character study

American  

noun

1. a work of fiction in which the delineation of the central character's personality is more important than the plot.

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Example Sentences

Ms. Peet’s vivid blue eyes remain a major asset in “Fantasy Life,” an unforced character study that wryly observes some mild turbulence in the day-to-day existence of a group of mixed-up New Yorkers.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 26, 2026

He stars in Blue Moon - a character study of Lorenz Hart, a formerly successful songwriter struggling with the huge hit his former partner Richard Rogers is having with the musical Oklahoma!

From BBC • Feb. 11, 2026

Instead, in “Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere,” he offers a character study as biopic, riding a similar groove as his Oscar-winning 2009 directorial debut “Crazy Heart.”

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 23, 2025

Ms. Mumenthaler has constructed her character study with subtly expressionistic imagination, deploying an enveloping, finely tuned sound design and finding a transporting musical motif in Holst’s “The Planets.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 15, 2025

Percival Channing, with his carefully developed flair for character study, guessed them from the first.

From Kildares of Storm by Kelly, Eleanor Mercein