Character Analysis Method

1. INTRODUCTIONA character is set by an author from heteroclite elements (language, images kept in author's memory, perspectives on the person and world, reflecting the specificity of an epoch and lodged on his/hers consciousness etc.) and achieves density and presence through the reader's activity of re-construction. The reader collects the information spread out in the text and organizes it in a coherent assembly that needs interpretation or a hermeneutic process. If the character is defined as a flow of features spread out in the text, that are to be interpreted, than the access to these is supposed to develop some markers with orientative function. Markers are initial instruments serving to configurate the image of the character and offers a procedure to follow. What the nature of these markers is, that helps shaping the image of the character is the main interest of present paper.There are two important aspects for the method I propose: description and interpretation; that is the revaluation of the text for obtaining pertinent aspects concerning the character, forming the assembly, and the moment of understanding or achieving their meaning, when three contexts are being connected: that of the writer, of the text and the reader's. The last moment of understanding is dependent by a larger context, as the text is placed at the intersection of the historical context with the communicative one and the linguistic context. However, could we say that the reconfiguration of the character is possible outside these contexts?2. CHARACTER ANALYSIS METHODAs an element of the narrative structure, the character establishes connections with the other narrative components, of which I mention the actions, which are its distinctive patterns. As a subject or object of the narrative statements, it connects with the narrative predicates, verbs, nouns or adjectives. As I mentioned above, the method takes into account two points of view, which I briefly pose below.A. THE DESCRIPTIONThe meaning of the character is mostly encompassed within the semantic dimension of the verbs, nouns or adjectives which are being assigned to it, thus defining it. In advance, I suggest identifying these predicates which have a decisive role in establishing the identity of the subject (object) of the statement. The predicates always belong to a sequence; therefore, an important task will be the segmentation of the text into these sequences1. Being a coherent unit of the text, the sequence is a narrative cell: it has a nucleus or a centre of significance, represented by the predicates that express a simple or complex demand/ a theme. Around this nucleus, the textual material is organised in order to enhance the content and the central implications by partially reinforcing them. There are two essential parts of the sequence, depending on their level of display: on the surface, through factual sentences, and within depth, highlighting a certain demand. I consider that the text is an ensemble of such narrative cells or sequences between which different kinds of links are established, that may be identified through reading. The latter is the only method providing the possibility of establishing the ensemble of demands governing the text. The repeatability criterion could be considered as a possibility for the identification of a demand, but sometimes a single occurrence of a predicate may be even more significant for what the character stands for. As an example, for Nana, a character from the short story Rem written by Mircea Cartarescu, the revealing predicates are to narrate, to tell, to meet with, to dream, to play. For Vali, another character from the same text, the defining predicates are to listen, to interpret, to get together with. I keep the affirmative form without losing sight of their negative one, which is equally important. Therefore, the initial meaning of the character is given by developing the semantic plan of these predicates, divided into opposing semiotic traits. …