Character Clues

Character Analysis

Direct Characterization

Direct characterization is probably the tool Woolf uses most frequently to lend us insight into the story's characters. In other words, she tells it like it is. Here's a good example:

They were both in the prime of youth, or even that season which precedes the prime of youth, the season before the smooth pink folds of the flower have burst their gummy case, when the wings of the butterfly, though fully grown, are motionless in the sun. (19)

This is the initial information we receive about the young, unmarried couple, and it immediately provides us with an understanding of their age and appearance.

Actions

We learn about several of the characters through the descriptions of their actions. For instance, the old man's senility is demonstrated through his bizarre behavior:

The old man bent his ear to it [the flower] and seemed to answer a voice speaking from it. (14)

This description of his actions further emphasizes the old man's senility and helps us understand why the young man, William, bears an expression of "stoical patience." (14)

Thoughts and Opinions

The narrator frequently uses this tool—also known as mind reading—to grant us access to the interior lives of the characters. For instance, we learn about the story's first character, the married man, primarily through his thoughts:

'Fifteen years ago I came here with Lily,' he thought. 'We sat somewhere over there by a lake and I begged her to marry me all through the hot afternoon.' (3)

Through this tool, we learn that, for the man, these gardens dredge up memories of the past and especially of the woman he once intended to marry. It's poignant and relatable, and gives us a better idea of this man we're spying on.

Social Status

This tool is used most prominently in characterizing the two women whose attention is caught by the eccentric old man. The narrative reads:

Following his steps so closely as to be slightly puzzled by his gestures came two elderly women of the lower middle class, one stout and ponderous, the other rosy cheeked and nimble. Like most people of their station they were frankly fascinated by any signs of eccentricity betokening a disordered brain, especially in the well-to-do. (15)

Here we are directly told that the two women are from the working-class and that the old man is from the upper-class. The narrative makes their social statuses a bit more interesting, though, with the observation that the working-class women are "fascinated," as apparently working-class people tended to be, by eccentric, wealthy individuals—and who's to say it's not the same today? Have you ever seen "The Fabulous Life Of…" series? It's an entire show dedicated to eccentric wealthy people with more than two hundred episodes.