Dynamic and Unchanged Characters
A dynamic character bends the plot
- A dynamic character who develops over the course of the narrative often makes choices that directly or indirectly affect the climax and/or the resolution.
- That is the CED's own link between character and plot.
- So "she changes" is only half an answer — the other half is what her change did to the ending.
A dynamic character matters to plot because their choices...
So "she changes" is half an answer; the other half is what the change did.
Two kinds of change
- Changes can be visible and external — health, wealth, position.
- Or internal, psychological or emotional.
- And external changes can lead to internal changes, and vice versa — the causal arrow runs both ways.
External, internal, or unchanged?
Sort each character movement by the CED's category.
External changes can lead to internal changes, and internal to external.
The CED states the causal arrow runs both ways.
Some characters do not change
- Some characters remain unchanged or are largely unaffected by the events of the narrative.
- That is not a failure of characterisation — it is a choice with a function.
- An unchanged character often measures the change in everyone else.
A character who does not change is a weakness in the writing.
The CED names it as a real category; such a character usually measures everyone else's change.
An unchanged character is a choice, not an oversight. The CED says some characters remain largely unaffected — and such a character usually functions as a fixed measure against which everyone else's movement becomes visible. Treating them as underwritten misses their whole job.
To evidence a change, quote the character early and quote them ____.
One quotation shows a state; two show a difference.
Change needs two measurements
- To claim a character changed, quote them early and quote them late.
- One quotation shows a state; two show a difference.
- The essay that only quotes the ending has asserted a change rather than evidenced it.
Put the change pass in order.
The last step is the one the CED actually asks for.
A change pass
- Quote the character early. Quote them late. Name whether the change is external or internal.
- Say which caused which, if the text lets you.
- Then say what their choice did to the climax or the resolution.
The father loses the farm (external), and only afterwards stops speaking to his brother (internal) — the CED's arrow running from outside in. His sister, who changes in nothing across three hundred pages, is how the reader measures how far he has gone.
A dynamic character's choices affect the climax or resolution — so name what the change did, not just that it happened. Change may be external or internal, and each can cause the other. Some characters remain unchanged, and that is a function: they measure everyone else. Evidence a change with two quotations, early and late.