Tools of Characterization

Characterization in The Shawshank Redemption

Location

Almost the entire movie takes place at Shawshank Prison. "Shawshank" appears in the title. We don't have any evidence to support it, but we suspect the filmmakers inserted subliminal flashes of the word in between scenes to make sure it stuck. What it boils down to is that the location in this story is immeasurably important.

We see it reflected in the characters. No one's personality out in civilized society was what it is after spending some time at Shawshank, not even for the warden or the guards. For the inmates, what little hope they had before being incarcerated, whatever bit of humanity might have been inside their hearts, has long since been beaten and humiliated out of them. The warden and guards, having been surrounded by the dregs of society for so long, have seemingly experienced some sort of "crime osmosis," because they've become just as corrupt and immoral as any of the men they watch over.

The prison works as a sort of poison, introducing itself into the characters' bloodstreams and infecting them with a sense of utter despair. Andy's the only one who is somehow able to not let Shawshank get to him, despite all the atrocities he's forced to endure. Which tells us that either he's got a will of steel, or else "denial" ain't just a river in…in…well, this isn't a geography lesson.

Props

Because Andy's the strong, silent type (mentally strong, anyway), a lot of the information we get about him has to come from his actions rather than his words. Which is probably why the three key props in the film are all connected mainly with him. Unless you count Red's baseball glove as one of the most important props, in which case we wonder if you saw the same movie that we did.

First there's Andy's Bible, which serves the dual purpose of endearing himself to the Bible-thumping warden, as well as hiding his means of escape.

Which brings us to prop #2: the rock hammer. Without that bad boy, there would be no escape. Conveniently, Andy knows a little something about rocks, so his request to procure one doesn't raise too many eyebrows.

Finally, there are those girlie posters, without which Andy never could have hidden his late-night activities from prying eyes.

On the surface, these are just tools that push the story forward, but they tell us a lot about our hero as well. He's careful, resourceful, creative, courageous…and has memorized enough passages from the Bible to sway a guy who purports to be pretty religious himself. We can't contact Jesus to ask him directly, but we have a feeling he and Norton would not have been besties.

Social Status

There's a definite divide in Shawshank between the two classes—those with the power and those without it. (Andy sometimes leaves us wondering which category he actually falls into.) The social status of the characters—inmates or corrections workers—lets us know something important about them. Inmates are powerless, broke, and broken; guards are powerful, in control, and have enough money to need someone to discuss investing it.

Ignoring for a moment the fact that nearly all the inmates did something vile and illegal to put themselves there, the dynamic between guards and inmates bears a lot of similarities to that between the different economic classes out here in the real world. Many of the wealthy tend to view the poor as criminal, lazy, or inferior beings, while the poor often categorize the rich as cruel, inhuman, and missing the empathy gene. These are, of course, gross generalizations; people don't fit quite so neatly into such boxes when we separate theory from practice. However, we see this relationship clearly on display at Shawshank. We find ourselves rooting for (most of) the inmates, while the guards and the warden are obviously the "baddies." Pretty interesting, when you consider that the "good guys" are mostly murderers and rapists.

We also see someone move drastically from one social status to another, as Andy is demoted from successful, talented banker to scum of the earth.

Fine…maybe it wasn't that much of a demotion.