The Two Basic Types Of Characters In The Romance Of The Three Kingdoms

Like what E.M. Forster said, a novel that is all complex often requires flat people as well as round. Flat and round could mean simple and complicated character. According to E.M. Forster, flat is mainly referred to single character. "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" is a renowned saga novel written by Luo Guan Zhong. It is not possible that more than one thousand two hundred and 40 people in such a saga novel are flat people.To analyse in details, a novel that describes so many people should have comprised two basic styles of characters, simple and complicated. For the simple character in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms", it is not always proper to follow what E.M. Forster said, it can be expressed in one sentence. For example, the character of Diao Chan who fulfilled a wish to repay Wang Yun by persuading Lu Bu to kill Dong Zhuo cannot be expressed in one sentence. We could only consider Diao Chan's character as relatively simple rather than single.The complicated characters in the novel are often wrongly considered as basically hardened. It normally includes Zhu Ge Liang, Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei. In fact, Zhu Ge Liang has the perfect wisdom but sometimes, he is neither good in appreciating a person's ability nor smart in using manpower. Liu Bei seems to be merciful but not really so. Guan Yu is a righteous person but is full of conceit as well. Zhang Fei is rude but sometimes, he knows how to make use of intelligence to tackle problem. The rest of complicated characters are Cao Cao, Zhou Yu, Lu Bu, etc. Their human nature comprises good and evil. They are different from those with simple characters.