Tools of Characterization
Characterization in Mary Poppins
Actions
There aren't any truly terrible people in this movie: there's no Wicked Witch, no Evil Stepmother, and no Conniving Uncle. (Disney kept those for its animated features.) But there are some negative characters. Katie Nanna tells the Banks Family to shove off and ditches them, even though Michael and Jane didn't really run away from her.
Also, Dawes Sr. and Jr., who run the bank, are pretty miserable: they fire George because of a misunderstanding, which was mainly Dawes Sr.'s fault in the first place. But since hardcore jerks don't appear in Mary P.'s universe, these guys do a one-eighty: Dawes Sr., lying on his deathbed, re-hires George and promotes him to partner. Dawes Jr. brings the good news along.
Mary Poppins, Bert, and the Banks Family are all obviously good. Mary treats the kids nicely, takes them on fun and adventures, and tries to get Mr. Banks to lighten up. Bert also looks after the kids and lends a helping hand to Mary. Mr. Banks starts off less than great—tearing up the kids' ad for a nanny and throwing it in the fireplace—but ends up in a much better place, taking them to fly a kite.
Family Life
Jane and Michael's family life isn't as fraught—they're sitting pretty in that house in central London—but it's still not ideal. Mr. Banks starts off as a stern patriarch, assuming that what his kiddos need is a spare-the-rod-spoil-the-child attitude:
GEORGE: I treat my subjects, servants, children, wife with a firm but gentle hand, noblesse oblige. It's 6:03, and the heirs to my dominion are scrubbed and tubbed, and adequately fed. And so I'll pat them on the head, and send them off to bed. Ah, lordly is the life I lead!
Yeah. He has very specific ideas about how a family ought to be run:
GEORGE: A British bank is run with precision. A British home requires nothing less! Tradition, discipline, and rules must be the tools! Without them: disorder, catastrophe! Anarchy! In short, you have a ghastly mess!
But, turns out, George has it all wrong.
What the kids really need is a little love, kindness, and attention. He's the right man to deliver that—along with the kids' suffragette Mom, Winifred—but he needs Mary to show him how. Thanks to his newfound, lighthearted personality, George has made Jane and Michael's family life much better…and much less rigid.
Location
Locations shape the characters because—well, just listen to all those English accents.
But, in a deeper way, smaller-scale locations affects character too. Think about George and the way his life at the bank changes his character. He would be a naturally loving and lighthearted dude, but the place where he works has gotten him all tied up in knots on the inside.
Bert gets it right when he compares the bank to a (literally gilded) cage:
JANE: Father in a cage?
BERT: They makes cages of all sizes and shapes, you know. Bank-shaped, some of them, carpets and all.
A big part of the movie involves fixing the bank's negative affect on George. By the movie's end, though, he's able to go back to the bank without being a third-rate dad anymore—it's stopped affecting him.
Occupation
Dawes Sr.'s job as head of the bank has turned him into a miserly old coot:
DAWES SR.: If you invest your tuppence wisely in the bank, safe and sound, soon that tuppence, safely invested in the bank, will compound! And you'll achieve that sense of conquest, as your affluence expands! In the hands of the directors, who invest as propriety demands!
And George thinks that the same methods you use to run a bank can be used to run a family. These guys have gotten some strange lessons out of their jobs…
On the other hand, even though Bert's (apparently) poor and works as a chimney sweep and a one-man-band, he's happy. He's not over-loaded with worries, and he constantly breaks out into song. (Albeit, Mr. Banks does too—but they're not really happy songs until he sings, "Let's Go Fly a Kite" at the end).
Props
Mary's props demonstrate the fact that she's some kind of magical goddess/superhero. She has an apparently empty carpetbag that somehow contains tons of objects, many of them bigger than the bag itself.
When Michael gets baffled, she tells him:
MARY: Never judge things by their appearance... even carpetbags. I'm sure I never do.
So, it also gives Mary a chance to show her wisdom. One of her props, the umbrella, actually talks and lets us know a little bit about her personality, too. Its handle, shaped like a parrot's head, talks:
UMBRELLA: Yes, really. I know exactly how you feel about these children, and if you think I'm going to keep my mouth shut any longer, I'll...
MARY: That will be quite enough of that, thank you.
Even though Mary likes to act emotionally unruffled, she still feels really attached to Jane and Michael. She can't hide that from her umbrella.
Social Status
Social status shows up in the difference between upper-class people like George Banks and Dawes Sr. and working-class people like the Constable and Bert. Banks and Dawes are both cranky and worried…and totally lacking a sense of humor.
When the Constable tries to make conversation with Banks, he ends up getting a stiff invitation to have something to eat, but no real response to the conversation he was trying to make. Also, whereas George and Dawes are preoccupied about maintaining their status, Bert's totally relaxed.
He's able to look out over the rooftops of London, and tell Jane and Michael:
BERT: What did I tell ya? There's the whole world at your feet. And who gets to see it but the birds, the stars, and the chimney sweeps.
Dawes and Banks (before they change) probably wouldn't be able to appreciate the view. They'd be worrying about how their cash is doing.
Speech and Dialogue
Sometimes, George talks in a totally phony voice, acting like he's royalty presiding serenely over his family:
GEORGE: I feel a surge of deep satisfaction, much as a king astride his noble steed…When I return from daily strife, to hearth and wife, how pleasant is the life I lead!...
It sounds fun to talk that way, but it just highlights the fact that George isn't really in touch with reality. He's living inside his own idea of how things should be, not how the actually are.
On the other hand, Bert speaks with perfect sincerity. He gives George some much-needed advice, telling him to pay more attention to his kids:
BERT: You've got to grind, grind, grind at that grindstone... Though childhood slips like sand through a sieve... And all too soon they've up and grown, and then they've flown... And it's too late for you to give - just that spoonful of sugar to 'elp the medicine go down - medicine go dow-wown, medicine go down.
Preach, Bert.
Thoughts and Opinions
Mary Poppins is full of wisdom—simple but effective. She makes the major point of her philosophy known early on in the movie:
MARY: Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, the medicine go down, the medicine go down.
Mary's all about making life better through love and kindness, instead of trying to crush and dominate people. She points out that a little goes a long way, and makes things that would normally be unpleasant—like taking medicine—feel all right.
Eventually, this philosophy rubs off on George Banks. Early in the film, George is all about discipline, following the rules, and boring stuff like that. But Mary nudges him in the direction of embracing a little playful nonsense (like saying "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious") in order to lighten up his life.
When Dawes Sr. fires him, George switches to Mary's side:
GEORGE: Supercallifragilisticexpialidocious! Mary Poppins was right, it's extraordinary! It does make you feel better! Hee hee hee hee!
DAWES SR.: What are you talking about, man? There's no such word!
GEORGE: Oh yes! It is a word! A perfectly good word! Actually, do you know what there's no such thing as? It turns out, with due respect, when all is said and done, that there's no such thing as you!
Sick burn there, George.
George has remembered how to have fun again, while telling Dawes Sr. to kiss off. And Dawes Sr. does kiss off…by dying.