Main Character Resolve: Change or Steadfast?

The first Essential Character Dynamic determines if the Main Character is a changed person at the end of a story. From an author's perspective, selecting Change or Steadfast sets up the kind of argument made about the effort to solve the story's problem.

There are two principal approaches through which an author can illustrate the best way to solve the Problem explored in a story. One approach is to show the proper way of going about solving the Problem. The other is to show the wrong way to solve the Problem.

 

•To illustrate the proper way, your Main Character must hold on to his Resolve and remain Steadfast if he is to succeed, because he believes he is on the right path.

 

•To illustrate the improper way of dealing with a Problem, your Main Character must change to succeed, for he believes he is going about it the wrong way.

Of course, Success is not the only Outcome that can happen to a Main Character. Another way to illustrate that an approach for dealing with a Problem is proper would be to have the Main Character Change his way of going about it and fail. Similarly, a Main Character that remains Steadfast and fails can illustrate the improper way.

So, choosing Change or Steadfast has nothing directly to do with being correct or mistaken; it just describes whether the Main Character's final Resolve is to stay the course or try a different tack.

Just because a Main Character should remain Steadfast does not mean he doesn't consider changing. In fact, the alternative to give up or alter his approach in the face of ever-increasing opposition is a constant temptation.

Even if the Main Character remains steadfast despite difficulties and suffering, the audience may still not want him to succeed. This is because simply being steadfast does not mean one is correct.

If the audience sees that a character remains steadfast yet misguided, the audience will hope for his eventual failure.

Similarly, a Change Main Character does not mean he is changing all the time. Usually, the Change Main Character will resist change until he's forced to choose. At that point, the Main Character must choose to continue down his original path, or to jump to the new path by accepting change in himself or his outlook.

Regardless of the benefits to be had by remaining steadfast, the audience will want the Change Main Character finally to succeed if he is on the wrong path and changes. However, if he does not change, the audience will want him to lose all the benefits he thought he had gained.

Your selection of Change or Steadfast has wide-ranging effects on the dynamics of your story. Such things as the relationship between the Overall Story and Subjective Story Throughlines link to this dynamic. Even the order of exploration of your thematic points adjusts in the Dramatica model to create and support your Main Character's decision to change or remain steadfast.

Examples of Main Character Resolve:

Change Main Characters: Hamlet in Hamlet; Frank Galvin in The Verdict; Wilber in Charlotte's Web; Rick in Casablanca; Michael Corleone in The Godfather; Scrooge in A Christmas Carol; Nora in A Doll's House

Steadfast Main Characters: Laura Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie; Jake Gittes in Chinatown; Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs; Chance Gardener in Being There; Job in the Bible.

The Impact Character Resolve

The Impact Character has a Resolve that is the inverse of the Main Character's. When the Main Character is a Change character, the Impact Character remains Steadfast (such as the Ghosts in A Christmas Carol, Viola De Lesseps in Shakespeare In Love, and the steadfast Impact of Ricky Fitts in American Beauty). When the Main Character remains Steadfast, the Impact Character CHANGEs (such as Sam Gerard in The Fugitive, Blanche Hudson in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, and Raymond Shaw in The Manchurian Candidate). It is not important whether it's the steadfastness of one character that forces the change in the other, or the change in one that supports the steadfastness of the other. What is important is that the inverse relationship between the Main Character's Resolve and the Impact Character's Resolve provides a key point of reference for an audience's understanding of your story's meaning.

Examples of Impact Character Resolve:

Steadfast Impact Characters: The Ghost of King Hamlet in Hamlet; Laura Fischer in The Verdict; Charlotte in Charlotte's Web; Ilsa in Casablanca; Kaye Corleone in The Godfather; The Ghosts in A Christmas Carol; Torvald in A Doll's House

Change Impact Characters: Jim O'Connor in The Glass Menagerie; Evelyn Mulwray in Chinatown; Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs; Dr. Allenby in Being There; Satan in the Bible.