Character is only revealed through resistance against external constraints

Evidence

Yours is not a face that suggests an easy temper. Holbein shows us contained tension, willed constraint, subdued passion about to break out. Perplexed, you ask yourself, what should I do? How can I serve flesh and spirit? The point about our human nature is that we must go to work on it. — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1156 (#expands, via linked claim)

There were several other things he avoided as well, but which I had never considered, had never seen, because what a person does always overshadows what he does not do, and what dad didn’t do was not so conspicuous, also because there was nothing at all neurotic about him. But he never went to the hairdresser’s; he always cut his own hair. He never travelled by bus. He hardly ever did his shopping at the local shop, but always at the large supermarkets outside town. All these were scenarios where he might have come into contact with people, or have been seen by them, and even though he was a teacher by profession and thus stood in front of a class every day, and occasionally summoned parents to meetings, and also spoke to his colleagues in the staffroom every day, he still consistently avoided these social situations. What was it they had in common? That he might be assimilated into a community with no more than chance as its basis? That he might be seen in a way over which he had no control? That he was vulnerable sitting on the bus, in the hairdresser’s chair, by the supermarket till? — Karl Ove Knausgaard, A Death in the Family, 1314 (#expands, via linked claim)

In every scene, the writer’s opportunity comes at the point of change. A person doesn’t notice the street he walks down every day. But when they knock down the house on the corner, and a new vista is revealed—that’s when your character notices, and that’s when you can describe. Landscapes, streetscapes, objects, are dead in themselves. They only come alive through the senses of your character, though his perceptions, his opinions, his point of view. — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 871 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Character and temperament differ only by the project of interpretation, not by substance.; Character emerges from unresolved inner contradiction — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1156; A person’s avoidances can reveal character more than actions do — Karl Ove Knausgaard, A Death in the Family, 1314 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Character emerges from unresolved inner contradiction #expands (0.85) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 1156
• A person’s avoidances can reveal character more than actions do #expands (0.75) — Karl Ove Knausgaard, A Death in the Family, 1314
• Character is sketched through specific physical details and social pressures #qualifies (0.72) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 81
• Settings only come alive through a character noticing them at a point of change #expands (0.72) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 871