Round and Flat

[Jasper Fidget]

Just to add to the flat / round discussion, here are some quotes from
E.M. Forster's _Aspects of the Novel_, in which I believe -- correct me
if I'm wrong -- the terms were invented:

"Flat characters were called 'humorous' in the seventeenth century, and
are sometimes called types, and sometimes caricatures.  In their purest
form, they are constructed round a single idea or quality: when there is
more than one factor in them, we get the beginning of the curve towards
the round.  The really flat character can be expressed in one sentence
such as 'I never will desert Mr. Micawber.'  There is Mrs. Micawber --
she says she won't desert Mr. Micawber, she doesn't, and there she
is." (66)

"Or take Proust.  There are numerous flat characters in Proust, such as
the Princess of Parma, or Legrandin.  Each can be expressed in a single
sentence, the Princess's being, 'I must be particularly careful to be
kind.'  She does nothing except to be particularly careful, and those of
the other characters who are more complex than herself easily see
through the kindness, since it is only a by-product of the
carefulness." (66)
...

"One great advantage of flat characters is that they are easily
recognized whenever they come in -- recognized by the reader's emotional
eye, not by the visual eye, which merely notes the recurrence of a
proper name.  In Russian novels, where they so seldom occur, they would
be a decided help.  It is a convenience for an author when he can strike
with his full force at once, and flat characters are very useful to him,
since they never need reintroducing, never run away, have not to be
watched for development, and provide their own atmosphere" (66-67)

"A second advantage is that they are easily remembered by the reader
afterwards.  They remain in his mind as unalterable for the reason that
they were not changed by the circumstances; they moved through the
circumstances, which gives them in retrospect a comforting quality, and
preserves them when the book that produced them may decay." (67)

...

"For we must admit that flat people are not in themselves as big
acheivements as round ones, and also that they are best when they are
comic.  A serious or tragic flat character is apt to be a bore.  Each
time he enters crying 'Revenge!' or 'My heart bleeds for humanity!' or
whatever his formula is, our hearts sink." (71)

...

"The test of a round character is whether it is capable of surprising in
a convincing way.  If it never surprises, it is flat.  If it does not
convince, it is a flat pretending to be round.  [The round character]
has the incalculability of life about it -- life within the pages of a
book." (76)