A simple character, or flat character, is usually defined with one or two character traits and does not change much throughout the story. A complex character, or round character, is a character whose personality and background are prominent throughout the story and are subject to change. Joseph Conrad displays an excellent use of simple and complex characters throughout his novel The Secret Agent. Some characters seem simple, but Conrad surprises the reader by turning them into complex characters. Mr. Adolph Verloc is a pornography shop owner. The fact that his house is physically connected to his “business” seems to show a lack of separation between his work and personal life. He is very fat and lazy. He stays out very late, and then keeps himself in bed until the early afternoon hours while his wife brings him breakfast. Page 13 of the novel says, He breakfasted in bed, and remained wallowing there with an air of quiet enjoyment till noon every day—and sometimes even to a later hour.” The novel mentions how Mr. Verloc “knows his business” and is not worried about his appearance. This shows one side of Mr. Verloc. He seems comfortable with not doing much, and he is too lazy to not be lazy.
It is interesting, though, how Conrad makes Mr. Verloc such a complex character by contradicting his personalities. Just a few
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When he is first introduced, he is described as short, scrawny, and ugly. While in the bar with Ossipon, he acts nonchalant, cool, and very self-satisfied. The illusion of him being superior to large, bulky Ossipon through Ossipon’s obvious insecurities makes is seem as though the Professor has everything together. In reality, he is just a small man trying to seem bigger than everyone else by bragging about deadly weapon: the bomb he carries in his jacket pocket. He makes a habit of mentioning over and over how the cops would never come near him because they know he would blow them
Conrad's psychological problems generated from the facts that he repressed his feelings and that he looked to others for approval. He hid all his feeling and emotions and judged himself based on what others saw and thought. When Miss Melon, Conrad's English teacher, asked him, "Do you want an extension?" Conrad's immediate response was "NO"(18). He rejected her offer of assistance because he felt that help took away from his dignity and self pride. Conrad internalized what everyone else said and did and judged himself based on this. Conrad thought about himself: "All his fault. All connections with him result in failure. Loss. Evil… Everywhere he looks, there is competence and good health… He does not want to contaminate, does not wish to find further evidence of his lack of worth"(116). Conrad looked at everyone else and concluded that everyone else was "ordinary" and that he was a problem. He was afraid that since he was not "normal," ...
With the stories written these days, it is hard to tell who a complex character is because the stories in itself are so complex. A complex or dynamic character is a character in a story who changes. Some change throughout the course of the story, while other character change continuously. In order to create a complex character, an author must use contradiction. Contradiction between how the character feels and their actions. The character may appear a certain way, but may act opposite. In the novel The Road by Cormac McCarthy, the protagonist is the complex character. Although his name is not known, a reader can determine how he is so complex.
Upon opening Ralph Waldo Ellison’s book The “Invisible Man”, one will discover the shocking story of an unnamed African American and his lifelong struggle to find a place in the world. Recognizing the truth within this fiction leads one to a fork in its reality; One road stating the narrators isolation is a product of his own actions, the other naming the discriminatory views of the society as the perpetrating force infringing upon his freedom. Constantly revolving around his own self-destruction, the narrator often settles in various locations that are less than strategic for a man of African-American background. To further address the question of the narrator’s invisibility, it is important not only to analyze what he sees in himself, but more importantly if the reflection (or lack of reflection for that matter) that he sees is equal to that of which society sees. The reality that exists is that the narrator exhibits problematic levels of naivety and gullibility. These flaws of ignorance however stems from a chivalrous attempt to be a colorblind man in a world founded in inequality. Unfortunately, in spite of the black and white line of warnings drawn by his Grandfather, the narrator continues to operate on a lost cause, leaving him just as lost as the cause itself. With this grade of functioning, the narrator continually finds himself running back and forth between situations of instability, ultimately leading him to the self-discovery of failure, and with this self-discovery his reasoning to claim invisibility.
To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life”.- Walter Mitty (Movie).
“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.” -E.M. Forster
The Secret Lives of Sgt. John Wilson, written by Lois Simmie, is a hybrid book featuring a nonfiction storyline with a personal, albeit fabricated, flare which gives us a glimpse into what the interior dialogue of the individuals involved the novel might have felt. The essence in focus centres around John Wilson, sometimes referred to as Jack, and the double life which he opts to play. Throughout the plot of the novel, personalities clash and emotions formerly unseen rise to the surface. One action is used as a recurring theme anchoring all of the chapters and events together, that being deception. Betrayal and deception by the hands of John Wilson were shown towards the main individuals of the novel, namely Polly, Elizabeth, and Jessie.
Veterinarian, a round character Objective Character may be defined as the unique set of traits and features that form the nature of a fictional person. Characters that the reader will remember start with a basis of reality. The writer takes a trait, the mannerisms or perhaps the appearance of someone he has known and adds to and embellishes it, drawing from his imagination. Sometimes a character is a composite. Often a character reflects the writer's own background or fantasies. The character's motivation, the "why" of his behavior is revealed through his dialogue and actions. He is the sum of everything that has happened to him in his fictional life: a character with flesh and blood and genuine emotions who brings the validity of truth to a work of fiction. (Character, http://www.writersmarket.com/encyc/C.asp#192, Retrieved on 17/06/2003). A round character is a fictional person so specifically portrayed and described as to be recognizable and individually different from any other character in a novel, play or film. The protagonist and other main participants of a work are usually round characters: Their development is complex and tends to focus on their inner person (motivations, human traits, flaws, conflicts, distinctive qualities). Hamlet, for example, is a round character. (Round Character, http://www.writersmarket.com/encyc/r.asp, Retrieved on 17/06/2003). In pre-medical times there is reference to veterinary related topics in the 14th Century manuscript 'Sachsenspiegel' (Saxons' Mirror), and in French 12th Century epics that celebrate mounted men-at-arms; they describe horses in times of health and disease, and elsewhere in the literature horse injuries have been described. (Some examples of Veterinarians in Belletrist Lit...
Round characters are people that change and grow throughout a literary work. The author provides many details in order to fully develop and change the character. An example of a round character is Luisa from “The Shunammite”, written by Inés Arredondo. Luisa is a teenage girl who goes to care for her dying Uncle Apolonio. While she is at his house, some lewd events take place. These incidents alter her life and she experiences a complete change from who she was at the beginning of her last youthful summer (391). While these changes could have come through less corruptive experiences, she was overall changed for the better from the person that she started as.
Chinua Achebe views Conrad’s use of a “narrator behind a narrator” (342) as a failed attempt to draw a “cordon sanitaire” (342) between author and perspective which is an extremely interesting conclusion. Unfortunately Achebe’s criticism falls short of recognising the power of the implicit in Conrad’s text, focusing too heavily on the obvious effect and ignoring a more profound role of this narrative technique. The double narration of the story, along with having a protagonist narrator in the first...
Ralph Ellison speaks of a man who is “invisible” to the world around him because people fail to acknowledge his presence. The author of the piece draws from his own experience as an ignored man and creates a character that depicts the extreme characteristics of a man whom few stop to acknowledge. Ellison persuades his audience to sympathize with this violent man through the use of rhetorical appeal. Ethos and pathos are dominant in Ellison’s writing style. His audience is barely aware of the gentle encouragement calling them to focus on the “invisible” individuals around us. Ralph Ellison’s rhetoric in, “Prologue from The Invisible Man,” is effective when it argues that an individual with little or no identity will eventually resort to a life of aimless destruction and isolation.
Characters are the people, animals or things found in literary work and are a fiction element. Different character types are present such as protagonist, who is the main character, and antagonist, which opposes the main character ("The Elements of Fiction").
One particular criterion character effectively supports the central idea in “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving. The character's type develops with the personality development throughout the story. Three types of characters: round, flat, and stock, appear in most stories. The round character displays a fully developed personality and full emotions. Flat characters, also known as supporting characters, do not develop fully or express complex emotions. A stock character, also known as a stereotype, fits an established characterization from real life or literature. With these three types of characters leading the reader through the story, the reader learns the events taking place as well as the changes in the character’s lives. The author keeps the reader informed of the changes affecting the characters throughout the narrative through style. When a character undergoes a fundamental change in nature or personality during the story, the character has dynamic style. However, a character without change defines a static character. Although all characters have a style and type sometimes understanding the differences appears complicated. A chart often helps establish a better understanding of character type and style.
The method of this essay is firstly to discuss Conrad's life and then to try to find out what kind of similarities and differences Heart of Darkness and The Secret Agent contain and also to try to discover how Conrad's own experiences relate to these works ( and his other works in general). I will also try to relate Conrad's works to some other writers' styles whenever I am capable of doing so despite of my poor knowledge of Conrad's contemporaries and despite of the fact that I was unable to get hold of such works as Conrad and His Contemporaries which surely would have been useful. My sources for carrying out this task are Conrad himself, his critics and my own opinions/interpretations of the two works by Conrad.
Allow me to elaborate by stating some of Achebe’s arguments and my critiques. Achebe first points on Conrad’s “adjectival insistence upon inexpressible and incomprehensible mystery.” He states that many of Conrad’s critics simply see this as a stylistic flaw. Achebe believes that Conrad’s choose “the role of purveyor of comforting myths,” this being, according to Achebe, to guarantee him not to be in conflict with the “psychological predisposition of the reader.” [pg.2]
...g: Joseph Conrad and the Literature of Personality. New York & London: Columbia University Press.