Character

“In my own hand”

• “The I remembered that of my original character, one part remained of me: Icould write my own hand…” (p. 63)

• “Henec the apelike tricks that he would play me, scrawling in my own hand blasphemies on the pages of books, burning the letters and destroying the portrait of my father; and indeed, had it not been for his fear of death, he would long ago have ruined himself in order to involve me in the ruin.” (p. 65)

  • Our identities are expressed in, and shaped by, our names and our handwriting

What is character?
“…’character’ means both a letter or sign, a mark of writing and the ‘essential’ qualities of a ‘person’. […] The etymology of thw word is suggestive: from the Greek word kharattein, to engrave, the word becomes a mark or sign, a person’s title and hence a distinguishing mark - that which distinguishes one person from another - and from this a ‘fictional’ person from another - and from this a ‘fictional’ person or a person on stage.”

• Bennett and Royle, An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory