flat character literary definition quizlet

When you’re thinking about what is a round character, it is often round dynamic characters that come to mind. True, static characters are a bit less common. So when you’re designing your characters, it’s good to remember that sometimes the most compelling, confusing, and engaging can be both static and round.

Traveling is just who she is, and she hasn’t really changed at all. Since her choice to live on the road seems to have been instigated by the Great Recession, that might make us think she’s a dynamic character.īut the “twist” at the end of the film comes when we find out she’s always been a nomad, long before she lost her husband and came on hard times. We are dropped into Fern’s story while she’s on the road, an itinerant Amazon worker.

Her backstory continues to be revealed in bits and pieces throughout the film. Think of Fern in Nomadland, who is an excellent example. Static characters can be compelling protagonists specifically for their inability to change, which is often their downfall. Whereas, a dynamic character is always transformed by the story’s end.Ī dynamic character is always round (or eventually becomes round, through a transformational journey of some kind most likely).īut these characters does not necessarily have to be dynamic - they can remain static and still be interesting. But they do not necessarily have to change over the course of the story. The former is a ‘flat character, and the Prince is a round character who changes and develops considerably in the course of the play.Round characters are always interesting and develop to some degree over the course of the story, in that we continue to get to know them better. Shakespeare’s Henry IV (Pts I and II) provides a suitable contrast in the shape of Hotspur and Prince Hal. Micawber in Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield (1849–50) as a flat character and Becky Sharp in William Thackeray’s Vanity Fair (1847–48) as a round one. On the other hand, a ‘round’ character is a complex character with many different characteristics and develops throughout the play or story and thus alters and can surprise the readers.įorster cites Mrs. A ‘flat’ character is uncomplicated, and remains the same in the course of a story or play, and is characterized by only one or two traits. Forster in Aspects of the Novel (1927) to describe two basically different types of character- and characterization. The terms “flat and round characters” are first used by E.

Flat character literary definition quizlet