Body Language in Literature

Body Language is a form of human non-verbal communication accomplished by a series of body postures, facial expressions and eye movements. We subconsciously know if someone is happy or sad, bored or excited, thrilled or sleepy just by looking at him. Even though an estimated 60-90% of all human communication consists of body language (verbal is only about 7%), we were ignorant of this language until the late 1960's when the first course appeared in an American university.

In spite of our academic ignorance, a number of professionals had managed to control their body language on a practical level for specific ends. Good actors for example, took the appropriate body postures and facial expressions to effectively communicate the feelings of the character they portrayed to their audience. Successful salesmen also used body language to gain the trust of their customers. So did swindlers and politicians. A good speaker knew when his audience was bored so that he could change his pace or his subject to reestablish the communication.

In body language a picture is worth a thousand words. It was because of this that the visual arts used it to great advantage while in literature it has been mostly neglected. If I attempt to completely describe a character's body posture, facial expressions or eye movements that portray his emotional state, you will either stop reading or fall asleep. Fortunately most emotional states can be effectively understood by one or two simple phrases. Furthermore, this simple phrase is understood much faster by the brain (subconsciously) than the word defining the emotion itself. This occurs because our mind must create the images that define an emotional state where as a body language phrase supplies the images directly.

For example, here's a line from the second page of Great Expectations (1860):

“Oh! Don't cut my throat, sir,” I pleaded in terror. “Pray don't do it, sir.”

In dialogue, it is good practise to avoid repeating what is present in the dialogue itself, and use the word 'said' for speaker attribution (See The Mechanics of Good Dialogue). “Don't cut my throat, sir” is a plead, so there is no point in repeating ourselves. Terror is an emotional state. Its equivalents in body language are understood more effectively and faster by the brain. Since the speaker is a young boy, let's say that if he was terrified his knees would tremble. So, let's rewrite the original:

“Oh! Don't cut my throat, sir,” I said. My knees trembled. “Pray don't do it, sir.”

Now reread the original and the rewrite. Haven't we improved on Mr Dickens? Here are some more examples of how I replaced the emotional state (in my first draft) with body language in my novel Fantasy Land (2008).

She became excited.

There was a sparkle in her eyes.

She wanted to think about this in private.

She turned her head and looked away, at the distance.

“So, Mr Curtis,” he said and felt uneasy about what he had to ask. “What is it you actually want?”

“So, Mr Curtis,” he said and shifted in his seat, “what is it you actually want?”

I was nervous. Now it was a matter of waiting out the hours.

I was biting my fingernails again. Now it was a matter of waiting out the hours.

Notice how each first sentence of the examples above sounds like it belongs in an older novel. The masters will always be the masters but replacing an emotional state with body language is one of the leaps literature has made in the last century.

It is not always obvious how each emotional state can be translated to body language. Body language communication can be highly localized and yet it can also be universal or even work between different species. If an author is to be effective, he must be sure that his readers will subconsciously recognize the emotional state of his characters. If his life experience cannot supply this, he may use a body language (or more correctly) an “emotion to body language dictionary”. These are now easily available online for free. By looking at how humans portray their emotions an author can then choose what will be appropriate to his particular characters, scene and setting. For an excellent general introduction to body language, have a look at The Definitive Book of Body Language (2004) by Allan and Barbara Pease.

Body language makes literature direct and effective and an author should use it to his advantage.