The Importance of Characterization

Characterization is the process by which the author brings a character to life. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle uses exceptional characterization throughout the novel The Hound of the Baskervilles. There are four methods of characterization which can be revealed through direct characterization and indirect characterization. The most common method of characterization is the narrator’s direct description of a character. This is a very important method as it enables the reader to have a vivid picture in their mind. The method of the character’s own words and actions or the method where the character’s reveals their own feelings allows the reader to become engulfed in the novel. The fourth and final method is how the other characters react to him and what they say about him. This allows the reader to interact with the other characters as well. Sir Henry, Mr. Barrymore and Mr. Stapleton are excellently characterized throughout the novel. Characterization is a method used by an author to develop a character.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle explicitly uses characterization to describe Sir Henry Baskerville.
The reader can clearly visualize Sir Henry when the author uses the narrator’s direct description. “The latter was a small, alert, dark-eyed man about thirty years of age, very sturdily built, with thick black eyebrows and a strong, pugnacious face” (Doyle 40). The reader can sense the grief put upon Sir Henry as the author uses characterization to describe the character’s own feelings.
“He walked slowly back the way he had come, his head hanging, the very picture of dejection” (123). The author’s technique of using the method of how other characters react to him and what they say about him enables the reader to understand how others feel about him“ Our friends title, his fortune, his age, his character, and his appearance are all in his favour, and I know nothing against him, unless it be the dark fate which runs in his family” (126). Sir Henry is thoroughly described using