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

Öz

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.

Anahtar Kelimeler

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

Kaynakça

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