Character Types
Ms. Jordan
6th-Grade Reading
Introduction
This lesson is about the different
types of characters found in
literature. We will study each
character type so that you can
identify types of characters in stories
that you read.
Types of Characters
• Protagonist
• Antagonist
• Round characters
• Flat characters
• Static characters
• Dynamic characters
Protagonist/Antagonist
• It is easiest to think of the
protagonist and antagonist
characters as the "good guy"
and the "bad guy"
respectively. You can think of
the protagonist as the hero
and the antagonist as the
villain.
Protagonist
• The protagonist is the main character of a
story. The protagonist can be male or
female, and is "good" most of the time, but
in some instances can be "bad.“ Consider
the story “The Three Little Pigs.” In the
original story, the three pigs are the
protagonists and the wolf is the antagonist.
Antagonist
In the movie Jaws the
• The character who causes the conflict
antagonist
is notis acalled
person
against
the protagonist
the
antagonist.
it’sThe
a antagonist
SHARK! is not always
human, but can be a group or force as
well. Whatever the protagonist does that
is good, the antagonist will work to
counteract.
Round
• Characters that are described in depth,
with many details, are well-rounded
characters. They are called round
characters. If you're reading a story and
you feel like you know a character
extremely well, then most likely the
character is round. The main character in
a story is almost always round.
Flat
• Characters that are not described well, that
you're not given much information about, are
flat characters. If you draw a flat picture of a
house, for example, you can only see one side
of it. You cannot see three of the four sides.
This is how a flat character is; you can only see
a few characteristics of the character. There are
many things you cannot "see", or many details
you are not given by the author.
Round/Flat
• As a reader, judge whether or not the
character is round or flat by trying to write
down characteristics of the character.
Answer the question: What do you know
about the character? If your list is long,
with many characteristics, then the
character is round. If your list is short, or
there's not many characteristics at all,
then the character is flat.
Static/Dynamic
• The key word when dealing with the difference
between static and dynamic characters is
"change.“ Do not focus on changes that
happen TO a character, but rather, changes that
happen WITHIN a character.
Static
• In order for a character to be considered a
static character, the character must
remain basically the same throughout the
entire story. The character does not
undergo any internal changes.
Dynamic
• A dynamic character is a character that
undergoes an internal change sometime
between the beginning and end of the story.
The change in the character is usually crucial to
the story itself.
Review of Categories of Characters
• Protagonist
• Antagonist
• Round characters
• Flat characters
• Static characters
• Dynamic characters
Become more
aware of this
as you read
and watch
movies!