“‘You think her diffident. I do not see it.’”
These passages not only serve to portray, more or less directly, the personality of Jane Fairfax, but serve also at the same time to portray indirectly the personalities of the people who are talking about her. Mrs. Elton, in particular, is very clearly exhibited. And this point leads 91 us to an examination of one of the most effective means of indirect delineation.
II. Indirect Delineation: 1. By Speech.––If the mere speech of a fictitious figure be reported with sufficient fidelity to truth, it is possible to convey through this expedient alone a very vivid sense of character. Consider the following bits of talk:––
“‘You’re not a gun-sharp? I am sorry. I could have surprised you. Apart from my gun, my tale don’t amount to much of anything. I thank you, but I don’t use any tobacco you’d be likely to carry.... Bull Durham? Bull Durham! I take it all back––every last word. Bull Durham––here! If ever you strike Akron, Ohio, when this fool-war’s over, remember you’ve Laughton O. Zigler in your vest pocket. Including the city of Akron. We’ve a little club there.... Hell! What’s the sense of talking Akron with no pants?’
“‘Did I talk? I despise exaggeration––tain’t American or scientific––but as true as I’m sitting here like a blue-ended baboon in a kloof, Teddy Roosevelt’s Western tour was a maiden’s sigh compared to my advertising work.’
“‘But the general was the peach. I presume you’re acquainted with the average run of British generals, but this was my first. I sat on his left hand, and he talked like––like the Ladies’ Home Journal. J’ever read that paper? It’s refined, Sir––and innocuous, and full of nickel-plated sentiments guaranteed to improve the mind. He was it. He began by a Lydia Pinkham heart-to-heart talk about my health, and hoped the boys had done me well, and that I was enjoying my stay in their midst.’”
These passages are taken from Mr. Kipling’s story called “The Captive.” The action is laid during the South-African war. Is it necessary to add that the 92 speaker is an American gun-inventor who has fought upon the Boer side and has been captured by the British?
One point must be considered carefully. The art of these passages lies mainly in the fact that we learn more about Zigler indirectly, from his manner of talking, than directly, from the things which he tells us of himself. His statement that he comes from Akron, Ohio, is less suggestive than his fondness for Bull Durham. Any direct statement made by a character concerning himself is of no more artistic value than if it were made about him by the author, unless his manner of making it gives at the same time an indirect evidence of his nature.
The subtlest phase of indirect delineation through speech is a conveyance to the reader, through a character’s remarks about himself, of a sense of him different from that which his statement literally expresses. Sir Willoughby Patterne, in “The Egoist,” talks about himself frequently and in detail; but the reader soon learns from the tone and manner of his utterance to discount the high esteem in which he holds himself. By saying one thing directly, the egoist conveys another and a different thing indirectly to the reader.
2. By Action.––But in fiction, as in life, actions speak louder than words: and the most convincing way of delineating character indirectly is by exhibiting a person in the performance of a characteristic action. If the action be visualized with sufficient clearness and if its dominant details be presented to the reader with adequate emphasis, a more vivid impression of character will be conveyed than through any sort of direct statement by the author. As an instance of characterization through action only, without comment or direct portrayal, let us consider the following passage from the duel scene of “The Master of Ballantrae.” Two brothers, Mr. Henry and the Master, hate each other; they fall to altercation 93 over a game of cards; and the scene is narrated by Mackellar, a servant of Mr. Henry’s:––