What is a character analysis, and why is it so important to understanding a story?

Character analysis is when you analyze a character from a story. The reason to do this is because you want to understand the character and their actions better. When you analyze what makes their key components to their personality you can see how this affects their actions, beliefs, thoughts, ideas, etc. You first need to understand the character to understand the story because a character can go to war; But, why is he going to war? Did people oppose his decision? What was his motive for going? Unless you answer these questions first you might as well be reading a suspense novel.