Round Character: Definition & Examples
- Melchior Antoine
- 39 minutes ago
- 6 min read
A round character is one who has a full or complete character arc or one who goes through significant growth or transformation. This is in contrast to a flat character, who experiences no major change or growth or who lacks an arc. A good story typically requires a protagonist who is a round character or who has an interesting character arc or curve.
Now, when we say protagonist, we don’t necessarily mean the good guy. We have several examples of round characters who can be described as anti-heroes. These are protagonists who are outright evil or who are presented as evil personages with complicated and even sympathetic motivations.
In some cases, these supposedly evil characters even end up having positive transformations by the end of the story. In this article, we discuss what a round character is with examples from the original Star Wars Trilogy (1977, 1980, and 1983) by George Lucas and Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
1. Darth Vader, the Star Wars Trilogy
One of the most famous examples of a round character is Darth Vader (or Anakin Skywalker) in the original Star Wars Trilogy. He is portrayed throughout the series as a menacing and corrupted evil figure. Darth Vader is dressed all in Black in a kind of electronic mechanical suit with a black cape and a mask that covers his face.
Most ominously, we can hear his eerie mechanical breathing through his mask. In short, Darth Vader is portrayed as being more machine than man. He is first introduced to us as the antagonist or the greatest foe that our hero — Luke — must face. In the first episode of the trilogy, Star Wars (1977), we learn that he was responsible for killing Luke’s father, and we also see him kill Luke’s mentor, Obi-Wan Kenobi. There is no doubt left in our minds that he is the true embodiment of evil.
However, things become more interesting close to the end of the first episode. There is a final showdown between Darth Vader and Luke, where Darth Vader is getting the better of Luke, to the point that he chops off Luke’s right arm. However, instead of finishing Luke off, he begins to plead with him to join him or the “Dark Side.” He says to Luke the following:
Don't make me destroy you. Luke, you do not yet realize your importance. You have only begun to discover your power. Join me and I will complete your training. With our combined strength, we can end this destructive conflict and bring order to the galaxy.
So, here we see a character previously portrayed as wholly evil showing some nuance. He wishes to bring order to the galaxy and to recruit Luke to his cause. Things change from interesting to sensational when he reveals the relationship between himself and Luke.
Vader: If you only knew the power of the dark side. Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.
Luke: He told me enough. He told me you killed him.
Vader: No. I am your father.
In the conversation between the two, Vader further reveals to Luke that he has the power to destroy the even more evil Emperor Palpatine, under whom Vader works. So here we see in Vader a man who seeks to destroy an evil greater than himself with the help of the protagonist, who turns out to be his own son.
This is one step towards Vader’s remarkable character arc. We see the completion of this transformation in the last episode — Return of the Jedi (1983). In the final showdown between the two, Luke gets the better of Vader while the two fight in the presence of the evil Emperor Palpatine.
However, he soon begins to fight with Emperor Palpatine, who is more powerful than either him or his father. In the course of the fight, just when we think Luke is about to lose to the emperor, his father, Vader sacrifices himself and kills Emperor Palpatine. The scene ends with Vader taking off the mask to reveal the face of a sick, vulnerable, and dying older man.
2. Macbeth
Darth Vader can be described as an anti-hero, that is a hero who is portrayed as evil or complicated throughout the movie or story, but who nonetheless gains our sympathy. Another good example of such a character is Macbeth.
Vader’s arc can be described as being positive or we could say that he has a rising character arc. Throughout the course of the story, he experiences more nuance and more growth until he is finally redeemed. The exact opposite is true of Macbeth. Macbeth begins the play as morally upright and clearminded, only to descend further and further into depravity and evil.
His first act of evil is the killing of King Duncan while the king sleeps as a guest in the Macbeth household in order to secure the Scottish throne. As immoral as it was, it can be argued that the killing of Duncan was a brutal act of realpolitik. Going into open rebellion against King Duncan would have resulted in prolonged warfare and even defeat, as was the case with the previous Thane of Cawdor, who was executed for treason.
We feel sympathy for Macbeth because in the famous dinner scene in a soliloquy he decides against killing King Duncan because Duncan is a good man. His moral logic is clear, and he won’t kill an innocent man because “even-handed justice / Commends th’ ingredience of our poisoned chalice to our own lips” (Act 1, Scene 7). However, this is before Lady Macbeth, his wife, forces him to change his mind.
Our sympathy for him quickly begins to fade. Soon after Macbeth wins the throne, he commits several acts of murder that have no political justification. He murders Banquo because a prophecy claims that the sons of Banquo will inherit the Scottish throne. Macbeth has no children, so Banquo is no threat to his political power even if the prophecy is true.
But even worse than that, Macbeth goes after the household of Macduff, a nobleman who flees the country to escape the chaos that Macbeth has unleashed. As a result, Macduff’s son, wife (Lady Macduff), and servants are all unnecessarily slaughtered by Macbeth. After killing Banquo and just before killing Lady Macduff, Macbeth even admits the following:
I am in blood
Stepped in so far, that, should I wade no more,
Returning were as tedious as go o'er (Act 3, Scene 4).
This means that he has committed so much killing that stopping now would be as meaningless as continuing with the slaughter. The play ends when Macbeth is defeated and killed by Macduff in a final battle. So, unlike Darth Vader, Macbeth is an anti-hero who sees negative growth or who experiences a falling character arc.
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3. Round character vs. flat character
Vader and Macbeth both experience transformation, albeit in different directions. A flat character, on the other hand, sees no change or transformation in their character. They could be a trope or a stereotype of an idea. For example in Macbeth, there is Macduff who is simply a “good man.”
He rejects evil, unlike Macbeth and is a victim of Macbeth’s evil actions. He seems to exist only to be an antagonist to Macbeth. By himself alone, he is not an interesting character. Another good example of a flat character who doesn’t change is King Claudius in Hamlet. He kills his own brother, King Hamlet, because he envied the king’s wife and throne. After having his crime exposed in the famous Prayer Scene, he confesses and his prayer or attempt at it is rather curious:
My fault is past. – But, oh, what form of prayer
Can serve my turn — ‘Forgive me my foul murder’?
That cannot be, since I am still possessed
Of those effects for which I did the murder:
My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen. (Act 3, Scene 3)
Here, he is admitting that despite feeling remorse or wanting to pray for forgiveness, he has no intention of giving up the rewards of his crime: “My crown, mine own ambition, and my queen.” We soon see this as immediately afterward, he comes up with a failed plot to get Hamlet, the son of the man he murdered, killed in England after Hamlet exposes Claudius’ crime. In short, King Claudius is the stereotypical villain or bad guy who simply cannot change or stop being evil.
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2025, October 25). Round Character: Definition & Examples. EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/round-character |