Familiar Strangers: Characterisation in H. Raddall's The Wedding Gift .
This paper discusses how In "The Wedding Gift", Thomas H. Raddall demonstrates wonderful skills of characterisation. He brings to full literary life not only such characters as Miss Kezia Barnes, Mr. Hathaway, Mr. Mears, and the Barclays, but also the harsh Nova Scotia landscape itself, which effectively functions as a character in the story. One of the key requirements of good characterisation is, of course, the quality of being memorable, and Raddall certainly achieves this quality in his story. His characters possess a vivid quality which seems to derive in part from their very humanity - they are recognisably like people we know - and in part from their very super-humanity - they are a little more extraordinary, a little more real than anybody we have met in our daily lives. 6 pgs. 10 f/c. 1b.
