Revealing Characters through Action and Dialogue in Susan Hill’s A Kind Man and A Question of Identity
Keywords:
Susan Hill, characterisation, action, dialogueAbstract
This thesis examines Susan Hill’s craft of character creation through action and dialogue in A Kind Man and A Question of Identity. In A Kind Man, Hill presents characters whose moral dispositions are revealed through their interactions, responses to grief, and community reactions within an ordinary social microcosm, evoking a parable-like realism and ethically charged narrative. In A Question of Identity, Hill’s detective Simon Serrailler and other figures emerge through procedural dialogue and behavioural subtleties, where character identity is continually negotiated in the face of crime and social disruption. Through textual analysis, this study highlights how Hill’s characters become intelligible not through introspective exposition but through their speech acts and observable behaviour. The article draws on narrative theories and previous critical scholarship to argue that Hill’s characterisation foregrounds social interaction and ethical positioning, making action and dialogue principal tools in her prose craft.
References
Hill, S. (2012). A question of identity. Random House.
Hill, S. (2014). A kind man. Random House.
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