1. Dynamic and Static Characters

2. Dynamic Characters  Experience a change or shift in attitude and behavior during the course of a literary work.  (not literal change, like a haircut, but a change in values or beliefs—sometimes a new understanding or sense of awareness)

3. Static Characters  Do not change. Attitudes and behavior remain essentially stable or the same throughout the literary work.  Hold the same beliefs or opinions in the end as they did at the beginning of the story.

4. Important difference:  Change in circumstance does not produce a dynamic character – only if the changes in one’s circumstance (whether good or bad) causes the change in the character.  If a character inherits a million dollars from a rich aunt in a story, this may or may not result in the sort of change in his personality or values that would make him count as a dynamic character, but his inheritance is not the “change”.  He might remain the same bitter, selfish person he had always been. This would be an instance of static character.

5. Change = or   Change in identity can be a good or bad thing  Examples??  Important to look at the story’s plot in terms of the characters’ decisions  Going through trials and making progress vs. falling to temptation and resulting in failure

6. Understanding the Change  What motivated the change? Is it a good or bad thing?  What is the extent of the change?  Based on the change or lack/unwillingness to change, what can we infer about the focus of the story? What is it trying to teach or show us as a reader?