No, you can't. You have to learn each character individually.
That said, when I studied Chinese, I found it easier to learn the words and how to write them compared to other languages I had learnt before. Perhaps it's just me, but I find learning symbols easier than words made up from letters.
Can you really know the tone from a Chinese character or you have to learn categories of them one by one? Vietnamese seems much better in this aspect, you instantly know how to pronounce anything you see.