What does it mean for a character to change?
In a longer work you have time to watch a character over many scenes. That time makes a question possible that a short poem or story cannot ask: is this person the same at the end as at the beginning, and why does it matter? A character changes when their values, beliefs, understanding or conduct are different after the pressures of the plot than before. A character remains unchanged when the same pressures leave those things as they were.
Change is not the same as events. Many things happen to a character without changing them. And change is not only about improvement: a character may grow wiser, harden, collapse, reverse or discover something about themselves they had refused to see. What counts is a difference you can trace.
Three ideas hold this topic together.
- Change is evidence of values. What a character changes, and what they will not change, reveals what they value. A change that costs something tells you more than one that costs nothing.
- Staying the same can be as meaningful as changing. A character who cannot or will not change may be comic, tragic, or a quiet criticism of a social attitude. Ask what the work gains by the refusal.
- Minor characters often remain unchanged. The narrative does not focus on them; they may exist to advance the plot, to interact with major characters, or to highlight a major character’s change by contrast.
Above all, the course asks you to connect a change, or its absence, to the interpretation of the work as a whole. A paragraph that only describes the character (“Macbeth becomes more violent”) is summary. A paragraph that says what the change shows and how it shapes the work’s meaning is analysis.
A method: baseline, pressure, response, meaning
- Baseline. Find early evidence of the character’s traits and values: what they say about themselves, what they do when nothing is at stake, how others describe them.
- Pressure. Identify the events, conflicts or relationships that test the baseline.
- Response. Show what the character does or says under pressure, and compare it with the baseline. Is there a difference (change) or not (stasis)? Is it complete, partial or apparent?
- Meaning. Say what the difference or sameness reveals about the character’s values.
- Whole. Say how this affects your interpretation of the work: its conflict, its judgement of the character, its view of the society or ideas the character represents.
Two cautions apply. First, avoid describing a change you cannot evidence: always point to a before and an after. Second, avoid assuming a change is permanent or complete. Often a character changes in one respect and not another, or seems to change and then reverts. That partiality is part of their complexity.
Worked example 1: a change that reverses a belief (Lady Macbeth)
In Shakespeare’s Macbeth (about 1606), Lady Macbeth begins as the more resolute partner. Quotations follow a public-domain edition.
Baseline. In Act 1 she calls on spirits to remove every doubt: “unsex me here, / And fill me, from the crown to the toe, top-full / Of direst cruelty!” She wants her conscience, her “remorse”, stopped up. After the murder of Duncan, she comforts her husband with a practical remark: “A little water clears us of this deed”. Her belief at this stage is that guilt is a physical stain that can be washed away and that will can overcome conscience.
Pressure. The consequences accumulate: Macbeth’s mind breaks into visions, the killings multiply, and he stops confiding in her. Already in Act 3 she admits “Naught’s had, all’s spent, / Where our desire is got without content”, yet she urges her husband to forget: “Things without all remedy / Should be without regard: what’s done is done.” She is trying to hold onto the same belief, but the events cannot be put out of mind.
Response. In Act 5 she walks in her sleep, rubbing her hands. “Out, damned spot! out, I say!” and “What, will these hands ne’er be clean?” and “all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.” The “little water” has become unending futility, and the hands she once treated as washable are now permanently stained.
Meaning. The change is a reversal of her original belief. She who invoked cruelty cannot keep it. The contrast between “A little water clears us” and “will these hands ne’er be clean?” shows her values were more complex than her boast: a conscience she thought she could remove has reasserted itself, and it destroys her when the waking will that suppressed it is gone.
Whole. Her change affects how the play must be read. If conscience can be “unsexed” the play would be a story of ambition succeeding; instead the work argues that guilt cannot be stopped by will. It also sets her against Macbeth: as she breaks down, he hardens (“I have almost forgot the taste of fears”), so the pair exchange positions. The play places both changes side by side to make a moral point about the cost of crime.
Model commentary: “Lady Macbeth’s movement from ‘A little water clears us of this deed’ to ‘will these hands ne’er be clean?’ shows that the conscience she once tried to ‘stop up’ was never removed, only postponed, so her collapse turns the play’s treatment of ambition into an argument about the unconquerable nature of guilt.”
Worked example 2: a character who stays the same, and two who change (Pride and Prejudice)
Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (1813) gives all three possibilities.
An unchanged character. Mr Collins is described by the narrator as someone who “was not a sensible man, and the deficiency of nature had been but little assisted by education or society”. In the chapters that follow, the pattern of his speech and behaviour is steady: formal, self-congratulatory and servile toward his patron. His proposal to Elizabeth and the way he turns to Charlotte Lucas are consistent with that pattern. He does not change, because the novel does not need him to: his function is to embody a world of calculated marriage, security and social deference. Because he is fixed, he makes a measuring stick against which the other characters’ choices show up. Charlotte’s decision to marry him is not a comic accident; it is a considered act that exposes what the society offers women.
A character who changes. Elizabeth believes she has good judgement. After reading Darcy’s letter she says: “Till this moment, I never knew myself.” The statement is not just a plot beat. It is the point at which her baseline (confidence that she sees clearly) meets pressure (evidence she misjudged both Darcy and Wickham), and the response is a recognition that her prejudice was a form of the pride she attributed to Darcy.
A second character who changes. Darcy, whose baseline is the “pride and conceit” he later admits, tells Elizabeth near the end: “By you, I was properly humbled.” Both leads therefore revise how they judge, in response to the other.
Whole. The novel’s meaning depends on the contrast. The unchanged Collins shows the cost of never examining oneself; the changing Elizabeth and Darcy show that good marriage in this novel requires self-knowledge. The way each character responds to pressure is how the novel makes its argument.
Weak and strong versions side by side
| Weak | Why it falls short | Stronger |
|---|---|---|
| “Lady Macbeth changes a lot.” | No before or after; no meaning. | “Lady Macbeth moves from believing that ‘a little water’ can clear guilt to the helpless ‘will these hands ne’er be clean?’, which shows that conscience outlasts will.” |
| “Mr Collins is a minor character and does not matter.” | Dismisses his function. | “Because Mr Collins never changes, he becomes a fixed point against which Elizabeth’s growth and Charlotte’s choice can be measured.” |
| “Elizabeth realises she was wrong.” | Summary; no values or whole-work link. | “Elizabeth’s ‘Till this moment, I never knew myself’ reveals that her pride in her discernment was itself a prejudice, and it turns the novel’s marriage plot into a test of self-knowledge.” |
| “The change makes the story interesting.” | Evaluates the reader’s feeling, not the work’s meaning. | “The change reverses the play’s early expectation that ambition succeeds by willpower.” |
Common misconceptions
- “Every important character must change.” Many do not; their stasis can be the point.
- “A change is anything that happens to a character.” Change is a difference in values, beliefs or conduct that you can evidence before and after.
- “A minor character who does not change is unimportant.” Minor characters often serve as foils or vehicles of social ideas.
- “Change is always improvement.” It may be decline, collapse or reversal.
- “I only need to describe the change.” You need to say what it reveals and how it affects the work as a whole.
- “One quotation proves a change.” You need a before and an after, and a reason for the difference.
Where this leads
Next, work through the practice questions, check the revision notes and tick off the checklist. Topic 9.2 looks at how a single choice, action or speech can show a character’s complexity and not just their change.
Quick questions
Do all major characters change?
No. Many important characters remain fixed, and their refusal or inability to change is meaningful. Ask what the story gains from the stasis.
How is change different from plot events?
Events happen to a character; change is a difference in the character's values, beliefs or conduct. Identify the before, the pressure and the after.
Which texts should I use?
Use works you know well. The examples here use public-domain works such as Macbeth and Pride and Prejudice, but every skill transfers to any novel or play.