1. Characterization Apparently in the past, giant snails were a major problem

2. What can you tell about the characters in this painting? Who is the protagonist? Who is the antagonist? What words come to mind about the young man in the chair?

3. Terms you must know! Protagonist: The major character of the story Antagonist: Character or force in conflict with the protagonist. Characterization: ◦Appearance: What they look like (but remember that looks can be deceiving) ◦Actions: What they do ◦Dialogue: What they say ◦How others view them (This allows us to know if either those others are biased or if we are) ◦Thoughts

4.  Speaker or narrator: You must ask yourself who the speaker of a text is. Is it the author, a character, someone not involved in the story? These questions lead to additional questions: Can you trust them, are they biased, are they saying everything, are they being ironic.

5. How do you know if you’re right? Nothing can be known without the following: ◦Details: The information that we are given is of the highest importance! You can not do anything with out thinking of those facts. ◦Diction: The words that are used that provide facts

6. “Mrs. Mooney was a butcher’s daughter. She was a woman who was quite able to keep things to herself: a determined woman. She had married her father’s foreman and opened a butcher’s shop near Spring Gardens.” -Dubliners

7. Let’s assume that we trust the narrator here and break apart the information for characterization. What words and details are you picking up and what are they revealing to you? “Mrs. Mooney was a butcher’s daughter. She was a woman who was quite able to keep things to herself: a determined woman. She had married her father’s foreman and opened a butcher’s shop near Spring Gardens.” -Dubliners

8. Astronomer’s Wife There is an evil moment on awakening when all things seem to pause. But for women, they only falter and may be set in action by a single move: a lifted hand and the pendulum will swing, or the voice raised and through every room the pulse takes up its beating. The astronomer's wife felt the interval gaping and at once filled it to the brim. She fetched up her gentle voice and sent it warily down the stairs for coffee, swung her feet out upon the oval mat, and hailed the morning with her bare arms' quivering flesh drawn taut in rhythmic exercise: left, left, left my wife and fourteen children, right, right, right in the middle of the dusty road. Take a moment and write down the details that are leaping out at you for the Astronomer’s Wife. What characterization thoughts are you having? Who is the narrator and how do they feel about her?

9. There is an evil moment on awakening when all things seem to pause. But for women, they only falter and may be set in action by a single move: a lifted hand and the pendulum will swing, or the voice raised and through every room the pulse takes up its beating. The astronomer's wife felt the interval gaping and at once filled it to the brim. She fetched up her gentle voice and sent it warily down the stairs for coffee, swung her feet out upon the oval mat, and hailed the morning with her bare arms' quivering flesh drawn taut in rhythmic exercise: left, left, left my wife and fourteen children, right, right, right in the middle of the dusty road. The details are underlined What characterization thoughts are you having? ◦Appearance: Because the woman is not physically described at this moment, she is meant to represent all women. We do get a sense that she is a small women who is thin and athletic. There is a strength about her but it does not seem apart of her character. ◦Actions: She is getting out of bed and going downstairs to make her coffee and start her day. There is a repetitivity about her actions; as though she has done this countless times before. This suggests that she is likely in a rut in her life. Who is the narrator and how do they feel about her? ◦The narrator exists outside of the plot and provides commentary on both the woman of the story and women in general. Boyle creates a very sympathetic picture of the controlled and repetitive life women can have in her opening paragraph.