Characters in Fiction

A novel's primary purpose is to tell a story but people make the story happen. In real life, each of us is entirely unique; we are far too complex to understand or describe. In literature, characters are abbreviated to what is necessary for the story. E. M. Forster in his book Aspects of the Novel (1927) divides the characters we find in fiction into FLAT and ROUND.

FLAT characters (also called humours, types, or caricatures) in their purest form are constructed around a single idea or quality. If, for example, in all dialogue and narration of a novel, all we learn about George is that he hates his mother, then George is a flat character. He might never actually utter the words “I hate you” to his mother, but if in all his dialogue, action and thoughts he has no existence outside that phrase, no private life like the rest of us, no other pleasure other then hating his mother, then George is as flat a character as he can be. In fact he is not a character but an idea personified. Anything more we learn about George, his physical description, his hobbies, his relationship with other people, etc, work to make him more round.

Jane Austen: Emma

Jane Austen's Emma (1815) is not as accomplished as Pride and Prejudice but it is one of her better novels.

The twenty-one year old title character is described in the first sentence as handsome, clever and rich and a little later (on chapter 10) she confesses to a friend that she has “very little intention of ever marrying at all”. This appears to be terribly upsetting as we know Jane Austen's novels are virtually about women in quest of a marriage with financial security. Otherwise, we are in Austen's world. We get acquainted with a number of characters and join their dinners and dances, eavesdrop on their conversations and take walks or picnics in the country. We find out how they dress, what they eat, how they talk and think. Men “of advantage” occasionally disappear for business and their women have precious little to occupy themselves with. Servants are the silent majority. I don't remember a significant dialogue with any of them or a single name being given. I think that today's authors are far more generous with things because sometimes they do give the brand of a car or a vacuum cleaner.