Writing a character analysis essay is usually a fun as it allows describing your favorite heroes of all times. As a rule, teachers do not insist on a particular personality. However, they may limit your topic choice to the specific literary work like “Hamlet” or “The Great Gatsby.”
Anyway, such type of assignment makes it possible to observe different people living in different times. If you have to write about a person who had a great historical significance, explain how it changed the world and society. If you need to work on the specific book, show the chosen character impacted the plot and other characters in your analysis.
What Makes a Character Analysis Paper Different from Other Essays?
Although a character analysis obeys most of the conventions of academic essays, including a thesis, general structure, and meaningful conclusion with the works cited page in the end, there are still some differences. A writer has to focus on the personal life story of the target person. It is important to write about his or traits, activities, interactions with people around, and role in the book. Thus, this type of essay is the only one which involves a lot of adjectives.
By pointing to the main functions of your hero in the story, you should prove whether the person is good or bad, significant or minor, etc.
To help you, we have gathered the main features of a good character analysis essay:
- Decide on the type of character. Look for all possible options in the list below. One person can have several personalities, so he or she will belong to more than a single type.
- Hint: Choose characters with multiple types to make your writing more interesting.
- Provide a detailed description of the chosen hero in your analysis.
- Write about the main conflict of the book. Point to the role of the discussed hero in it.
Examples of Different Types of Characters
You should know the type(s) of the person you describe in your analysis before you start. The tone of your essay depends on these features.
- Protagonist. The entire work usually revolves around this person: Hercules, Batman, Othello, Snowhhite.
- Antagonist. If you like the character who opposes protagonist, you deal with the antagonist. They are not necessarily entirely negative characters. The villains often go through difficult life choices, so it is more interesting to focus on them. An example of a rather contradictive antagonist from a well-known story is Faith from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
- Major. It is another adjective used to name the main characters.
- Minor. It is not that easy to write an analysis on minors as sometimes there are not enough episodes with them to judge their actions.
- Dynamic. These people are evolving throughout the book.
- Static. These people remain the same during the whole story.
- Stock. Such personalities are created according to the well-known stereotypes like nerd wearing glasses, jolly fat person, popular role model, always drunk rock musician, etc.
- Foils. These characters have to create contrast next to the main characters. It’s like a beautiful girl finding an ugly friend to look prettier next to her.
- Three-dimensional. Such heroes have several facets of their personality, so they are interesting to discuss.
- Flat. We do not recommend choosing persons with a single dimension as they might be boring to write about.
An Example of Character Analysis Organization
You can read about the structure of essay in details if you are not aware of the general academic paper organization.
Introduction paragraph
Think about something really special about the person you describe to come up with the powerful thesis statement.
Body part
Create three different subtopics that support the main point about your character. An analysis essay should always have no less than three good arguments. They should refer to the episodes from the story which prove that the hero is right/wrong, evil/good, brave/coward, etc. Each new argument must refer to the main point which is your thesis. For example, to prove that Billy from The Charmed was just a foolish teenager who stepped the wrong way because of the mad love to her sister instead of being the main antagonist of season 8, you may want to provide an in-depth analysis of the last episode of the show. The girl then recognizes her mistakes and helps the Charmed Ones to save the world from the Source of Evil. By the way, it is OK to write an analysis essay on a character from the modern story.
Conclusion
Repeat what you’ve written in your thesis statement, but this time support it with the summary of all arguments. End up your analysis essay with the intriguing fact, the question for further discussion, or make your own way to leave an impression on your reader.
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