In Elizabeth Stuart Phelps story,
The Tenth of January, she uses imagery, descriptive words, and emotional writing to portray the dreary and lonely life of the protagonist, Asenath. By using gloomy and depressing descriptions of and towards Asenath, Phelps emphasizes the love and affection missing in Asenath's life, similar to the warmth and beauty missing during the winter setting. With no sensitive love from a mother or compassion from a lover, Asenath is blind to her father's deep admiration for his crippled daughter. He sees past her imperfections and appreciates her trueness and sincerity. Richard, also noted as Dick in the story, is almost created as a tease for the reader; a sense of potential love and enduring happiness for Asenath's crippled heart. Phelps uses words like "undersized, faded, ugly, and sickly" and rude remarks from strangers to portray Asenath's hideous physical appearance, ultimately making the reader have the upmost sympathy for Asenath and feel sorry for her life. Phelps develops the character further by allowing the reader to know Asenath's secret love for Dick, though later discovering his heart is for her friend, but he feels obligated to marry Asenath, as if in pity. In addition, the setting helped outline the character further, with a winter setting in a lonely and desolate industrial town. The lonely streets and settings helps illustrate the emptiness of Asenath. By using descriptive words, illustrative emotions, setting, and other characters (whether they be Dick, her father, or bystanders), Phelps interprets the components necessary for effectively depicting a character.
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