Scribd
Upload
113 views7 pages

Character Personality Traits

The document discusses character traits, which are descriptive adjectives that tell us the specific qualities of fictional characters. Character traits are shown through a character's thoughts, feelings, actions, choices and how those choices affect others. Readers can infer traits by looking at what a character says, thinks and does, both once and over multiple instances, to draw conclusions about their personality.

Uploaded by

LY SA Amurao II
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
113 views7 pages

Character Personality Traits

The document discusses character traits, which are descriptive adjectives that tell us the specific qualities of fictional characters. Character traits are shown through a character's thoughts, feelings, actions, choices and how those choices affect others. Readers can infer traits by looking at what a character says, thinks and does, both once and over multiple instances, to draw conclusions about their personality.

Uploaded by

LY SA Amurao II
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 7

Character Traits (Personality Traits)

Characters do things. They feel things. They hear things. They say things. They think things.
They go places. They can walk, run, leap, and jump. They may sit and rock in a rocking chair.
They may just lie in bed, sleep, and dream. But the important thing is that characters act.
These actions show us the character’s personality (“personality” means what kind of person
someone is based on their thoughts, feelings and actions): friendly, sad, nosey, happy,
lovestruck, confused, angry, etc.

When we talk about a character, we often describe that character in terms of character traits,
descriptive adjectives like “happy” or “sad” that tell us the specific qualities of the character.
They're the same kinds of words that we might use to describe ourselves or others, but we're
using them to describe fictional characters in something we've read.

The author may tell us these traits directly, but more often the author will show us these traits
in action. Our job as readers is to draw a conclusion about the character's traits (to infer them)
from what the character says, thinks, and does.

We might infer a character trait from something a character does only once, or we might draw
our conclusions from a series of things the character says and does.

The above was modified slightly by Mr. C from: http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson175/RWT186-1.pdf


To help identify a character’s personality traits, look at Look at the main character’s
personality:
• Look at the choices the character has to make and how those choices affect the
character and other characters in the story.
• Look at the character’s motives (reason for doing or not doing things).
• Look for changes in the character’s thinking, behaving or feelings.
• Think about how you relate to the character(s)—the feelings you get about the
character, such as: “She’s a real jerk,” or “I’m sad because of the way he was
treated,” etc.
Examples of Personality Traits

adventurous anxious busy cheerful


afraid arrogant calm childish
ambitious bad careful clever
angry bossy careless clumsy
annoyed brave cautious confident
confused depressed energetic gentle
cooperative determined evil grateful
courageous dishonest excited greedy
cruel disrespectful fearless grouchy
curious doubtful foolish guilty
daring eager friendly happy
demanding easygoing frustrated hard-working
dependable embarrassed funny helpful
honest kind mysterious responsible
hopeful lazy naughty rowdy
imaginative lonely nervous rude
impatient loving nice sad
impolite loyal obnoxious scared
independent mean polite selfish
intelligent messy proud serious
jealous mischievous quiet shy
silly spoiled thankful upset
smart stubborn thoughtful weak
sneaky sweet trustworthy worried
sorry talented unhappy

You might also like