Long Form Character Analysis Outline

Theatre 3/4

I. OBJECTIVES
a. Olive Madison, a young women based off of Oscar from the original male version of The Odd
Couple has different things that she has to go forth to complete in an overall sense. This what
some call a super-objective, is the "overall" objective of what the character needs to do or
accomplish limda like a life goal. And for Olive in her case of being recently divorced and left
by her husband, her main or super-objective is to get a new partner or someone special to
spend her time with.
b. Major-Objectives (By Act):
c. Major-Objectives (By Scene)

II. CONFLICT
a. Conflicts of Objectives – When opposing objectives of characters collide. (Pull from your
objectives sections, then decide which character has a conflicted objective and where that
conflicts within the text of the play.)
b. Role Conflicts – a self-image conflict; arise from characters opposing images of themselves and
each other.
i. Man v Man: In this section you write about how you see yourself vs how others see you.
ii. Man v Nature/Environment:
iii. Man v Self:
iv. Man v Destiny:
v. Man v Ideas:

III. WILLPOWER
a. Look at the characters within your conflict of objectives.
b. For each pair (you and the other character); distinguish who is the driving character and who is
the passive character. At least one should be driving.

IV. VALUES
a. How does your character distinguish right from wrong? Good from bad? Etc.
b. How do your character’s values vary from that of the other characters in the show? Relate it
back to conflict in this section.
c. How do the values affect the character’s objectives?

V. PERSONALITY TRAITS
a. Consistent patterns in behavior, mannerism, etc that your character exhibits throughout the
piece.
b. List out all of traits you have. Group the “like” traits together. Around what group of people do
you exhibit this specific cluster or traits and why? For example, if you have punctual,
passionate, empathetic, hot-tempered, controlling, depressed, etc you might group passionate,
hot-tempered and controlling together, as these all work off of one another.

VI. COMPLEXITY (HINT: NONE OF YOUR CHARACTERS ARE ONE-DIMENSIONAL)

1
Devine 2018
 a. Is your character a one-dimensional, two-dimensional or three-dimensional.
b. Do they progress and why? This revolves around self-awareness and the potential for self-
awareness.

VII. RELATIONSHIPS
a. Primary relationships: Who are the various antagonists (to your protagonist) throughout the
piece.
b. Secondary Relationships: Any non-antagonist character that your character comes into contact
with.

VIII. THE SCORE OF A RULE - Break this in a series of external and corresponding internal events.
a. External: Elle discovers Warner is now engaged to Vivian and decides to apply for Harvard.
b. Internal: Elle, still reeling from the emotional devastation Warner has caused her, decides to
have the willpower to overcome her despair and reignite her feelings of self-worth by applying
to an ivy league school.
c. You should have at least one to two of these for each scene your character is in.

IX. SEED/SPINE - How does this affect your characters:

a. Objectives:
b. Conflicts:
c. Values:
d. Relationships:

X. THREE MAJOR CLIMAXES:

a. Climax 1:
b. Climax 2:
c. Climax 3:

XI. ACTIONS, ADAPTATIONS AND INDICATORS THIS IS YOUR SCORE AND WILL NOT BE IN THE ACTUAL
PAPER!!!
a. This will be found on your score.
i. Actions are what you know as “objectives” – listed on left side as “to ________”
ii. Adaptations as “tactics” – listed on right side as “______ ing”
iii. Indicators is a new term that should be in a different color – this refers to an emotion,
etc . . . your character indicating something – listed on right side with adaptations

All of the above should be paragraphs. You should not simply “list” anything. Keep
asking yourself “why” until you cannot ask it anymore. I am looking for analytical
analysis.

2
Devine 2018