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"Elisabeth Bennet" by CE Brock - scans from the book on (Public Domain) via Commons Wikimedia

surpriseįlat characters cannot surprise readers as they are predictable.įorster, Edward Morgan. Round characters are usually dynamic characters. Round characters are not easy to summarize. Sum upįlat characters can be summarized in one or two sentences. Round characters are characterized by many different, even contradicting, character traits. complexityįlat characters stay the same throughout the work.įlat characters are distinguished by one or two features. Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and Olaf in Frozen are some other examples of flat characters.Įlizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice is an example of round character Difference between flat and round characters definitionĪ flat character is a straightforward, two-dimensional character that may not be fully delineated by the author.Ī round character is a complex character whose personality, motifs, and other characteristics are fully described by the author. Micawber in Charles Dickens' David Copperfield as an example of flat characters. "A serious or tragic flat character gets boring quickly." He uses the character of Mrs. He also notes that flat characters are best used as cartoon characters. They are also easy to remember as they do not change. Although the term flat character is often used in a negative sense by modern critics, EM Foster, who first suggested these terms, uses the term merely to describe a character that can be summed up in one sentence.įoster also points out some advantages of flat characters: flat characters are easily recognized. A flat character is also only characterized by one or two features. Who is a flat character?Ī flat character is one that is straightforward and stays the same throughout the fictional work.

This is the main difference between flat and round characters. Flat characters are two-dimensional, relatively straightforward figures, while round characters are complex characters with many different properties. These two terms, flat characters and round characters, were first used by EM Forster in his book Aspects of the Novel. Static and dynamic characters are another classification. Flat and round characters are one such classification. Characters can be divided into different types according to their formation and development. round charactersĬharacters are an integral part of any literary work.