uncomplicated flat charactersexhibit few distinct
traits and do not change significantly as the story
progresses.^1 This doesn’t mean that one character
classification is any more legitimate than the other.
Different types of stories call for different
approaches to character traits, behavior, and devel-
opment.
For example, the flamboyant Jack Sparrow
(Johnny Depp) is entertaining enough to drive the
spectacular success of the Pirates of the Caribbean
franchise; no one could call his character boring.
But with Jack, what we see is what we get. His
character is clearly and simply defined, and at the
end of every installment he remains the same lov-
able scoundrel he was in the opening scene. The
Pirates of the Caribbeanmovies benefit from Jack’s
flat character.
The coming-of-age drama An Education(2009;
director: Lone Scherfig; screenwriter: Nick
Hornby) calls for a round character. Jenny Mellor
(Carey Mulligan) is a complicated adolescent—
she’s smart but naive; she’s both ambitious and
insecure; she rebels against the same authorities
whose approval she craves. Jenny falls in love with
a charming older man who introduces her to a
glamorous new lifestyle of concerts, art auctions,
martinis, and sex. She quickly blossoms into a cos-
mopolitan sophisticate with no use for anything as
inane as school. But she does receive an education
when David turns out to be a thief and a con man—
a married con man at that. Jenny enters the story
as a bright girl and leaves it as a wise woman.
Of course, as with most things in the movies,
round and flat characters exist, not in absolutes,
but along a continuum that adjusts according to
narrative and cinematic needs. Some characters
are rounder than others, and vice versa. And flat
characters are no more limited to crowd-pleasing
blockbusters than are round characters confined to
sophisticated dramas.
No one could call the hyperkinetic and provoca-
tive Black Swan(2010; director: Darren Aronofsky;
screenwriter: Mark Heyman) a simplistic movie.
Natalie Portman’s powerful performance as Nina, a
ballerina driven to madness by her quest to inhabit128 CHAPTER 4 ELEMENTS OF NARRATIVE
(^1) E. M. Forster, Aspects of the Novel(New York: Harcourt, Brace,
1927), pp. 103–118.
Round and flat characters in PreciousDifferent types
of stories, and even different roles within the same story, call
for different approaches to character traits, behavior, and
development. Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by
Sapphire(2009; director: Lee Daniels; screenwriter: Geoffrey
Fletcher) features two remarkable characters: the illiterate
teenager Precious (Gabourey Sidibe) and her abusive mother
Mary (Mo’Nique). Each character is captivating in her own
way, and the actresses who played them were both rightfully
praised for their powerful performances. But the narrative
requires that Mary be a flat character clearly defined by
malicious anger and an inability to change [1]. In contrast,
Precious must be a round character to drive a narrative built
around revelation and transformation. At first glance,
Precious appears to be slow-witted and apathetic, but as the
story peels away at the layers of her complex personality, we
(and Precious herself) learn that she’s capable of
imagination, ambition, bravery, intelligence, and insight [2].
1
2