Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
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Throughout the Harry Potter series, who were the round/flat characters? Specifically Voldemort, do you thing he changed throughout the series, or do you think he stayed as the power-hungry antagonist the whole time?
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Aaron
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Nov 02, 2015 08:33AM
I think Harry probably changed the most, also Dumbledore changed a lot from 1-6, he developed an evolving/strengthening relationship with Harry, and he became a strong character throughout. For Voldemort, I think he was one of the flat characters, that let you see the round characters, but his relationship with Harry certainly changed.
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That's interesting, I thought Dumbledore's character never really changed, his involvement became more, but his character was consistent. He was always the supporting, elder, wise teacher/protector to Harry.I think Hermione was very flat even though she aged.
But for me the character that changed the most was Tom Riddle.
I think that characters can be round even if they do not necessarily change that much throughout the series. But for the record I think Lupin and Voldemort were definitely round (because their motives and thoughts were explained and analyzed) while characters like Umbridge and Filch were somewhat flat.
I actually thought Voldermort had a lot of depth provided by the history of the Marvollo family. The fact that he can't love and has no soul because he was a result of a love potion, he was destroyed by the fact his mother refused to maintain her life for him, his horrendous time being in the orphanage repressing his magic abilities. Like it or not Voldemort is the way he is because he lived a truly horrific life and was never shown an ounce of love through-out by anyone. He's not evil just for the sake of being evil this happened to him because of others like a Frankenstein effect. I personally feel like that added so much depth to his character. I think character depth more than growth is JK's strong point but on that note why would the older characters like Voldemort and Dumbledore need to grow? They've already done so it's the teenagers who need to grow and they definitely do. To give dimension to her older characters she gives them a backstory...really it's actually quite clever that upon of realizing her characters can't grow anymore she chose to make them dimensional via other methods than leave them as is.
Response to D.l.Thank you, I definitely agree about Dumbledore, but not so much about Hermione. Remember at the beginning, when she was the one that Ron and Harry hated because she was a know-it-all, and then they save her from the troll. After that, Hermione starts to defy the rules, and do what's necessary to help the boys succeed. In my opinion, she was one of the roundest characters in the series!
About Tom Riddle, can you remind me of what he did to change? Thanks, I'm rereading the series for like the 5th time, it's been a while.
Hello, people?!?! OBVIOUSLY the most round character in the book is Severus Snape!!! At first, he is portrayed as a mean, cold character, but by the end of the series, he is the hero who is actually very warm and talented. @ Ruby: I don't really understand how you thought Lupin and Voldemort are round (they don't change) and how Umbridge is flat.
Maybe you could define 'round' vs 'flat'. I understood it to mean changing, growing over the series is round, versus staying consistent is flat.
If round means fully developed that's hard. She did a good job with most major characters. Flat, maybe the black cat.... kidding
Voldemort's job was to be a nearly (but not quite) insurmountable EVIL. He didn't need to grow or evolve. He did a good job. Besides, if EVIL grows or evolves, it transcends it's evil and fails it's job of being EVIL. I thought his tenacious devotion to evil was admirable. So was his predestined defeat.
Round- A character that changes and evolves over the course of a story.Flat- A character that stays relatively the same.
Very similar to dynamic vs static
Very true, that is why I see Voldemort as a character that stays the same (flat) so that you can see how much the round characters have changed. He was the antagonist, and the "most feared", but he stayed that way for the whole story.
Well, I guess Snape did change, but the way I see it, Snape was the same the whole time, we just didn't know it. For the entire story, Snape was a hero, he did everything he could to help Harry and oppose Voldemort, but we didn't know that until the end.
Response to Sammy:True, but similar to my view on Snape: He didn't "change" throughout the story, he stayed the same, just we didn't know it until the end.
Again, just my view.
In my opinion, Voldymoldy is NOT the most feared character in the book. Being the antagonist and being the most feared is different... come to think of it, maybe he IS a round character - in the beginning, you're right, and Voldymoldy is feared by everyone. But by the end of the seventh book, I feel like Harry Potter and Dumbledore are the most feared. After his return in the fourth book, I think Voldymoldy starts to lose his shining quality.
In response to Elizabeth:I have a few points
A. Voldymoldy?
B. Not really, in my opinion, Voldemort was feared in different levels, except that's not him changing, that's everybody else changing their view on him.
No I felt like the character of Voldermort (more specifically Tom Riddle) began evolving from the second novel onwards
Can you please specify how? I don't see Voldemort changing too much.
Like I said he didn't change but he was provided depth and dimension via his history making him a very rounded character and that history begins in the second novel
Like I said he didn't change but he was provided depth and dimension via his history making him a very rounded character and that history begins in the second novel
Oh.. I see now, so his backstory was revealed but his character stayed the same. So he was like a dynamic character in a way? I'll think about that as I read, that's interesting.
Essentially the character of Voldemort did stay the same but the character of Tom Riddle was constantly changing ... It's the whole Anakin/Darth Vader thing.
Haha, that actually makes perfect sense
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