I'm trying to find a novel, short story or novella, in which a character performs a one-time action, an action that is surprising and helps the reader understand the character better, ( like Meursault's murder of the Arab in Camus's The Stranger) and if possible also one in which the character performs habitual actions (repeatedly and consistently to signify a certain trait, like Eveline's dusting in James Joyce's short story.
Any help would be appreciated
Thanks!
In Tess of the d'Urbervilles, which seems to be my answer to everything, both Angel Clare and Tess perform one-time actions that were not expected. John Durbeyfield constantly tells everyone how he is descended from noble blood. He's also often drunk. There is also a minor character who paints religious slogans everywhere.
In Great Expectations, Pip's sister always wears a white apron to signify how hard she has to work, and is always declaiming how she brought Pip up by hand.
According to Aldous Huxley, D.H. Lawrence once said that Balzac was 'a gigantic dwarf', and in a sense the same is true of Dickens.
Charles Dickens, by George Orwell
Don't fully get what you are looking for: it seems like any story would fit your description. However, I suggest Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener - it seems to be what you are looking for (I think)
I wrote a poem on a leaf and it blew away...
Perhaps Dracula would fit the bill?
He had a penchant for gnawing on throats and consuming blood.
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