Character and Conflict Analysis
A character is built from what they want, what blocks them, and what the pictures show that the words do not. Conflict is the pressure that makes those choices visible.
Success criteria
- I can distinguish a character's want from their deeper need.
- I can identify internal and external conflict.
- I can explain how visual characterisation shapes our judgement of a character.
- I can trace a small change in a character across a sequence.
Want, obstacle, change
| Question | What to look for | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| What does the character want? | A goal they pursue, protect, or hide. | Want drives plot and makes action readable. |
| What do they need? | A truth, relationship, or change they may not recognise. | Need creates depth and can complicate the want. |
| What blocks them? | A person, system, belief, memory, or physical limit. | Obstacle turns want into conflict. |
| What do they choose? | A decision under pressure. | Choice reveals values more than dialogue does. |
| What changes? | A belief, relationship, self-image, or status. | Change is the character arc, even when the plot stays small. |
Internal and external conflict
Internal conflict
The character is divided against themselves: loyalty versus honesty, fear versus ambition, guilt versus self-protection. Comics can show this through posture, silence, framing, and repeated images.
External conflict
The character is opposed by another person, a group, a system, or an environment. Comics can show this through staging, relative size, who occupies the centre of the panel, and who is cut off at the edge.
Model analysis
This model describes a fictional page from a graphic novel called The Blue House. It is not a published extract.
In this panel, the low camera angle makes the caseworker appear powerful while Iris is framed against the door, as if she is already leaving. The desk occupies the lower third of the image, creating a physical barrier between them. Iris's words insist on independence, but her hands are hidden outside the panel, so the reader cannot see whether she is steady or trembling. The visual and verbal information pull in different directions: she claims control, while the composition places her at the edge of the room. This suggests that her independence is partly a performance.
Notice the paragraph does not just label a technique. It explains what the choice does to the reader's judgement of the character.
Analyse your text
Choose one character from the shared graphic novel. Use at least two pages as evidence.
| Question | Evidence (page and panel) | Effect on the reader |
|---|---|---|
| What does the character want? | ||
| What do they need to understand? | ||
| What is the main external obstacle? | ||
| What is the main internal conflict? | ||
| How does costume, posture, or expression show the conflict? | ||
| How does framing or panel size position them? | ||
| What changes by the end of the sequence? |
Paragraph frame
In [page/panel], [character] is positioned as [powerful/vulnerable/isolated] through [framing, angle, size, or staging]. The panel shows [specific visual detail], which suggests [inference]. This conflicts with [dialogue or caption], so the reader [effect]. The choice reveals that [character] is [conflict or change].
Check your analysis
- I named a specific page and panel, not just a general scene.
- I described what is visible before interpreting it.
- I explained the effect on the reader, not just the technique.
- I connected visual evidence to conflict or change.
- I did not treat a character's dialogue as the whole truth.
Avoid character summaries. The task is to explain how the text makes us understand the character, not to retell their story.