There is a difference between comparing the characters and
the comparing the author's characterization. As you indicate knowing, comparing and
contrasting characters covers such points as the personality; manner of behavior and
speech; background including things like education, occupation, family etc.; goals,
motives, objectives; physical appearance; any such things that might elaborate on the
character(s) and show differences and similarities.
On the
other hand, when discussing an author's characterization of characters, you'll be
discussing such things as whether the characters are described through first person or
third person point of view. You'll also discuss whether the author uses direct
characterization (e.g., Alan Breck Stewart in Kidnapped) or
indirect characterization (e.g., David Balfour in
Kidnapped).
You'll also discuss more
complex issues, if they apply, such as how the author creates the characters through
literary structure, literary technique and genre-specific features. For instance, if it
applies, you'll discuss whether the narrator gives a reliable or unreliable view of a
character (e.g., Is the narrator biased or clear-sighted?); whether a character is
actually reliable or unreliable in their own right regardless of other characters'
opinions. If it applies, you'll discuss whether the characters display postmodernist
fragmentation or metafictional awareness, and other features of these
sorts.
In other words, you'll analyze and discuss the ways
in which the author structures and creates the character, including whether symbolism or
metaphor is attached to the character through their name (e.g., David Copperfield),
hobby, occupation (e.g., Allan Quatermain), location, etc. So in Gogol's Dead
Souls, you'll examine and analyze the text for indications of the structure,
techniques and literary styles Gogol used:
To the door of an inn in the provincial town of
N. there drew up a smart britchka—a light spring-carriage of the sort affected by
bachelors, retired lieutenant-colonels, staff-captains, land-owners possessed of about a
hundred souls, and, in short, all persons who rank as gentlemen of the intermediate
category. In the britchka was seated such a gentleman—a man who, though not handsome,
was not ill-favoured, not over-fat, and not
over-thin.
For instance,
after examining and analyzing the text, you might note that Gogol structures the story
so as to have the third person narrator use a light and ironic tone in approaching the
characterization of Chichikov. You might also note that Gogol devotes several paragraphs
to describing Chicikov's actions, belongings, attitudes and appearance before ever
revealing his name. Following the same kind of examination and analysis of Turgenev's
text in Fathers and Sons, you might note that Bazarov is introduced
amidst conversation and given a brief, to the point
description:
'Daddy,' he said, 'let me introduce you to my
great friend, Bazarov, about whom I have so often written to you. He has been so good as
to promise to stay with us.'
Nikolai Petrovitch went back quickly, and going
up to a tall man in a long, loose, rough coat with tassels, who had only just got out of
the carriage, he warmly pressed the ungloved red hand, which the latter did not at once
hold out to him.
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