Character-to-Character Sentiment Analysis in Shakespeare's Plays

摘要

We present an automatic method for analyzing sentiment dynamics between characters in plays. This literary format's structured dialogue allows us to make assumptions about who is participating in a conversation. Once we have an idea of who a character is speaking to, the sentiment in his or her speech can be attributed accordingly, allowing us to generate lists of a character's enemies and allies as well as pinpoint scenes critical to a character's emotional development. Results of experiments on Shakespeare's plays are presented along with discussion of how this work can be extended to unstructured texts (i.e. novels).