How to Appreciate a Literary Text, Part-I

Hello Friends... 

Sure, we all are doing well... Be careful, we must stay fit and shouldn't fall ill getting our studies affected. We shall eat and drink healthy, exercise regularly, and won't avoid our domestic and social responsibilities. And whatever time we get for ourselves at the end of the day, we must study hard for most of the time, so that we learn to think... and learn. We simply cannot afford to stop thinking, for we are learners, and we are the chosen ones who got the scope to learn... 

Let's learn to think first...

Understanding a Literary Text

Here we meet again after quite a gap to settle a very basic query, - how to appreciate a literary text, be it for some academic reason, or for some non-academic pursuit like leisure-reading and all. In order to get a good grasp over the entire process, here we would try to discuss and comprehend how meaning is communicated through any literary text. After all, all texts get composed to share some meaning. Appreciation of any text, therefore, demands a thorough dissemination of all the possible meanings conveyed through the text,- direct or indirect, intentional or even unintentional.

So, as we have intended, this discussion is going to help young learners to pick up the necessary skills to appreciate any literary text. Besides, it's also going to help aspiring young authors to learn how to edit and compose their write-ups in a more enticing way,- for once we learn how a literary text conveys meaning, we are free to use our skill the way we want to, - be it like a reader, or as an author.

The Literal Meaning And the Underlying Meaning beneath the Literal/Surface Meaning

Whenever we go through a text, we come across the literal meaning immediately. Who might have faced a challenge to make out the meaning of a menu card at some restaurant, right? But in a literary text, we might actually have a wide range of meanings underneath the literal, or the surface meaning of the text. The main challenge of a reader is to decode these underlying meanings underneath the literal meaning of a text. These underlying layers of meanings are mostly hinted through various elements of a literary composition indirectly, for it has now long been the solemn tradition of an author not to tell directly but to hint at the intended meanings subtly.

The Responsibility of The Readers

So, it has now been the responsibility of reader to search for the underlying meanings in a text. And in the quest, a reader might very well discover not only the meanings intended by the author, but also some hidden nuances about the author her/himself which s/he never intended to share but leaked. It might be something that even the author her/himself was unaware of.

Different Elements of a Literary Text

Now it's time to check the different elements of a literary text out in order to understand how these might give us some insight into decoding the meaning conveyed. In the first part of the series, we would start with the characters...

Characters

Identifying Characters

Who are these characters? Well, characters are those who interact among themselves in the course of a text in a defined time and space, thus rolling the ball of action forward. You already know this anyway, isn't it? Let's dive a little deeper now. Shall we, for it is quite important for us to get the characters identified before we get to understand them?

Organic Characters- Human And Non-human

Do you think that characters are always human beings? Well, we mostly come across human characters as we explore the literary world for obvious reasons. Till now, we have only been dealing with human literature, and that explains the majority of human characters in our texts. But, at the same time, it is important to note that we can also have non-human characters. We come across various animals and birds as characters in the fables and some other texts as well. You might also appreciate the alien characters whom we meet in different texts. A Martian Sends a Postcard Home by Craig Raine is an interesting poem dealing with some character visiting our planet from Mars. You may check the poem out if you feel interested. However, it might be a serious debate if these non-human characters really do come up with some 'other' perspectives than human. Do you have a say on this? I am always eager to hear you out...

Inorganic Characters

However, perhaps it might be more important for us to make note of the fact that apart from these organic characters in a text, we might also come across some inorganic characters as well. If you have read Orhan Pamuk's My Name Is Red, you must have particularly noted and appreciated the inorganic characters like Red, and the Gold Coin, right? How do you think the author has come up with the typical perspectives of the inorganic characters as he has chosen to develop them? Worldly experience, empathy for other characters, and crafty imagination primarily. Would you like to add to the list?

Groups Functioning as a Single Character

Characters do not get limited to individuals only. Often we do have a group functioning as a single character through their unified action. For instance, the group of villagers, save the victim of the year, act as a single character in Shirley Jackson's short story The Lottery.

The Growth of the Characters

Characters may be categorised as per their growth pattern. They are counted as flat if they do not grow or mature essentially at all throughout the entire length of the text. Estragon and Vladimir in Samuel Becket's Waiting for Godot are fine examples of flat characters. Characters are round if they change essentially along with time like Hazel in John Green's The Fault in Our Stars. Change of characters might be internal, and/or external. Whereas internal or essential changes mostly come through introspection, or epiphany (sudden revelations), or some other motivation, external factors like some event or incident lead to external changes. While processes like introspection are mostly intellectual, external factors are purely accidental as the characters can rarely control such factors. Such changes or growth of characters are seminal for a clear understanding of the development of the plot.

Characters: On-stage And Off-stage

We may very well categorise characters as on-stage characters and off-stage characters based on the simple fact if we get to see them directly interacting with other characters in real-time, or is it just that we get their references through other characters whom we get to meet. In the former case, the characters, as we all can easily understand, are called on-stage characters, and in the later, off-stage characters. Why don't you come up with some examples here from the texts that you have already read? I will eagerly wait to read your comments down the comment box below.

Protagonist-Antagonist versus Hero-Villain

Before we move on to the next level to understand the characters, we should also get introduced to the terms like protagonist who is the major character, and antagonist who is usually the rival. Identifying characters as these is extremely important and we should not get them confused with our traditional hero and the villain. Unlike the flashy, unrealistic heroes and villains, protagonists and antagonists are more down to the earth,- they are more like us, the common man. Beowulf might be the hero with all his super-human might and virtues in the great epic Beowulf, but in the cinematic version of it, Beowulf (2007), he has been treated to some extent like a protagonist, with common human traits that includes obvious human limits. Heroes and villains divide the world into the binary of good and evil, whereas protagonists and antagonists are multidimensional, and they reflect all the shades that it might take to turn white to black or black to white. Often heroes and protagonists are contrasted with foil characters to get their traits and personalities particularly highlighted for they are the characters intended by the authors to deserve more appreciation. Wiglaf might get considered as the foil to Beowulf. At the same time, we must not forget that villains and antagonists too serve as the mirror/contrast characters to their respective heroes and protagonists through differences and/or similarities. 

Understanding Characters

Function of Characters

All these characters invoke feelings and emotions into the readers' minds through continuous intellectual comparisons and assessments. Some characters might be easier to empathise with for being closer to the real life experience of the readers, while some are difficult. But, the characters whom we find difficult to empathise with for being distant, provide us with new experiences and broaden our horizon. And that's why we get engaged with literature primarily, isn't it? And that's why we need to study them closely.

Nature, or Individual Traits of Characters

Now, as we have already attempted to identify the characters in a text along with their types, it's time to move on to the nature, or individual traits of these characters in order to understand them. If we have some characters growing, and some remaining unchanged throughout, what might be the reasons for them being so different? Our traits get defined by our history and context, and so happens with the characters in the literary texts that we attempt to read. After all, literary characters are just our own reflections, varying only in degrees. Would you deny that the confusion and dilemma that mark the unique trait of the character Hamlet in Shakespeare's Hamlet are actually the outcome of his scholarship and cultured intellect that prohibit him from acting based upon his instincts? Had he not been that much of a scholar, life might have been different for him. So, his character got defined by his educational history, his intellectual configuration, do you get it?

Perspectives of Characters

Characters' perspectives are basically the manifestations of their built up traits. Their perspectives are actually their way of looking at surrounding things and understanding them as influenced by their own background or history, personality or traits, biases and relationships. Perspectives of characters get revealed by various factors like the words they use, whatever details they provide, the way they think and decide and interact with other characters, and courses of various events if not referred to directly in the narrative. Shall we go through the opening section of My Last Duchess by Robert Browning?-

That's my last Duchess painted on the wall, 

Looking as if she were alive. I call 

That piece a wonder, now: Fra Pandolf's hands 

Worked busily a day, and there she stands.

Will't please you sit and look at her?...

What is your assumption about the speaker here? The Duke's attempt to introduce his late Duchess to someone is perceived without much struggle, right? But, is the lady really being important here? Or is it the portrait that seems to be the actual object of the Duke's focus? Shall we go through those few lines once again to check if words and phrases here are more dedicated to describe the lady, or her portrait? What information do you get about the Duchess save the fact that she is no more from the above text? On the other hand, have you counted that we get to know who drew the portrait, how quick, and how wonderfully the artist could make the portrait so living? What is going on in the Duke's mind? Surely now you can answer the questions. The character in his way of providing the listener with details there has revealed his perspective,- how he looks upon his dead wife, and how he looks upon himself as a proud art connoisseur, and thereby invites us a little more into his psychological world.

Motives of Characters

And, if we continue to study further, we also get to know their motives through descriptions (coming through the speaker/s, narrator/s, other character/s and even the characters themselves), dialogues and behaviour or action of different characters including the one/s we are focussed upon. When we understand the motives of the characters, it becomes easier to understand and appreciate them the way we find justified, and to speculate and predict the future course of action as well. If we successfully understand the motive of Whiskey Priest in Graham Greene's The Power And The Glory by listening to his inner conflicts and arguments, it won't be anymore a difficulty to get to see and appreciate the fact why he chose to return to embrace execution and death.

Description of Characters

Description of characters in any text is quite significant in the process of decoding the intended meaning. The way the author chooses to describe the characters directly or indirectly through some other characters affects the readers' expectation and interpretation of both the characters and the text. Below is the opening section from Katherine Mansfield's The Fly:

“Y’are very snug in here,” piped old Mr. Woodifield, and he peered out of the great, green-leather armchair by his friend the boss’s desk as a baby peers out of its pram. His talk was over; it was time for him to be off. But he did not want to go. Since he had retired, since his . . . stroke, the wife and the girls kept him boxed up in the house every day of the week except Tuesday. On Tuesday he was dressed and brushed and allowed to cut back to the City for the day. Though what he did there the wife and girls couldn’t imagine. Made a nuisance of himself to his friends, they supposed. . . . Well, perhaps so. All the same, we cling to our last pleasures as the tree clings to its last leaves. So there sat old Woodifield, smoking a cigar and staring almost greedily at the boss, who rolled in his office chair, stout, rosy, five years older than he, and still going strong, still at the helm. It did one good to see him.

Now, it is time for you to tell me which character impresses you the more? Who do you think is likely to be more decisive, and/or impressive in the course of events earlier and in the future? Do you now notice how the description of characters influence readers' response towards the characters?

Complexities of Characters

Textual details also reveal complexities of characters in relation to each other, how these complexities of characters arise from their own choices, actions and inactions, the inconsistency between private and professed values, as well as through other characters' attitude towards them. Would you like to read Roald Dahl's short story 'Lamb to the Slaughter' to find out how?

A Must-Read

Before we conclude our discussion on 'Characters', how about reading Riders to the Sea by J. M. Synge, if you have not read it yet? This I find to be a wonderful text which might be studied to understand every aspect of 'Characters' that we have discussed till so far. Yes, you are supposed to find examples of everything that has been referred to herein earlier. Why don't you check it out for yourselves?

A Brief Note

This is certainly going to be a very basic guideline series to read and appreciate a literary text. And you may find a lot of questions flocking into your mind that are not answered here. Please feel free to ask me about your doubts and confusions. Guided by your questions, with time, it will be updated and edited to make it more useful for you.