duct of some of the extremely villainous villains of Charles Reade and Dumas seems inconceivable. The jealousy of the tulip grower in The Black Tulip and the wickedness of Milady de Winter in The Three Musketeers are hard to believe; but the plot demands that these people act as they do. In judging these stories we must discount the influence of plot on character. The setting, or environment, of a story often exercises an interesting influence on the characters. Such an influence is apt to be true to life, for environment has Influence of acter its effect on all people in real life. Sometimes setting on charit is something specific about the environment that influences the characters' lives, like the stone pits in Silas Marner, the impregnable stronghold in Lorna Doone, the house in The House of the Seven Gables, or the huge pile of earth in Sussex Gorse. But more often it is the general location, the climate, the period of history, or the character of the inhabitants that is significant. Every character in The Call of the Wild, for instance, feels the influence of the North. In The Last Days of Pompeii the characters are at the mercy of the setting. The stern Puritan community in The Scarlet Letter leaves its lasting imprint on the minds and souls of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale. The characters in Westward Ho! are animated by the enthusiasms and prejudices of the Elizabethan Age, and every individual in The Cloister and the Hearth is partly a product of the Middle Ages. In any novel setting may have a decisive influence on character. The influence The influence of one character on another is also true to life. People cannot live in communities or families without exercising an influence on of the chareach other's lives; neither can characters in a story exist independently. In Silas Marner acters on each other the influence of character on character is clear. If Squire Cass had been a different sort of man, his sons would have turned out differently; if they had turned out differently, the whole life of Silas Marner would have been different; yet Squire Cass probably never gave Silas a thought. If Molly Farren had been different, Godfrey need never have concealed his marriage and Eppie would never have come to Silas. If Nancy had been different, Godfrey could have adopted Eppie, thereby altering the development of Silas. An example of the less tangible influences of human relationships is found in The Rise of Silas Lapham. Mrs. Corey cannot call on Mrs. Lapham without exercising on her a subtle influence that leads to matters of importance to both families. The unexplainable antagonism that Penelope arouses in the Corey ladies goes far toward making all their lives unpleasant and her marriage with Tom doubly difficult. This influence of character on character exists in fiction because it exists in life. Character revealed by an alysis WAYS OF REVEALING CHARACTER Character may be revealed in many varied ways. One of the favorite methods of George Eliot, one which is followed by many modern novelists, is analysis. The author explains carefully what is going on in a character's mind, making clear the reasons for that character's motives and reactions. The analysis of the motives which caused Dunstan's theft, Godfrey's vacillation, and Nancy's unwillingness to adopt a child show how this method works. Another common method is description. This must not be confused with analysis, which is concerned with the mind of a character. Description is a word picture of the character's appearance. This method is essential, though of course other methods are combined with it. To reveal character, however, Character revealed by description the picture must do more than portray the character's outward appearance; it must suggest the qualities which go with this appearance. The picture of the Sire de Maletroit in Stevenson's short story, The Sire de Maletroit's Door, is successful in giving the actual appearance of the man, at the same time suggesting what sort of man he is. The method of dialogue is frequently used. What characters say shows what they are. This is not the same thing as saying that dialogue must be natural. Character reDialogue may be natural and yet not character- vealed by diarevealing; and sometimes it may even fail in naturalness and still be character revealing. In The Rise of Silas Lapham the dialogue, which is genuinely natural, is the chief means of character portrayal. logue dent Sometimes a single incident will reveal character as tellingly as pages of analysis, description, or dialogue. When Silas Marner pathetically patches together Character rethe pieces of his earthenware pot even though vealed by inciits usefulness has gone, we are shown more vividly than in any other way that his starved soul craves something to love. Clifford's reactions toward the rose and, later, the monkey, in The House of the Seven Gables, are a similar instance. So, too, is his blowing soap bubbles. Actions of any kind may be made telling, particularly actions at a crisis in the character's life. The minister's holding his hand over his heart vealed by in The Scarlet Letter is significant. It makes little Pearl cry out: 66 Character re actions 'Mother, he has his hand over his heart! Is it because, when the minister wrote his name in the book, the Black Man set his mark in that place? But why does he not wear it outside his bosom, as thou dost, mother?" Significant, too, is Nancy's rigid stillness on hearing Godfrey's confession in Silas Marner: "But Nancy sat quite still, only that her eyes dropped and ceased to meet his. She was pale and quiet as a meditative statue, clasping her hands on her lap. . . . He almost expected that she would presently get up and say she would go to her father's. How could she have any mercy for faults that must seem so black to her, with her simple, severe notions? But at last she lifted up her eyes to his again and spoke. There was no indignation in her voiceonly deep regret." Fiction is full of these seemingly insignificant actions which reveal character. Many are the little acts that show the shallow vanity of Hetty in Adam Bede, and the mixture of pride, childishness, affection, and loyalty of Alan in Kidnapped. In fiction, as in real life, people do significant things. Sometimes an author reveals character by a thing so slight that it passes almost unnoticed. It is not without purpose that George Eliot makes the dog vealed by little retreat under the chair as soon as Dunstan touches enters the room or that she tells us that even the pins in Nancy's pincushion were arranged in a systematic order from which she allowed no deviation. These little touches often reveal character as truly as long passages of direct analysis. Character re The motives and reactions of characters MOTIVES AND REACTIONS The most significant things about the characterization in a story, however, are the motives and reactions of the characters. Motives are the reasons which impel characters to act as they do. Reactions are the things they do or say because of these motives. The two greatest flaws possible in the characterization of any story are to make characters act without natural or credible motives and to make them react unnaturally to a situation just to satisfy the demands of the plot. The assigning of motives and the reactions which they cause is called motivation. Motives do not necessarily have to be reasonable they are not always so in real life-but they must be natural and they must be consistent with what we Motivation know of the character. In The Rise of Silas Lapham, Penelope's motives in refusing to marry Tom because he loves her instead of her sister are not reasonable, as she herself admits, but they are entirely natural and entirely consistent with Penelope's character. One of the most human stories so far as motivation is concerned is Bob, Son of Battle. The motives which impel Adam M'Adam to act as he does throughout the story are conflicting and hard to unravel, but they are in accordance with his character as his past life has molded it. His reactions are often unexpected, baffling, exasperating, but no one could fail to be touched by their human quality. He baffles and irritates and touches one's heart just as many such a warped but intensely pathetic nature does in real life. Skillful examples of motivation are to be found in Barrie's Sentimental Tommy; in the minister's spiritual agony in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter; in the mingled, contradictory impulses of the characters in all of Thackeray's and George Eliot's novels. In romantic fiction, as we have seen, motives are much more simple and elementary than in the realistic novel; in such stories we often find characters animated by a single motive. But romantic fiction has different aims and impulses from the pyschological novel; it must be judged by what it tries to do. characters as Reactions are, of course, the tangible results of motives. In Henry Esmond, many motives impel Beatrix to act as she does; her heartless selfishness is the re- Reactions of sult. In Vanity Fair the reactions of Becky Sharp to the various situations in which she finds herself are the result of a complicated network of scheming impulses. In Adam Bede, the murder which results of complex motives |