‘Character' Analysis: Writing and Identity 1500–1755

In this article, I examine the sources of our modern idea of human ‘character' and its availability for ‘reading' in early modern English, tracing the evolution of the word through 1755 - the publication date of Samuel Johnson's Dictionary; by this date, the word comprehends most if not all of its current meanings. By exploring the history of the word ‘character' in the early modern period, I hope to reveal some of the ways in which ideas about written signs and texts have been woven into current notions of identity - but not so much our own identities, perhaps, as the identity of others. The purpose of this article is to suggest how the past history of the word ‘character' - its sources in the domain of writing - still animates its present usage and conditions our understanding of who others are or can be. What I will be tracing here, more precisely, is a succession of semantic shifts, or ‘extensions' of the semantic domain, of the word ‘character' over the course of this period.