Character Clues
Character Analysis
Speech and Dialogue
You know that aunt everyone tries to avoid at the holiday get-together? She can talk and talk and talk… and before you know it, the evening is over, and she's the only person you've talked to all night. That's how most of the characters are in Timon of Athens. There's definitely more talk than action.
In fact, most of the characters are all talk: they tell Timon how much they love him when they really just want his stuff. It's through dialogue that we learn about Lucullus (3.1), Lucius (3.2), and Sempronius (3.3) rejecting Timon; about the Senator wanting his money back from Timon (2.1); and about Isidore and Varro's servants asking for their loans to be cashed out (2.2).
Since a lot of the guys hanging around Timon are just posers, we learn to focus on what the servants say about what's happening. The servants teach us to read between the lines when Timon's friends open up their mouths to speak to Timon. Lucullus, Lucius, and Sempronius might tell Timon that he's the best, but when he's off stage, they tell us what they really think.
It turns out you can only trust a liar when he's alone. Or with a servant.
Direct Characterization
We're told a lot about Timon by everyone around him. The Poet notes that Timon has a "large fortune" and a "good and gracious nature" (1.1.57-58). The merchant says he is a "most incomparable man, breathed, as it were, to an untirable and continuate goodness" (1.1.101-11). And the First Lord tops it off by telling us that he "outgoes the very heart of kindness" (1.1.279-280). And that's all just in the first scene.
Again and again, we're treated to some not-so-subtle characterization of Timon from just about everyone around him. It seems abundantly clear that Timon is noble, virtuous, giving, gracious, and all that good stuff. It seems like Shakespeare is going out of his way to make sure we know Timon is a good guy... or at least that these slimy posers think he's a good guy.
Does that actually make Timon a good guy? That's up for debate. Isn't he, in a way, just buying his friends' friendship? He certainly flips out when they stop acting so friendly—and he's not a lot nicer to his faithful servants, either.
If there's one thing we learn in Timon of Athens, it's that you can't always trust what you hear about people.
Clothing
When Timon rips his clothes off outside the city walls at the beginning of Act 4, he may be engaging in some true overkill. We get that he wants to have nothing to do with Athens, but roaming around naked to prove that? Go for it, dude, but we're gonna call it like we see it, and what we see is one gigantic drama king.
On the other hand, clothes are a big deal in this play: Timon's nakedness is contrasted with the rich clothes he wears before leaving Athens. We see him with expensive jewelry and big, long trains wherever he goes. We hear about the luxurious house he lives in and the wealth that he has. By the time Apemantus sees Timon in the woods, he's in rags.
Timon's change in clothes shows us the change in his character: he goes from a rich, generous guy with piles of cash to a poor beggar with nothing but rags to wear around. For a society that's totally focused on money and appearances, going around in rags is a pretty symbolic act.