4.1 Identification
The concept of identification with characters brings together a few of the related concepts that you have already learned about. According to Black et al. identification is ‘understanding their point of view, empathizing with their plight, and/or finding them similar to the reader’ (2019, p. 2). Identification can also be described as almost feeling that you have become a particular character, or experiencing the characters world vicariously. Identification with characters allows us to see the world from their point of view and to literally access what they are thinking (as authors often explain the thought processes of fictional characters in ways that we can never access when conversing with someone in real life). This access into the interior world of villains might have a number of consequences.
Activity 3 Inhabiting Hannibal
Choose one of the following literary villains:
- Hannibal Lecter
- Count Dracula
- Lord Voldemort
- Nurse Ratched
- Cruella de Vil
- Mr Ripley
- Morris Gerald ‘Big Ger’ Cafferty
If you do not know these villains well then using a search engine will give you some ideas to go on.
Take a moment to write a letter, written in the first person (I/me) as if you were actually that character. Start the writing with one of the following three phrases:
- People ask me the reasons, I’ll tell you the reasons …
- If I could explain to my children, I would explain to them this …
- Finally, I have been caught. This is my last letter. You will not hear from me again. Before I go I must tell you this …
Write for ten minutes.
Discussion
Having done that activity you may have noticed that some of what you have written might relate to the predicaments the villain you were inhabiting found themselves in. You might also remember what you learned about in Week 1 regarding ‘situational’ and ‘dispositional’ explanations of behaviour. Look over what you wrote and see how much of it focused on the situations the character you selected found themselves in.
Psychologists argue that identification better helps us buy into a character’s motivation (Black et al., 2019). Because the task you have undertaken asked you to inhabit that character, it is likely you wrote some information regarding that characters motivations, and it is also likely that such a first person account would encourage you to think about situations, rather than dispositions.