"He wore a fustian tunic stained and dark." Is this direct or indirect characterization, and why?

1 Answer
Jul 24, 2016

This is indirect characterization because it shows the personality of a character.

Explanation:

There are five different methods of indirectly characterizing a character. Think of the mnemonic STEAL : S peech, T houghts, E ffects towards other characters, A ctions, and L ooks. The last one, Looks, is of importance to us. What the character looks like and how he dresses tells us about the personality of the character. "He wore a fustian tunic, stained and dark", for example, could tell us that this man is very hard working, as fustian was commonly worn by workers during the 19th century.