Roland Barthes' Insights on Descrption

In Roland Barthes' "The Reality Effect," he provides the idea of the importance of description in telling a story. Description allows the reader to find out much about the characters, whether if it is what the characters look like, how they have their home decorated, or anything else that may give us some insight into the character's mindset. Some descriptions may seem very significant in a story, while others can be seen as somewhat unimportant. Barthes understands that descriptions allow the reader to understand the character at a more complex level. In a screenplay, for example, a character can talk for long periods of time and we may not learn anything, but the description of that character's wardrobe or home may speak volumes. A film is usually made after the screenplay has been written. The writer writes descriptions in the screenplay in order to help the director understand the meaning of the scenes and what is internally going on within the characters. It is easy for a film to just have the character say, "I'm depressed," but it is much more interesting to actually show us through action or the character's surroundings, which is what the description provides. Also, the descriptions we are given are often based on ideas that we understand, which allows meaning to be created. If a character sits on a lonesome chair in the corner of a room, that could have many different meanings for us. Descriptions allow us to come to an understanding about a character without having someone come right out and say it. They allow the reader to create meaning in their own way. The writer may have certain ideas of what he/she wants to convey, but it is the reader's job to understand what that message is and the only way to understand the message is to interpret the meanings of the descriptions. When we read something, we look for clues that bring us into the world of the character. We are provided with descriptions so we can come to an understanding of what the maker is attempting to tell us.