Inference Made from the Text

Concept: Infer Character Emotions

What is a Character in a Story?

• Characters are integral parts of a story. They often help in conveying the message of the story by being a mouthpiece of several virtues or values. Without characters there cannot be any story since the story itself is a narrative of the different nuances of the characters.
• In most stories, these characters are not static but they grow with the development of the story. Their growth may be proportional to the external change in situation or the growth can be a part of their adaptation to the people around them.

What is the character’s emotion?

Emotions play a very crucial part in characters. It is the necessity of a story. A character’s emotional reaction is a response to the dramatic journey that a character undergoes and it brings an inner transformation in the character.
The emotions in a character intensify the readers’ capability to understand who the character really is. The moment we realize how the character is emotionally affected by conflicts; we start caring about the character.

How do we infer a character’s emotion from a text?

• We identify a character by their words and actions because we are not aware of their core nature. Therefore, we assume their emotions and feelings on the basis of our observation of their behavior and their speech.
• The author drops valuable hints about the significant emotional exchange between characters that help us to understand the state of mind of the characters. Sometimes it is not explicitly understood from the narrative but some words depict the hidden emotion behind characters.

1. Action:

   Authors use the action of a character and his or her own demonstration of those actions to assist the readers to understand the emotion or feelings of that character.

   Example:

   Suhana was looking here and there. She was constantly
   rubbing one hand against the other and drank two glasses
   of water at quick intervals.
   From this example, we can recognize what Suhana is feeling nervous or anxious.

2. Dialogue:

   When an author uses dialogue, he gives us a closer look at the character. It can tell the reader a lot about what the character is feeling by showing emotions through their words. A reader is able to fathom the character’s emotion through his or her tone of voice, how he or she communicates or interacts with others, and the way the words are uttered.

   Example:

   

   “I can’t wait for the weekend”, said Rahul.
   Why? What will happen on the weekend?” his friend Ashok asked.
   “My family and I are going on a long trip to Kerala. I
   have never been there before. I can’t wait to see lush
   green mountains”, said Rahul.
   From the above dialogue, we understood that Rahul is very happy. He is excited about the trip.

Common Mistake

If we don’t observe what the character is doing and saying, we will never be able to understand what the character is feeling. Readers must concentrate on the characters to get to know the characters better.