Flat Character

"'Mike was awful. he's terrible when he's tight.'
'He wasn't so tight.'
'The hell he wasn't. I know what we had before we came to the café.'
'He sobered up afterward.'
'Good. He was terrible. I don't like Cohn, God knows, and I think it was a silly trick of him to go down to San Sebastian, but nobody has any business to talk like Mike.'" (p. 149-150)

To me, Mike appears to be a very flat character. Throughout the novel he doesn't change. All we knew of him is that he is often drunk, in love with Brett, and bankrupt. There isn't much to his personality. It appears that these are usually the type of men Brett chooses. She is often caught with drunks or those men who would worship her. The advantage to Mike is that he has no personality. He never does much more than drink, so he is predictable. This predictability is, I suppose a comfort, but it makes him a rather dull character. In this case, perhaps he needs a term more empty than flat character.