Example Of Essay On Willy Loman As A Round Or Flat Character

Round and flat character as defined by E.M. Forster relates to how perfectly they can be predicted in literature. A round character is symbolized by an onion that has many layers and hence not knowing what is inside. A round character cannot be predicted and the audience has to keep guessing what he will turn into with ach changing scene. However, a flat character has no surprises to pull and can be easily predicted. The audience cares less about such a character as they can always predict his or her next move.
Reflecting on act 1 of the book ‘death of a salesman’, the character of will Loman may be defined as flat or round depending on the audience. It should be noted that, most of the time what is depicted in a scene is usually contrary to what the larger audience pick from it. One person may therefore view Willy as a flat character while the other will define him as a round character. For instance, Willy has been presented as a hopeless man who seems not to be putting any efforts to improve the quality of his life. He looks like a dreamer who hopes without making any actions that life will be better for him (Miller 15).
Having learnt about such qualities and what happened later in the scenes, he may be defined as a flat character. It can always be predicted that because he is not putting in any effort, he will die a poor and hopeless man. On the other hand, a person may look at Willy Loman as a round character considering the fact that he is ambitious about change, yet this does not happen in the novel. A person looking at the desires that Willy has will read the novel expecting that he will be lucky some day or will encounter a situation that will change his life for the better. The reader will therefore be surprised on realizing that such lack and success does not happen, making him die in hopelessness (Miller 10).
The most amazing thing about words is that they can best be defined using phrases and not just single words. This even makes the definition of such terms complex. For instance, when Forster uses an onion to define a round character, it gives room to more arguments depending on how a person looks at an onion. For instance, despite the fact that an onion has layers, it can always be predicted that they layers have a similar taste and hence making it flat to some people. This therefore implies that, before a person can define the character of Willy as a flat or round character, he or she will first have to know what they understand about flat and round in the eyes of Forster. From the analysis, we can conclude that every definition is as right as how best a person can argue and convince the majority about it.

Works cited

Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015.