Persona

Definition of Persona
The term character has been derived from the Latin phrase personality, which means “the masks of an actor,” and is therefore etymologically linked to the dramatis personae, which refers to the listing of characters and cast in a play or a drama. It is also referred to as a “theatrical mask.” It can be described in a literary paintings as a voice or an assumed position of a individual, which represents the thoughts of a writer, or a specific person the writer desires to gift as his mouthpiece.

Most of the time, the dramatis personae are identified with the writer, although on occasion a personality can be a man or woman or an unknown narrator. Examples of personality are found, not only in dramas, but in poems and novels too.

Examples of Persona in Literature
Example #1: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (By T. S. Eliot)
“Let us pass then, you and I,
When the nighttime is spread out towards the sky
Like a affected person etherized upon a table;
Let us cross, thru positive half-deserted streets,
The muttering retreats
Of restless nights in one-night cheap hotels
And sawdust eating places with oyster-shells:
Streets that follow like a tedious argument
Of insidious intent
To lead you to an overwhelming question…
Oh, do no longer ask, “What is it?”
Let us pass and make our go to.
In the room the girls come and go
Talking of Michelangelo.”

These are the initial fifteen traces of the poem Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. The speaker is a personality of T. S. Eliot that he desires to gift to the world, even though the poet himself isn't always affected by the same mental conflict.

Example #2: My Last Duchess (By Robert Browning)
“That’s my ultimate Duchess painted at the wall,
Looking as though she had been alive. I call
That piece a wonder, now: Fra Pandolf’s hands …

“Will’t please you take a seat and take a look at her? I said
‘Fra Pandolf’ with the aid of design, for by no means read …

“At starting, is my object. Nay, we’ll pass
Together down, sir. Notice Neptune, though,
Taming a sea-horse, thought a rarity,
Which Claus of Innsbruck cast in bronze for me!”

This poem is a dramatic monologue (uses persona). The poet specifically communicates about the stunning look of the “duke” character. In this stanza, the persona is discussing the painting as the monologue opens. Through simple method the poet describes the superficiality of the duke’s person, even though it seems to be the voice of the poet placed into the mouth of the duke.

Example #3: The Old Man and Sea (By Ernest Hemingway)
“He became an antique man who fished on my own in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone
eighty-four days now with out taking a fish. In the first 40 days a boy were with him. But after forty days with out a fish the boy’s dad and mom had told him that the vintage guy became now genuinely and subsequently salao, that is the worst form of unlucky…

“The sail was patched with flour sacks and, furled, it looked just like the flag of permanent defeat.”

The first paragraph of this e book sounds as though Hemingway himself is Santiago. Through the characterization of Santiago, Hemingway is expressing his notion within the struggle in opposition to unconquerable natural forces of the world. However, it's miles as much as the character (Santiago) to determine whether he wants to exchange his luck or now not.

Example #4: Heart of Darkness (By Joseph Conrad)
“Now while I become a touch chap I had a passion for maps. I would look for hours at South America, or Africa, or Australia, and lose myself in all the glories of exploration … and while I saw one which looked particularly inviting on a map (but all of them appearance that) I would put my finger on it and say, ‘When I grow up I will go there … Well, I haven’t been there yet, and shall not strive now. The glamour’s off … well, we won’t speak approximately that…”

Marlow is probably one of the most famous character examples in novels. In this novel, Marlow is used as Conrad’s mouthpiece. In this extract, Conrad is telling us via Marlow about his own go to to the Congo, his studies of sailing to distant places, and his boyhood ambition of crusing. Hence, Marlow is used as a personality in this novel.

Function of Persona
The speaker of a dramatic monologue is also referred to as a personality. Such a monologue is presented with out remark or analysis. However, emphasis is laid on subjective qualities, and sooner or later left up to the audience to interpret it. In literature, authors use personality to specific ideas, beliefs, and voices they may be no longer capable of specific freely, because of a few restrictions, or because they can't put into words otherwise. Persona is also from time to time a function assumed via someone or a character, in public or in society.
Periphrasis Personification