A Raisin

in the
Sun
LORRAINE HANSBERRY
What
happens to
a dream
deferred ...?
https://youtu.be/CZIfdWiw3rU?si=XtczW-
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Introduction in Character
• Lena/ Mama

• Walter
While a character is
• Ruth presented, find suitable
• Travis

• Beneatha
adjectives to describe
• Asagai this character (based on
• George Murchinson
your first impressions).
• Karl Lindner
Flat or Round –
Static or Dynamic
Characters?
• Do some research on flat and round/ https://thejohnfox.com/2021/02/r
static and dynamic characters and ound-and-flat-characters-
create a checklist for each type of definitions-and-writing-guide/
character.
• Extra: Define the effect each type
may have on audiences and
readerships.
• First impressions: What about the
characters in ARITS?
E.M. Forster, Aspects of a Novel (1927)
• Flat characters were called "humours" in the seventeenth century, and are sometimes called
types, and sometimes caricatures. In their purest form, they are constructed round a single
idea or quality: when there is more than one factor in them, we get the beginning of the curve
towards the round. The really flat character can be expressed in one sentence (...)

• they are easily recognized whenever they come in—recognized by the recognized by the
reader's emotional eye, not by the visual eye, which merely notes the recurrence of a proper
name (...)
• A second advantage is that they are easily remembered by the reader afterwards. They remain
in his mind as unalterable for the reason that they were not changed by circumstances; they
moved through circumstances, which gives them in retrospect a comforting quality, and
preserves them when the book that produced them may decay. E.M. Forster
Hypotheses: Flat and Round
characters in a Raisin in the Sun
• Lena

• Walter

• Ruth

• Travis

• Beneatha

• Asagai

• George

• Karl Lindner
Mini
Workshop:
Drama
Analysis
Lena Younger
S E E TA S K C A R D ( C O LU M N I I )
Scene analysis Act I

• G1: Walter and Ruth

Analyse the characters and their relationship a portrayed in
• G2: Beneatha and Lena this scene.

• G3: George and Walter Consider what they say and do, their words, thoughts,
feelings and behaviour as expressed in dialogue and stage
• G4: Asagai and Beneatha directions.
• G5: Travis and Walter
Use word material from the workshop and CT (Focus on
Drama).

To what extent do those characters appear to be flat or

round/ static or dynamic?
Scene Analysis Act II

• Examine to what extent the characters develop in the course of

the events presented in the play.
• Karl Lindner’s visits
Evaluation: The characters in ARITS – mere
stereotypes or multidimensional individuals?

• Take out your notes from working on stereotypes in the portrayal of

African American in films.
• Examine to what extent those stereotypes are perpetuated or
undermined by Lorraine Hansberry in her play.
• DISCUSSION: ARITS – a universal and timeless play?
Extras: