CHARACTERISATION IN THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
How are Characters Revealed?
It is interesting to look at the idea of contrast to discover characters. Obviously we find out what a character is
like through the 'normal' channels: What they say, do, what others say, physical appearance, relationships etc.
We can further explore character by looking at symbolism and contrast with other characters. For example,
Andy is often outdoors, in full sunshine. He wears the prisoner’s uniform of light blue and is often associated
with music. All of these things reinforce the fact that he is a 'good' person, someone who belongs in wide-open
spaces, not shut up in a dingy prison. Norton on the other hand is always dressed in dark colours. He is usually
seen indoors in a shadowy environment and it is he who punishes Andy for playing music. Immediately we can
see the contrast being set up here, the 'good' character vs the 'bad' character. It is ironic also that at the end of
the film it is Andy who gains freedom and Norton who recedes in to the final darkness of death, thus the
contrast that has been evident throughout is emphasised.
© Ministry of Education, Wellington, New Zealand (First published 1998)
Generally, in a conventional film, the principle character will possess these qualities:
* We identify with him or her
* They engage us.
We do not necessarily have to like the principle character, but we do have to be engaged by the character;
perhaps curiosity is enough. However, in almost every conventional film, the film tries to make the principle
character likable. It accomplishes this through any number of ways:
•The character has suffered some kind of loss, or faces some kind of loss
•The character is the victim of some kind of injustice.
•The character has done good for some other character
•The character experiences unrequited longing
•The character is in some way vulnerable
•The character is playful or funny
•The character has a clear goal and the drive to achieve that goal
•The character has clear motivation for wanting the goal and for being willing to work to achieve the goal
* They are the principle agent of action; generally, they act, or fail to act, and therefore "earn" their dilemma;
they act and earn the resolution.
* They grow in some way, which means that in some ways, they are naïve at the beginning of the film.
Let's look at The Shawshank Redemption, and consider how the film draws us to the principle character in a
number of ways:
A. First Impressions
When we first meet Andy Dufresne, he's in distress, waiting outside the bungalow where his wife is having an
affair with the golf pro, and so our sympathies are in his favour. Notice that we don't have to know what he's
upset about-just that he is upset. Shortly, we find that he is under assault in a courtroom. We do not yet know
whether he is guilty or not, but because the film first showed him in distress, and led us to feel concern for him,
we cannot shut off that feeling, and so when he's in court, we're in his corner when he's under cross examination
by the prosecuting attorney. First impression is the most important impression as a film works to draw us to a
character. Think about how other characters are introduced in the film-the first thing we know about Red, for
example, is that he's up for parole, and gets denied; we are sympathetic to him, because we are sympathetic
toward characters whom we perceive have unrequited desires. When we meet Captain Hadley, what do we first
learn about him? He's no nonsense; in the screenplay, he beats Andy on their first encounter. In the final cut,
he speaks crudely and in a dismissive way toward the first man off the bus, and then later uses his baton to
punish a prisoner who asks an innocuous, if sarcastic, question. The warden: when we first meet him, we know
that he is a hard task master. We also know that he will not make life easier for the prisoners, as he refuses to
tell them all but one rule (no blasphemy). Notice, too, how in our first meeting of these four characters, we see
the first seeds of their function in the film. Andy has to come to terms with himself for being emotionally aloof,
and the judge even tells him this when he passes sentence. Also, we learn almost right away what Andy's
external goal will be-to get out of prison. For Red: eventually, he gains his release, and in our first meeting, the
film already has set that arena for us. Hadley's principle role will be to use violence to move the drama
forward-to kill Fat Ass, to threaten Andy on the roof, to rid Andy of Boggs, to kill Tommy-and our first meeting
with him also rests in that arena. The warden will eventually bend the rules to his own benefit, by taking
kickbacks and bribes for his Inside Out program, and in our first meeting with him, he's telling us that he
controls the rules.
B. Secondary characters help establish primary characters
It's not enough to create a primary character, like Andy or Red, and give him the traits appropriate and
necessary to move forward the drama of a film. We can make Andy resourceful, smart, caring, emotionally
reserved-but it's not enough. We have to have a measure against which to judge his level of intelligence or
resourcefulness or emotional reserve. Generally, in a conventional film, we'll find a character or several
characters who stand in counterpoint to the principle character. This helps to fix the main character more firmly
within the trait in question. Think about the character of Fat Ass, for example. He actually serves three
purposes:
•One, he allows us to see Hadley's brutality.
•He also serves as a benchmark against which to judge Andy's strength. If he does not break on the first night,
Andy's resolve does not seem as strong as it might if Fat Ass does not break down.
•His death provides a catalyst through which we can see Andy's compassion.
Remember, on the morning on which we learn of Fat Ass's death, Andy is the only one who asks what his real
name was. Remember, Heywood tells Andy it makes no difference what his name was.
Here, we also use Heywood's insensitivity to help fix Andy's compassion for us. Likewise, the film establishes
Red's relative goodness by contrasting him with Bogs and the Sisters. Their violence helps make Red,
Heywood and the rest more acceptable to us as engaging characters. Remember, what the film is asking us to
do is to be drawn toward convicted felons, hardly he kind of character to whom we're drawn, generally. By
placing Red, Heywood, and Brooks at one end of a spectrum and putting Bogs and the sisters at the other end,
the first group of convicts becomes acceptable to us. Likewise: the film wants to establish Andy as smart; we
contrast him with Heywood, who cannot pronounce The Count of Monte Cristo or Alexandre Dumas, and who
prefers Hank Williams to Mozart. The film also contrasts Andy with Bogs: remember, it shows us Andy
convincing Bogs not to assault him sexually in the projection booth by the use of argument rather than force.
The film wants to establish Andy as altruistic, we contrast him with the warden, who wants to take for himself.
Likewise, the film wants to establish Andy as emotionally reserved-it contrasts him with the explosive anger of
Hadley.
C. Films also use secondary characters to show us the hazards of the road down which the principle
character must travel.
Remember in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, at the point in the cave? The villains have captured Indiana
and his father, and want Indiana to retrieve the Grail for them. Before Indiana sets out on his journey through
the trials toward the Grail, we see anonymous underlings attempting to solve those same puzzles, only to be
decapitated. The same mechanism functions in most conventional films-a lesser character's failure does two
things. One, it establishes the possible costs of the hero's quest, but two, it makes the hero's eventual triumph
greater, by the same principle I mentioned above when I talked about how a protagonist's characteristics are
established by the introduction of secondary characters who stand in counterpoint to the hero. In this case, we
have seen how Fat Ass functions in much this same way-to show us how difficult it is to survive the first night
in prison without breaking down. But the character of Brooks also functions here-to show us the hazards of
freedom, for Andy but more for Red. Brooks also serves to foreshadow the end of Act II, after Andy has bee
released from solitary. Depressed, he asks Heywood for six feet of rope; the film intends that we fear Andy will
kill himself, and that feeling is heightened because Brooks did hang himself. Brook's suicide makes the
possibility that Andy will kill himself seem all the more likely.
D. Conventional films also always put the principle character in the most extreme straits, and give them
little resources with which to overcome the tests they face.
In the case of Shawshank Redemption, Andy has to face formidable opposition from two fronts-from the sisters
and from official quarters. Note how both camps of opposition are similar, in that each uses violence to gain
what it wants. The principle character must overcome the opposition by standing on his own, through his or her
own devices.
E. Many conventional films employ some kind of mentor for the protagonist, for several reasons.
Note here how Andy earns Red as a mentor but then, at the midpoint, moves beyond his mentor, as he must,
since a hero must complete his journey on his own. Films use mentors for several reasons. Practically, to
ground the audience in what the hero must do to achieve his goals. Practically, also, to show the hero the ropes
of the world in which he finds himself. But also, films, as we will see, rely on the use of mile markers, if you
will, that allow us to measure the hero's progress toward his goal. One such mile marker is the mentor. In the
beginning, the mentor functions to show us that the hero is naïve or that the hero is unprepared for his quest; the
mentor also shows us the direction in which the hero must move. Note how tight the film is, in the way in
which it uses Red as a mentor. First of all, Red acquires things for Andy-his rock hammer, his poster, his breath
of fresh air when he bribes the guards to allow Andy and the others to work on the roof. Where is it that Andy
moves beyond Red? When he is able to acquire things on his own-in his case, when he acquires the books and
assorted sundries for the library. He demonstrates that he has learned the lesson of the master, and then he can
move past the master, which he does-also when he accomplishes something similar to what Red has done, by
bringing a breath of liberation into the prison, when he plays the Mozart. Remember that Red had introduced
the concept of freedom earlier, on page 28-34, when he took every one up to the roof to work out of doors.
After this midpoint, Andy has now earned the right to tell his mentor something, to try to teach his mentor some
lesson (of hope) and to give his mentor a gift, just as his mentor has given him gifts previously. Again, notice
how the film stays tight by having the gift that Andy gives to Red be connected to the moment at which he first
asserts his independence-both center on music.
F. The hero must be altruistic and must earn every advance he makes toward his goal.
It's clear that this operates in Shawshank Redemption. Andy acts out of altruism to gain beer for his co-workers,
and therefore earns both the Rita Hayworth poster and the disposal of Bogs, after he has done something to
benefit Hadley. Andy earns his way out of the laundry and into the library after he passes a test in his initial
encounter with the warden. He earns the revelation of his innocence by helping Tommy undertake getting his
GED.
G. Generally, a hero will either change or face the possibility of change within the story. A character's
journey generally is both internal and external.
If you look at the two primary characters in The Shawshank Redemption, it's clear that each undergoes an
internal journey. Both Red and Andy have grown by the film's end-interestingly, both are the only prisoners
(aside from Tommy) who acknowledge their guilt. Andy acknowledges that, although he did not pull the trigger
when his wife died, his lack of engagement caused her to leave him. Red tells Andy that he is the only guilty
man in all of Shawshank Prison. It's clear too that Red has changed by the end of the film-his third parole
hearing clearly reveals that (see below, on repetition). This is the pattern that most conventional heroes followhe or she much first undergo a necessary internal change before he or she can earn the external change.
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