xviii qualities in different roles, most actors are not. The minute we see most actors on the
screen, we make certain assumptions about them because of their facial features, dress, physical build, and mannerisms and the way they move. Our first visual
impression may be proven erroneous as the story progresses, but it is certainly an important means of establishing character.
2. The characters in Film
The term character applies to any individual in a literary work. For purposes of analysis, character in film are customarily described by their relationship to plot,
by the degree of development given by author, and by whether or not they undergo significant character change.
- The major or central, character of the plot is the protagonist.
7
The protagonist is usually easy enough to identify: he or she is the essential character without
whom there would be no plot in the first place. It is the protagonist’s fate the conflict or problem being wrestled with on which the attention of the reader
is focused. For example, Sebastian and Arnie are the protagonist, respectively, in John Grogan’s film “Marley and Me”. Yet they are both flat characters;
Sebastian, as a friend of John who supports John as a good reporter not as a columnist. His physical feature is handsome and always flirts with women as
a playboy and Arnie as John’s boss in his office. He always appears on the screen as a nice boss for John, always support John not only in his office but
7
Pickering, James H and Hoeper, Jeffret D. Concise companion to literature.New York: MacMillan Publishing Co.,Inc. p.24
xix also in John’s family life. He always gives John suggestion about how to
make his family life always happy. -
The antagonist can be somewhat more difficult to identify, especially if it is not human being.
8
Flat characters are usually minor actors in the novels and stories in which they appear, but not always so.
9
- Round character is just the opposite. They embody a number of qualities and
traits and are complex multidimensional character of considerable intellectual and emotional depth who capacity to grow and change. Major character in
film is usually round characters, and it is with the very complexity of such characters that most of us become engrossed and fascinated. Sometimes, a
round character is enough to be able to surprise the reader or the audience without losing credibility.
10
Because such characters exhibit many characteristics, some of which may be contradictory. The terms round and flat
do not automatically demand invidious comparison. Each kind of characters has it uses in literature. And even when they are minor characters, as they
usually are flat, characters often are convenient devices to draw out and help us to understand the personalities of characters who are more fully realized.
Characters in film can also be distinguished on the basis of whether they demonstrate the capacity to develop or change as the result of their experiences.
8
Ibid p. 25
9
Ibid p. 25
10
Ibid .p.26
xx Dynamic characters exhibit this capacity; static characters do not. As might be
expected the degree and rate of some works, the development is so subtle that it may go almost unnoticed; in others, it is sufficiently drastic and profound as to cause a
total reorganization of the character’s personality or system of values and beliefs.
11
Changing in character may come slowly and incrementally over many pages and chapters, or it may take place with a dramatic suddenness that surprises, and even
overwhelms, the character. With characters who fully qualify as dynamic, such change, however and whenever it occurs, can be expected to alter subsequent
behavior in some significant and demonstrable way. Static characters leave the plot as they entered it, largely untouched by the
events that heave taken place. “Static characters, however, remain unchanged; their character is the same at the end of the story as at the beginning”.
12
Although static characters tend to be minor ones, because the author’s principal focus is elsewhere, this is not always the case.
3. The Characterization
