Questions About Characters 

3. Who is the story about? (These questions may be asked about the protagonist or any other character.) 

a. Is the character a man or an animal? 

b. How old is the character? 

c. Is the character male or female? 

d. What does the character look like (hair, eyes, height, build, etc.)? 

e. Is the character sane or insane? f. Is the character kind, gentle, stern, emotional, harsh, logical, rational, compassionate or exacting? Make up a list of adjectives that describe the protagonist. What words or actions on the character’s part make you choose the adjectives you do? 

g. Of what nationality is the character? Does he live in his native land or somewhere else? 

h. What does the character do for a living? Is he a professional or a blue-collar worker? Is he wealthy or impoverished? Is he content with his lot in life, or does he long to improve himself, like Pip in Great Expectations? 

i. Is the character educated? To what degree? How do you know? 

j. What does the character say about himself to other people? 

k. What do other characters think or say about him? 

l. Is the character a member of any particular religious or social group? If so, what do you know about this group? What motivates this group? What do its members feel to be important? 

m. What does the character think is the most important thing in life? How do you know this? Does the character say this out loud, or do his thoughts and actions give him away? 

n. Do the character’s priorities change over the course of the story? In what way? What causes this change? Is it a change for the better, or for the worse? 

o. How does the personality of the character reflect the values of the society (or individual) that produced the story? 

p. Is the character a type or archetype? Is he an “Everyman” with whom the reader is meant to identify? Are his struggles symbolic of human life? 

q. Is the character a sympathetic character? Do you identify with him and hope he will succeed? Do you pity him? Do you scorn or despise his weakness in some way? Why? 

4. Who else is the story about? 

a. Is there a single character (or a group of characters) that opposes the protagonist in the story? In other words, is there an antagonist? 

b. In what way is he antagonistic? What goal of the protagonist does he oppose? 

c. What actions does he take to oppose the protagonist? 

d. Is the antagonist out to do physical harm to the protagonist, violence to his reputation, his memory, his work, or his family? How do you know? 

e. How does the author’s description of the character inform you of his antagonism? Does he have any physical attributes or personality traits that mark him as antagonistic? 

f. Why does he oppose the protagonist? Does he merely belong to a different social group? Does he see the world in slightly different ways? Or is he an evil villain, like Shakespeare’s Iago? 

g. Is he reprehensible, so that none would wish to be like him? h. How do this character’s words and actions affect those around him?

 i. Does his presence corrupt? j. Is he strangely attractive? Does he draw others into his wic