Types of Characters

Literature and Film

Unit 6

The element of character

●Characters, an essential element of film narrative, play a

functional role in the plot. But at their best characters don’t have

merely a technical function. We go to the movies to witness

stories about characters whom we can imagine as real people,

with complex personalities and lives.

●So when we talk about characters in movies, we consider them

both as beings who have traits, habits, and dispositions and as

formal elements in the narrative.

●Character can be revealed through the character's actions,

speech, and appearance. It also can be revealed by the

comments of other characters, and in film, by sound and

camera angles

Flat and Round

One way to discuss characters is in terms of the

complexity of their traits. English novelist and literary

theorist E.M. Forster said that there are two kinds of

characters: round and flat.

●Flat characters are one dimensional and predictable.

●Round characters are three-dimensional with many

traits even contradictory ones. They are

unpredictable, complex and capable of surprising us

in a convincing way.

Character development affects the quality of the story:

●Character development is showing the multitude of traits and

behaviors that give the literary character the complexity of a human

being.

●A flat character is not fully developed; we know only one side of the

character.

●A round character is fully-developed, with many traits--bad and good-

-shown in the story. We feel that we know the character so well that he

or she has become a real person.

●Character development is a continuum with perfectly flat characters at

one end and very round ones at the other. Every character lies

somewhere on this continuum. Round characters are usually

considered an indication of literary quality. However, characters in

folktales are almost always flat, and flatness is appropriate for minor

characters literature for children and in films. A character foil is often

flat, even if the protagonist is round.

Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance in The

Shining Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal

Lector in The Silence of the Lambs: two

psychopaths portrayed by two great

actors in two terrifying movies.

Can you tell, just by looking at them,

which of these characters is round and

which is flat? In fact, you can’t.

To judge their dimensionality, you need

to see the character in action and

understand their motives—to know

which one embodies relentless evil

(therefore, flat) and which one follows

the twists of his own diabolical

intelligence (therefore, round).

Round and flat characters may be

equally interesting, but they serve

different dramatic, narrative, ends.

Major and minor

We also distinguish between major and minor characters which

signal the relative importance of the character to the narrative.

Major Characters make the most things happen or have the most

things happen to them in the story. Plots depend on conflict, so

major characters are often called protagonists signifying “heroes”

who “win” the conflict and antagonists, those characters whose

values or behavior are in conflict with those of the protagonist.

Minor Characters are the supporting characters, functioning

usually as a means to move the plot along or of fleshing out the

motivations of the major characters

●Minor characters can serve as

witnesses, i.e. someone reporting on

the events though not directly involved

thus achieving something of an

objective report.

Witnesses

●Another function of a minor character

can be that of confidant, i.e. a close

friend of the protagonist to whom he or

she can confide in and thus disclose his

or her innermost thoughts.

Confidants

Foil Characters

An important function of minor characters is to serve as foil-

characters. A foil character is either one who is opposite to the

main character or nearly the same as the main character.

The purpose of the foil character is to emphasize the traits of the

main character by contrast, and perhaps by setting up situations in

which the protagonist can show his or her character traits.

A foil is a secondary character who contrasts with a major

character but, in so doing, highlights various facets of the main

character's personality.

A foil's role, as a contrast to the hero, may be emphasized by

adding physical contrasts.

Famous Foils

●In Hamlet, Laertes and Fortinbras, whose fathers

have been killed, are foils for Hamlet.

●In Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, Svidrigailov

is a foil to Raskolnikov, as are Sonya, Luzhin,

Razumihin, and Marmeladov, arguably.

●There is Han Solo in Star Wars, who, in the first film

of the series, stands in stark contrast to Luke

Skywalker

●In The "Harry Potter" series of books, Ron Weasley

is a foil to Harry Potter

Stereotypes

A stereotype is a character who possesses

expected traits of a group rather than being an

individual. Using stereotypes is usually

considered an indication of poor quality,

especially in cases such as members of

minority groups, people with disabilities, or

women. However, stereotypes can be useful in

furthering the story

The amount of change in a character over the course

of the story also affects its quality

A static character is one who does not

experience a basic character change during the

course of the story.

A dynamic character is one who experiences

a basic change in character through the events

of the story. This change is internal and may be

sudden, but the events of the plot should make

it seem inevitable.

The continuum of character change

There is also a continuum of character change in a story, with very

static characters at one end, and very dynamic ones at the other.

Every character lies somewhere on this continuum. Dynamism in

the protagonist is usually considered an indication of quality, but

many characters, especially in films, have only the mild amount of

change.

A character may thus be round and dynamic, round and static, or

flat and static. A flat character cannot usually be dynamic, because

you do not know enough about the flat character to notice a

change. If a character seems flat and yet seems to change, it is

usually because the characterization is not well written.

Character Arcs

●The process of transformation that

characters, usually round, dynamic

characters, undergo in a film is called

their character arc.

●For more details about the character

arcs and how it drives the plot see the

Character Arc Powerpoint in this unit.