A study on Reşat Nuri Güntekin's novel characters within the Five-Factor Model of Personality

Reşat Nuri Güntekin, one of the distinctive novelists of modern Turkish literature, successfully reflects individual–society relations, the social structure of his period, and personal conflicts in his literary works through a style that is both realistic and romantic. In this study, the sample group formed from the narrative characters in Güntekin's novels was determined based on semiotic and literary studies concepts such as subject, helper, opponent, protagonist, norm character, and card character. These characters were then examined within the framework of the Five-Factor Personality Theory, which consists of the dimensions of extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience. The findings reveal that the characters in Güntekin's novels are not one-dimensional but are rather constructed as multifaceted personalities shaped by the combination of multiple personality factors. It has been determined that these characters possess traits that load highly or weakly on different poles of various personality dimensions.