Micawber from Charles Dickens' David Copperfield to illustrate how a flat character can serve an important function in a story without making the entire story seem to be "flat ," unconvincing, or lacking in complexity: Put differently: although readers don't tend to relate to flat characters very easily because they're not lifelike or complex, readers do understand flat characters very easily, because they usually follow familiar formulas. For this reason, Forster wrote, flat characters “are best when they are comic," whereas "a serious or tragic flat character is apt to be a bore.”įorster uses the example of Mrs. In particular, he noted the value of a flat character’s memorability and intelligibility to readers. While Forster believed that most novels need at least one complex and fully-realized character in order to elicit a reader’s sympathy and engagement, he also believed that there were many good reasons to include flat characters in a story. Because a lack of complexity is the hallmark of a flat character, it's common for readers to have very little information about a flat character's background or the motivations behind their actions. In other words, Forster wrote, flat characters lack the ability to surprise readers, or to do so in a convincing manner. In his original definition of the term, Forster focused on the idea that flat characters are defined by a single idea or quality (like “overbearing mother” or “villain”) from which they fail to deviate in any meaningful way. Forster in his 1927 book The Aspects of the Novel. The word "flat" was first used to describe fictional characters by E.M. Here's how to pronounce flat character: flat kar-ik-ter The Origin Story of Flat Characters It just means that they are one-dimensional.
Just because a character is flat doesn't necessarily mean that they are dull or poorly-written.But any character in a story can be flat, including main characters. Minor characters are often flat characters simply because they aren't as important to the story as the main characters (so readers don't need to know a lot about them).The opposite of a flat character is a round character, or a complex and lifelike character with a multi-faceted personality and background.
Some additional key details about flat characters: The important thing about flat characters is that they never transcend or break with the formula that defines them. Typically, flat characters can be easily and accurately described using a single word (like "bully") or one short sentence (like "A naive and idealistic schoolteacher with a fragile heart of gold"). What is a flat character? Here’s a quick and simple definition:Ī character is said to be "flat" if it is one-dimensional or lacking in complexity.
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