Literature Terms- Characterization

In the following excerpt from the novel The Mill on the Floss, George Elliot uses all four methods to characterize Tom Tulliver, a boy who is arriving home from boarding school. Tom and Maggie are Mrs. Tulliver's children; Yap is the family dog.

Each of the following statements about Tom is true. For each one, point out the lines from the reading that prove the statement, and name the method or methods of characterization used.

 

 

A gig is a light opened two wheeled carriage.

A croft is a small rented farm.

 

 

¹ Tom was to arrive early in the afternoon, and there was another fluttering heart besides Maggie's when it was late enough for the sound of the gig wheels to be expected; for if Mrs. Tulliver had a strong feeling, it was fondness for her boy.

 

 ² At last the sound came--the quick, light bowling of the gig wheels--and in spite of the wind, which was blowing the clouds about, and was not likely to respect Mrs. Tulliver's curls and cap strings, she came outside the door, and even held her hands on Maggie's offending head, forgetting  all the griefs of the morning.

 

³ "There he is, my sweet lad! But Lord ha' mercy! he's got no collar on; it's been lost on the road, I'll be bound, and spoilt the set."

 

⁴ Mrs. Tulliver stood with her arms open; Maggie jumped first on one leg and then on the other; while Tom descended from the gig, and said, with masculine reticence as to the tender emotions, "Hullo! Yap--what, are you there?"

 

⁵ Nevertheless, he submitted to being kissed willingly enough, though Maggie hung on his neck in a rather strangling fashion, while his blue-gray eyes wandered toward the croft, and the lambs, and the river, where he promised himself that he would begin to fish the first thing tomorrow morning. ⁶ He was one of those lads that grow everywhere in England, and, at at twelve or thirteen years of age, look as much alike as goslings--a lad with light brown hair, cheeks of cream and roses...

 

1. Tom is somewhat careless about his clothes.

 

2. Tom does not like to display emotion to his mother and sister.

 

3. Tom is glad to be home.

 

4. Tom is an ordinary looking boy.

 

5. Tom is happy to see his family.