Characterization by Means of Verbal and Visual Transitivity in Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are (1963)

Framed with Halliday’s (1994) systemic functional grammar and Kress and van Leeuwen’s (2006) visual grammar, the paper studies verbal and visual transitivity in the construction of characters in Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are (1963). While the verbal transitivity is determined by the semantic property of a lexical verb, the visual transitivity is realized by vectors, by the shapes dominating the characters’ appearance, and by the positioning of the character on a page. The paper concludes that the dynamic relation between visual and verbal transitivity functions as an effective means of characterization that results in the formation of Max’s personality.