The Role of Characterisation in Artistic Achievement: A Case Study on O. Henry’s “The Last Leaf”

Abstract

This article argues that characterisation plays a crucial role in understanding authorial artistic achievement in narrative organisation, an aspect that has been overlooked due to the tendency to treat characterisation as separate from other formative narrative elements. To support this claim, an adaptation of Manfred Pfister’s characterisation schema for drama is proposed, adapted to highlight characterisation in O. Henry’s short story, The Last Leaf. Subsequently, the characterisation of four characters in the narrative is analysed in accordance with the adapted framework. In this phase, the gathered data is used to 1) observe more consistently the channels through which traits are attributed to characters, 2) foreground the sources of information on a given character within the narrative, and 3) systematically determine the number of traits attributed to each character. Drawing upon theories in narratology and stylistics, these findings are then interpreted to examine the precise role of characterisation in relation to other narrative elements, such as irony, surprise, plot, narration, focalisation, and character classification. Finally, it is demonstrated that characterisation intersects with these components simultaneously, contributing to O. Henry’s authorial success. This challenges the prevailing critical view that his success relies primarily on plot organisation and surprise endings.

Keywords

• narrative discourse
• characterisation
• O. Henry
• The Last Leaf
• narrative analysis
• narratology
• stylistics

References

1. Bal, M. (2017). Narratology: Introduction to theory of narrative. University of Toronto Press. google scholar
2. Büyükkarcı, O. (2023). Anlatının söylemi: Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitüsü’nün anlatıbilimsel incelemesi (Narrative discourse: A narratological analysis of The Time Regulation Institute). Kriter. google scholar
3. Brooks, C., & Warren, R. P. ([1943] 1979). Understanding fiction (Third Edition). Prentice-Hall. google scholar
4. Cannell, M. (1937). O. Henry's linguistic unconventionalities. American Speech 12(4), 275-283. https://www.jstor.org/stable/452220 google scholar
5. Chatman, S. (1972). On the formalist-structuralist theory of character. Journal of Liteary Semantics 1(Jahresband), https://doi.org/10.1515/jlse.1972.1.1.57, 57-79. google scholar
6. Chatman, S. (1980). Story and discourse: Narrative structure in fiction and film. Cornell University Press. google scholar
7. Chatman, S. (1993). Reading narrative fiction. MacMillian Publishing Company. google scholar
8. Cuddon, A. J. (2013). A dictionary of literary terms: Revised by M. R. Habib fifth edition. google scholar

9. Culpeper, J. (2000). a Cognitive Approach to characterisation: The case of Katherina in Shakespeare's The Taming of Shrew. Language and Literature 9 (4), 291-316. google scholar
10. Culpeper, J., & Mcintyre, D. (2010). Activity types and characterisation in dramatic discourse. In J. Eder, F. Jannidis, & R. Schneider, Characters in fictional worlds (pp. 176-209). De Gruyter. google scholar
11. Culpeper, J. (2014). Language and characterisation: People in plays and other texts. Routledge. google scholar
12. Culpeper, J., & Quintanilla, C. F. (2017). Fictional characterisation. In M. A. Juckers, Pragmatics of fiction (pp. 93-128). De Gruyter Motion. google scholar
13. Dervişcemaloğlu, B. (2022). Çözülemeyen bulmaca: Anlatıcı üzerine tartışmalar (The puzzle unsolved: Discussions on the narrator). Dergah. google scholar
14. Forman, H. J. (1908). O. Henry's short stories. The North American Review, 187(630), 781783. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25106141 google scholar
15. Garvey, J. (1978). Characterisation in narrative. Poetics 7(1), 63-78. google scholar
16. Genette, G. (1983). Narrative discourse: An essay in method (Translated by Jane E. Lewin): Cornell University Press. google scholar
17. Greimas, A. J. (1966). Semantic structurale. Larousse. google scholar
18. Henry, O. (1995). The last leaf. In O. Henry, O. HENRY-100 selected stories (pp. 178-184). Wordsworth Classics. google scholar
19. Herman, D. (2013). Story telling and the sciences of mind. The MIT Press. google scholar
20. Herman, L., & Vervaeck, B. (2005). Handbook of narrative analysis. University of Nebraska Press. google scholar Jahn, M. (2017). Narratology: A guide to theory of narrative. English Department, University of Cologne. google scholar
21. James, H. ([1972]1984). Theory of fiction (Edited with an introduction by Henry E. Miller Jr.), The University of Nebraska Press. google scholar
22. Klauk, T. & Tillmann K. (2014). Telling vs. Showing. In The living handbook of narratology, by Peter Hühn Et al. Hamburg University http://www.lhn.uni-hamburg.de/article/telling-vs-showing. google scholar
23. L. W., Payne, Jr. (1918). The Humor of O. Henry. Texas Review, 4(1), 18-37. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43465761 google scholar
24. Levy, A. ([1993] 2008). The culture and commerce of American short story. Cambridge University Press. google scholar
25. Long, E. H. (1949). O. Henry: The Man and his work. University of Pennsylvania Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2921650 google scholar
26. Margolin, U. (1983). Characterisation in narrative: Some theoretical prolegomena. Neophilologus 67, 1-14. google scholar
27. Margolin, U. (1986). The doer and the deed: Action as a basis for characterisation in narrative. Poetics Today, 205–225, Vol (7), (2). google scholar
28. Margolin, U. (2005). Character. In D. Herman, M. Jahn, & M.-L. Ryan, Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory (pp. 52–57). Routledge. google scholar
29. Margolin, U. (2007). Character. In D. Herman, The Cambridge companion to narrative (pp. 66-79). Cambridge University Press. google scholar
30. Monterio, G. (1973). Hemingway, Henry, and the Surprise Ending. Prairie Schooner, 47(4), 296-302. https://www.jstor.org/stable/40628651 google scholar
31. Nagel, J. (2015). The American short story handbook. Wiley Blackwell. google scholar
32. Nikolajeva, M. (2003). The rhetoric of character in children's literature. Scarecrow Press. google scholar
33. Pfister, M. ([1988]1993). The theory and analysis of drama. Cambridge University Press. google scholar
34. Prince, G. (2003). Dictionary of narratology. University of Nebraska Press. google scholar
35. Rimmon-Kenan, S. (2005). Narrative fiction. Routledge. google scholar
36. Rollins, H. E. (1914). O. Henry . The Johns Hopkins University Press, 22(2) 213–232. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27532711 google scholar
37. Schneider, R. (2001). Toward a cognitive theory of literary character: The dynamics of mental-model. Style 35(4), 607-639. google scholar
38. Scofield, M. (2006). The Cambridge introduction to American short story. Cambridge University Press. google scholar
39. Seelye, J. (2000). William Sydney Porter (O. Henry). In B. H. Graver, The Colombia companion to the twentieth century American short story (pp. 462–467). New York: Columbia University Press. google scholar
40. Semino, E. (2014). Pragmatic failure, mind style and characterisation in fiction about autism. Language and Literature 23(2), 141–158. google scholar
41. Shen, D. (2005a). How stylisticians draw on narratology: Approaches, advantages and disadvantages. Style 39 (4), 381–395. google scholar
42. Shen, D. (2005b). What narratology and stylistics can do for each Other. In J. P. Rabinowitz, A companion to narrative theory (pp. 136–149). Oxford: Blackwell Publishing. google scholar
43. Toolan, M. (2005). Narrative: A critical linguistic introduction. Routledge. google scholar
44. Todorov, T. (1977). Poetics of prose. Cornell University Press. google scholar