From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

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Round characters or rounded character are characters which have been fully developed by an author, physically, mentally, and emotionally, and are detailed enough to seem real. A round character is usually a main character, and is developed over the course of the story. A flat character, is its opposite, having hardly any development whatsoever.

Protagonists are normally round characters, though notable exceptions (such as Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron exist. Antagonists are often round as well, though comedic villains may be almost farcically flat. Examples of round characters from various genres include Humbert Humbert of Nabokov’s Lolita, Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler of Mitchell's Gone with the Wind, Vladimir Taltos of Brust’s series of novels, Frodo Baggins of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs, Buffy Summers of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Magneto of the X-Men comics and films, Syaoran of Clamp's Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Harry Potter of the series of the same name, Arthur Dent of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,V of V for Vendetta, and both Sam and Dean Winchester on the CW's Supernatural.

See also

• Fictional character