Jesus, Judas, and Peter: Character by Contrast in the Fourth Gospel
نویسنده
چکیده
This article explores the narrative relationship between three key figures in the Gospel of John: Jesus, Judas, and Peter. As these characters interact, patterns of contrast gradually emerge. A literary "character" is the sum of "external signs" presented by a text that "correspond to and reveal an otherwise hidden inner nature." Literary characters are therefore complexes of personal traits that correspond to the readers' experience of individuals in the "real world." Booth's influential book, The Rhetoric of Fiction, discusses two means by which narratives reveal character: "telling" and "showing." "Telling" occurs when the narrator makes direct evaluative statements or gives information not normally available in the readers' experience. "Showing" occurs when the narrator offers selective information about the actions of the characters and allows readers to draw conclusions from them. By combining "telling" and "showing" the author enables readers to develop "both intrinsic and contextual knowledge" of the characters. The kind of "telling" a narrator can offer is related to the narrator's perspective on the story. The narrator of the Gospel of John is "omniscient," which is important in relation to his
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