Question

Select the correct text in the passage. Which line in this excerpt from "Wagner Matinee" by Willa Cather is an example of direct characterization? I owed to this woman most of the good that ever came my way in my boyhood, and had a reverential affection for her. During the years when I visited, my aunt, after cooking the three meals—the first of which was ready at six in the morning—and putting six children to bed, would often stand until midnight at her ironing board, with me at the table beside her, hearing me recite Latin conjugations, gently shaking me when my head sank down over the page. It was to her that I read my first Shakespeare. She taught me my scales and exercises, too—on the little parlor organ. She would sit beside me by the hour, darning while I struggled with the "Joyous Farmer," but she seldom talked to me about music, and I understood why. She was a pious woman; she had the consolations of religion and, to her at least, her martyrdom was not wholly sordid. Once when I had been doggedly beating out some easy passages from an old score I had found, she came up to me and, putting her hands over my eyes, gently drew my head back upon her shoulder, saying tremulously, "Don't love it so well, Clark, or it may be taken from you.Oh, dear boy, pray that whatever your sacrifice may be, it be not that."

Answer 1

Answer:

An example of direct characterization from this passage is "She was a pious woman; she had the consolations of religion and, to her at least, her martyrdom was not wholly sordid"

Explanation:

"A Wagner Matinee" is a short story by Willa Cather published in 1904. In this passage a young Bostonian named Clark, the story's narrator, is describing his Aunt's past, and her care and love for him.

In most of the lines from this passage, he describer his aunt's character indirectly by her actions and reactions to specific situations. But in this line"She was a pious woman; she had the consolations of religion and, to her at least, her martyrdom was not wholly sordid" he describes her directly. He uses adjectives pious, and phrases 'had the consolation of religion', 'her martyrdom was not wholly sordid.' to characterize her.

Direct Characterization:

It is a characterization technique in which author or any character from the story/novel describes and reveals a character by using descriptive adjectives, epithets, or phrases.

Indirect Characterization:

In this technique of characterization an author reveals a character through character's actions and reactions to specific situations and conflicts.