever having attended a performance; his passion for things beyond his ken is a strong characterization for the safe distance and detachment in his life and soul. Wealthy, bored, dissatisfied, and detached from life and love, he travels to Japan's snow country and meets the aging geisha, Komako. Distracted from his writing about a subject he has never personally experienced, he states:

"After all, these fingers keep a vivid memory of the woman I am going to see."

As Shimamura travels to his clandestine liaison with the geisha, his view of life and the temporary escape to the mountains is reflected in Koko's image in the coach's window.

"In the depths of the mirror the evening landscape moved by, the mirror and the reflected figures like motion pictures superimposed one on the other. The figures and….


hen we consider the character of Hamlet, it is easy to assume we are in for serious contemplation. Hamlet is not one of the easiest characters to figure out. However, we do know that he is a broken man. Some of the ideals and impressions he once held dear have surely been shattered upon returning to Elsinore. Some of his first thoughts include what it might be like for his "sullied flesh would melt/Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew" (Shakespeare I.ii.133-4). Hamlet questions God and his purpose, too, saying, "Or that the Everlasting had not fixed/His canon 'gainst self-slaughter!" (I.ii.135-6). Life "weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable (I.ii.137) for Hamlet and "things rank and gross in nature/Possess it merely" (I.ii.140-1). This is the character Zeffirelli portrays in the film. This is the Hamlet we expect to see on the stage. He is not over the top; he is buried in….

Characterization of Women in 19th Century Literature
The short stories "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Gilman, "The Storm by Kate Chopin, and "Eveline" by James Joyce uses women characters as protagonists in their stories and depict their life in the 19th century society. The time period wherein these stories took place is important and vital to the essence and message that these writers want to extend to their readers. One important message that these writers want to extend to us readers is that in these three stories, women empowerment is apparent, and that women are gradually asserting their freedom of choice in a repressive society that they live in, which is actually male-dominated (patriarchal society). The thesis that this paper will discuss is that through the stories "The Yellow Wallpaper," "The Storm," and 'Eveline," women are portrayed to 'break free,' to empower themselves against a repressive and patriarchal 19th century….

Jonathon Haidt agrees with this notion, suggesting that one of the most important realizations individuals can make is that people matter more than money. He states that Dickens captures this sentiment perfectly in that it "captures a deep truth about the effects of facing mortality" (Haidt 140). Scrooge moves from being the "ultimate miser" (141) to a "generous man who takes delight in his family, his employees, and the strangers he passes on the street" (141). His transformation is significant because it demonstrates that there is hope even for those that seem to be the most lost.
A Christmas Carol is a story of hope more than anything. It delves into the darkest of hearts and attempts to discover that the world has not yet hardened it for good. Eliot Gilbert notes that hope abounds if Scrooge can be converted from a miser to a giving soul. He states, Dickens….

Cather's characterization of Paul, his imagination is theater. His imagined life is the theater that he has built with glitter and effects in a dream world that not only gave him comfort, but and also sustained him. The author uses Romance, alluding to Paul's idealized view of reality. He got a feeling of excitement from his escapades influenced by his deep desire to be at the Carnegie Hall where he revealed a "vivacious and animated" persona liberated by his environment and music. Theater at Carnegie Hall was true representation of the theater in his mind, the dream, the theater where music and art were the entrance to this portal of Romance. He lives for his weekends at Carnegie Hall and the theater, and school to him is trivial. Cather perfectly paints the picture of Paul's dream by writing; "the stage entrance of that theatre was for Paul the actual….

Bounderby is a totally negative character, who, unlike Gradgrind is inherently corrupt and unfeeling. ith him it is not a matter of imposed principle, as with Gradgrind, but of inherent character. He is actually materialistic, the image of the corrupted banker who complains that the workers want more than the satisfaction of the primitive needs. He thus adopts the philosophy to serve his own interests as a merchant, whereas Gradgrind actually believes that to reduced everything to facts is the right life philosophy.
Thus, Dickens completely demolishes the materialist and reductionist philosophy of his age, showing the absurdity of cultivating nothing but the totally inhuman ideas connected with fact and palpable reality. He argues in favor of love, virtue, and fancy as a true humanist. His characters are built so as to emphasize the effects of these dangerous ways of thinking on humanity. Gradgrind and Bounderby seem like two ogres….

It reveals the truth about mankind and while this may be an ugly truth, it is one of which we need to be reminded.
My research in Joseph Conrad has allowed me to appreciate him more as an author. I have always been interested in this period of history. I can appreciate Conrad for more than simply someone who wrote books. Before reading the articles, I knew I liked the stories but I did not realize the popularity of Conrad's work. These opinions are different from one another but they still reveal that Conrad should be respected for his contributions. Heart of Darkness and Nostromo gives us characters sketches that are almost too similar to the people we encounter every day. Both critics admit that these characters are morally corrupt and have no one to blame but themselves. I also learned that not all critics agree. I would have guessed….

William James' defense of belief and faith marked the main points of his lecture entitled The Will to Believe. This philosophical treatise is introduced then followed by ten major sections in order to explain his position. Ultimately James' case for belief defends religion and faith as necessary, even though irrational, modes of understanding. The purpose of this essay is to explore James' work to explain his concept of the relationships between such subjective ideas as faith, belief, rationality and reality. I will conduct this exploration by examining each section of James' work and highlighting the arguments that relate to the themes of James' characterization and eventual defense of religion and faithful attitudes.
Introduction

In the introduction, James relates the importance of his work as it relates to the subjective nature of its audience. The audience is composed of ivy league university students who are members of a philosophy club. The lecture….

" The primary characters in this story are the grandmother and the Misfit and the fact that they encounter one another is another blend of the comical and the ironic. However, the dramatic contrast between the two characters is the center of attention. Both characters are grotesque. The grandmother is grotesque because she is a good person only on the surface. e know that she is annoying and overbearing. Because she had to have her way, bring the cat, and show the children the house with the secret panel, the family pays the ultimate price. e can see the grotesque nature of the Misfit because he is a cold-blooded criminal, but it is important to recognize how his character acts as a foil to the grandmother. It is interesting that these two seemingly different individuals almost make a connection by the end of the story. However, it is because of….

defendant entitled to dispute the courts characterization of him or her being a danger to society?
A defendant is certainly entitled to dispute the courts characterization of him or her as being dangerous to society. This is so because everyone has the right to a fair trial. This is one of the essentials of the American Constitution.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), in fact, insists that all are presumed innocent until proven guilty and that extensive care should be taken to ensure that the court has arrived at the correct decision. In that case, it only makes sense that the defendant -- who is, after all the focus of the case - should dispute the court's characterization of her if she thinks it necessary to do so.

Articles 6, 7, 8 and 11 all tell her to do so, but the key injunction lies in Article 10 which states that:

"Everyone….

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10 Pages
Essay

Literature

Characterization and Doubling in Wuthering

Words: 3066
Length: 10 Pages
Type: Essay

. . I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul!' (139). Perhaps the scene of Heathcliff digging up her grave eighteen years after her…

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5 Pages
Essay

Literature

Characterization in Hamlet if Shakespeare's

Words: 1613
Length: 5 Pages
Type: Essay

This contrasts the identification process of medieval works, in which the reader was encouraged to identify with a hero's inhuman qualities -- inhuman virtue in the case of…

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10 Pages
Term Paper

Film

Characterization in Renior's Rules of

Words: 3305
Length: 10 Pages
Type: Term Paper

The characters in the film are multi-layered. hen we get below the surface we find that these members of the aristocracy do not present a favorable appearance at all.…

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3 Pages
Essay

Family and Marriage

Characterization in Revelation and A

Words: 803
Length: 3 Pages
Type: Essay

Her insistence of turning down the dirt road is what gets the family into trouble. She expects the family to do things her way and she expects everyone…

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5 Pages
Thesis

Literature

Characterization in Miller's Death of

Words: 1384
Length: 5 Pages
Type: Thesis

The drama is tragic but what makes it more tragic is how the father passes down the doomed dreaming legacy to his sons. Robert Spiller observes that illy…

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1 Pages
Term Paper

Sports - Women

Characterization of Shimamura in Kawabata's Snow Country

Words: 455
Length: 1 Pages
Type: Term Paper

Characterization of Shimamura in Kawabata's Snow Country Shimamura reads a great deal about the Occidental ballet without ever having attended a performance; his passion for things beyond his ken…

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6 Pages
Thesis

Literature

Characterization of Hamlet May Be

Words: 1680
Length: 6 Pages
Type: Thesis

hen we consider the character of Hamlet, it is easy to assume we are in for serious contemplation. Hamlet is not one of the easiest characters to figure out.…

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4 Pages
Term Paper

Sports - Women

Characterization of Women in 19th Century Literature

Words: 1460
Length: 4 Pages
Type: Term Paper

Characterization of Women in 19th Century Literature The short stories "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Gilman, "The Storm by Kate Chopin, and "Eveline" by James Joyce uses women characters…

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7 Pages
Thesis

Literature

Characterization The Making of a

Words: 2120
Length: 7 Pages
Type: Thesis

Jonathon Haidt agrees with this notion, suggesting that one of the most important realizations individuals can make is that people matter more than money. He states that Dickens…

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3 Pages
Essay

Music

Cather's Characterization of Paul His Imagination Is

Words: 857
Length: 3 Pages
Type: Essay

Cather's characterization of Paul, his imagination is theater. His imagined life is the theater that he has built with glitter and effects in a dream world that not…

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4 Pages
Term Paper

Black Studies - Philosophy

Dickens the Characterization of Thomas

Words: 1822
Length: 4 Pages
Type: Term Paper

Bounderby is a totally negative character, who, unlike Gradgrind is inherently corrupt and unfeeling. ith him it is not a matter of imposed principle, as with Gradgrind, but…

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image
5 Pages
Thesis

Literature

Joseph Conrad Master of Characterization

Words: 1527
Length: 5 Pages
Type: Thesis

It reveals the truth about mankind and while this may be an ugly truth, it is one of which we need to be reminded. My research in Joseph Conrad…

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6 Pages
Essay

Black Studies - Philosophy

What Is William James Characterization and Defense of Religious Faith

Words: 1727
Length: 6 Pages
Type: Essay

William James' defense of belief and faith marked the main points of his lecture entitled The Will to Believe. This philosophical treatise is introduced then followed by ten…

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image
3 Pages
Term Paper

Family and Marriage

Irony and Characterization in O'Connor's

Words: 933
Length: 3 Pages
Type: Term Paper

" The primary characters in this story are the grandmother and the Misfit and the fact that they encounter one another is another blend of the comical and the…

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2 Pages
Essay

Business - Law

Defendant Entitled to Dispute the Courts Characterization

Words: 726
Length: 2 Pages
Type: Essay

defendant entitled to dispute the courts characterization of him or her being a danger to society? A defendant is certainly entitled to dispute the courts characterization of him or…

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