Characters

A character is a person portrayed in a narrative work. This ‘person’ can also be a personified animal or object, like the animals in Animal Farm and the tiger in Life of Pi. Most main characters undergo a kind of development through the novel by experiences from different events. This development is seen as one of on the main aspects of a novel nowadays. Character development can be growing up, gaining insight or improve or change one’s status in society.

Flat vs. round

The idea of flat and round characters came from E.M. Forster in his book Aspects of the Novel. Flat and round deal with the complexity of a character. Round characters are the protagonist and antagonist, but other characters can also be round. These characters are complex, having many characteristics.  Flat characters are two-dimensional cardboard-cut-outs.  Flat can be interesting in what they do, but they are simple, at times cliché and predictable.

Dynamic vs. static

‘Round’ tell something about how the characters are, dynamic tells how they develop. Very often round characters are also dynamic, but just is not always the case. Static characters remain the same throughout the story. There is no change in their behaviour.

 

 


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