Things You Should Know: Character Types
Episode 15
This week, Professor Pipes is discussing the four main types of characters: dynamic, static, round, and flat, plus she threw in stock characters as a bonus! That's right: dynamics aren't just in music, round isn't just a circle, and stock doesn't just mean something you buy on Wall Street.
Transcript
Hello and welcome to this “Things You Should Know” episode of Piper’s Paraphrases. I’m Professor Pipes, and today I’m here to tell you that you should know about character types!
There are four main types of characters: Dynamic, Static, Round, and Flat, but I’m also going to throw in stock characters for you. Five for the price of four? What a deal.
Dynamic characters are ones who change over time. Now I don’t just mean that they dye their hair or grow six inches. They change in important ways, usually by overcoming some big obstacle or dealing with a major conflict. Think Ebeneezer Scrooge, who learns to be more caring and to love the holidays by talking with some ghosts, or Anakin Skywalker, who eventually turns to the dark side, or Shrek, who learns to let other people into his life (and his swamp) by going on an adventure with a donkey. They drastically change as people (and ogres). Protagonists and other important characters are often dynamic.
Static characters are just the opposite. They really don’t change or evolve or grow. An easy way to remember that is to think of the word “stay.” Static characters stay the same. Minor characters, like Miss Maudie in To Kill a Mockingbird, sidekicks, like Chewbacca in Star Wars, or antagonists, like Scar in the Lion King, are more likely to be static than main characters, though there are some exceptions. Oftentimes the purpose of a static character is to help the protagonist along, give them advice, give them someone to fight against, or simply show how much a dynamic character has changed by comparison.
Round characters are also known as complex characters. And yet again, I’ve got to bring up Shrek. He mentions that ogres are like onions, because onions have layers. Well, that’s exactly what a round character is. A character with layers. And it’s easy to remember because onions are round. So round characters are complex and complicated, much like real people. They are often conflicted, dealing with internal struggles, perhaps in addition to some external ones. As I kind of mentioned, Shrek is one such character, dealing with issues of jealousy, love, confusion, anger, and self-consciousness. However, not all round characters are dynamic. Take classic Batman, for instance. He is dark and brooding and mysterious and conflicted but also a debonair playboy, and literally has two totally different identities, but he stays pretty much the same, at least in most versions of his character. Don’t @ me, you guys; I know there are lots of iterations where he changes, too. Back to the point: round characters are layered, like onions.
Flat characters are the opposite of round characters. They are defined by one basic personality trait or characteristic. That doesn’t mean they’re boring, though! In fact, sometimes they’re people’s favorites, like the lighthearted Olaf in Frozen, the panicky Rex in Toy Story, or the self-obsessed Gaston in Beauty and the Beast. Although it’s not very common, there are even some main characters who are flat, like Dracula in… well, Dracula! Now while flat characters are also generally static, the two terms mean two different things. Static refers to the fact that a character doesn’t change, whereas flat indicates that there isn’t much to a character to begin with. They’re simple and one-dimensional. Thus, flat.
Stock characters are like an extreme version of flat characters. They are stereotypical types of characters who are used over and over again in stories through the ages, like the mad scientist, the dumb jock, the stuck up cheerleader, or the girl next door. Unfortunately, sometimes you’ll also see racist, sexist, or otherwise bigoted stereotypes play out in the form of stock characters, especially in older books and movies. Thankfully, those have mostly fallen out of favor. Stock characters act like fillers, since a story would get too complicated if you tried to focus on and round out everybody.
That’s all for this “Things You Should Know” episode of Piper’s Paraphrases. As always, thanks for watching. Now go forth, read a bunch, and be good people.
