Dress and appearance

Dress and appearance may be used as aids to characteri¬zation. Writers of modern drama, and stage managers, make a great point of appropriate costuming and "make up," as a help to the audience to understand the persons in the play. Chaucer, in the prologue to "The Canterbury Tales," minutely described the dress and appearance of each member of the party. But in doing so he described a type as a person. Before we are acquainted with people we are apt to judge them largely by their clothes. and to form our private opinion of the woman who wears a sleazy
pink silk shirtwaist and a soiled collar, of the man with a diamond pin and dirty finger nails. Such a man and woman may be found on later acquaintance to be pos¬sessed of all the cardinal virtues, but if so, the outcome of knowing them better in the story, as in real life, will be a surprise.
Category:Character