Literature Glossary
Don’t be an oxymoron. Know your literary terms.
Over 200 literary terms, Shmooped to perfection.
Flat Character
Definition:
We have E.M. Forster to thank for this term. He coined it to refer to characters who are one-dimensional, who lack emotional depth, and who don't change much over the course of the story. In other words, they're as flat as that bottle of Coke you left on your windowsill last week.
If you're already writing these guys off as boring, they're anything but. They do awesome things like help move the plot along, provide comic relief, or act as the big bad. In general, they make the other guys look round (and that's a good thing).
What's that? You want an example? Check out our analysis of Luzhin in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment. That's as flat as flat gets.