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Interpreting Character | L-1
COMPREHENSION SKILLS PRACTICE
One
way to define the characters encountered in literature or dramatic works is to determine
if they are flat or round. Flat characters have no dimensions. They generally represent an idea or
a concept. They may exist only as a backdrop for the real action of the story, with the purpose of
helping moving along the plot in some way, even if only to give the main characters an audience
or a foil. Flat characters are frequently stereotypes of whatever group or idea they represent.
Someone who is entirely good or evil, for example, has no complexity. Round characters are more
fully developed. However, they are not always likable. Antagonists in a story will often be as well
developed as the protagonists. Often, the antagonist must be well-developed so the story can
have depth and the protagonist can have real motivation.
An author can reveal the emotions, thoughts, and motivations of characters—the things that give
characters dimension—through exposition, dialogue, or action. A reader can also learn about
characters through the reactions of other characters to them.
In Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Pip, the main character and narrator, describes his
sister and her husband in the following paragraph from the story:
My sister, Mrs. Joe Gargery, was more than twenty years older than I, and had
established a great reputation with herself and the neighbours because she had
brought me up “by hand.” Having at that time to find out for myself what the
expression meant, and knowing her to have a hard and heavy hand, and to be
much in the habit of laying it upon her husband as well as upon me, I supposed
that Joe Gargery and I were both brought up by hand.
This description reveals a great deal about all three characters. Look first at the name Pip gives for
his sister. Pip is very young and would be required to call adults who are not family by a title, such
as Mr. or Mrs., or perhaps Sir or Madam. But this person is his sister. Generally, children do not
refer to their siblings this way. This tells the reader that the two are not close and that the sister is
probably very distant in the way she relates to Pip. He also says, “knowing her to have a hard and
heavy hand, and to be much in the habit of laying it upon her husband as well as upon me.” This
means that she hits both her husband and her brother. What does this say about the characters?
Pip is very young and the sister is mean. The next paragraph gives the reader more insight into
Pip’s view of both his sister and her husband.
She was not a good-looking woman, my sister; and I had a general impression
that she must have made Joe Gargery marry her by hand. Joe was a fair man,
with curls of flaxen hair on each side of his smooth face, and with eyes of such a
very undecided blue that they seemed to have somehow got mixed with their own
whites. He was a mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy-going, foolish, dear
fellow – a sort of Hercules in strength, and also in weakness.
Notice that Pip refers to his sister’s husband by his first name. This reveals a greater familiarity
and closeness than he feels toward his sister. The reference to Hercules, who was persecuted by
Juno/Hera his whole life and performed phenomenal feats of strength and courage, is meant to
demonstrate Joe’s physical strength and endurance, his steadfastness, and the persecution he
suffered as well.
From the descriptions given, it is not entirely clear which characters will be flat and which round,
but a first impression would suggest that Pip, as main character, will be round. Joe and Mrs. Joe
Gargery both appear flat at this point in the text.
Copyright © 2007 Taylor Associates/Communications, Inc.
Reading Plus
Taylor Associates
®
Interpreting Character | L-1
COMPREHENSION SKILLS PRACTICE
Student Name_______________________________________________________________
Using the following paragraphs, decide if the characters described appear flat or round. Give a description of each using as much detail as you can find.
1. The man, after looking at me for a moment, turned me upside down, and emptied my pockets. There
was nothing in them but a piece of bread. When the church came to itself – for he was so sudden
and strong that he made it go head over heels before me, and I saw the steeple under my feet – when
the church came to itself, I say, I was seated on a high tombstone, trembling, while he ate the bread
ravenously.
(Charles Dickens, Great Expectations, Pip is speaking as narrator)
2. Then away out in the woods I heard that kind of a sound that a ghost makes when it wants to tell
about something that’s on its mind and can’t make itself understood, and so can’t rest easy in its
grave, and has to go about that way every night grieving. I got so down-hearted and scared I did wish
I had some company. Pretty soon a spider went crawling up my shoulder, and I flipped it off and it lit
in the candle; and before I could budge it was all shriveled up. I didn’t need anybody to tell me that
that was an awful bad sign and would fetch me some bad luck, so I was scared and most shook the
clothes off of me. I got up and turned around in my tracks three times and crossed my breast every
time; and then I tied up a little lock of my hair with a thread to keep witches away. But I hadn’t no
confidence. You do that when you’ve lost a horseshoe that you’ve found, instead of nailing it up over
the door, but I hadn’t ever heard anybody say it was any way to keep off bad luck when you’d killed a
spider.
(Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck is speaking as narrator)
3. Tom he made a sign to me – kind of a little noise with his mouth – and we went creeping away on our
hands and knees. When we was ten foot off Tom whispered to me, and wanted to tie Jim to the tree
for fun. But I said no; he might wake and make a disturbance, and then they’d find out I warn’t in.
Then Tom said he hadn’t got candles enough, and he would slip in the kitchen and get some more.
I didn’t want him to try. I said Jim might wake up and come. But Tom wanted to resk it; so we slid in
there and got three candles, and Tom laid five cents on the table for pay. Then we got out, and I was
in a sweat to get away; but nothing would do Tom but he must crawl to where Jim was, on his hands
and knees, and play something on him. I waited, and it seemed a good while, everything was so still
and lonesome.
(Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck talking about Tom Sawyer)
Copyright © 2007 Taylor Associates/Communications, Inc.