Hm. Characters are supposed to do things, sure, but it doesn't need to be many things. It may even just be one thing.
A character who sits and angsts and is paralyzed into inaction is fine, I think, so long as we eventually get to see them do something. Prior to that act, it's just a victim narrative: they are sad and life is hard, etc. There's just not much to agree or disagree with there; you're just watching and feeling bad and sympathizing, but it's hard to empathize. But the second that character actually does something is the moment the reader can identify/empathize with them, or be shocked by them, or be repulsed by them, or whatever. (And I think it's a fairly common construction in short stories, really, to have lots of passivity and observation concluding with One Moment of Finally the Character Does Something: but that one moment is all it takes.)
(And also, obviously, a longer work probably needs to be punctuated by a character doing More than One Thing—just like you can't have an entire novel that is just raw suspense with no payoff til the final chapter, but you certainly can do that with a short story.)
I think I heard someone mention once that they only really grew to like Pelleas on a second playthrough of RD, particularly in that scene near the end where he tells Almedha that he's not her son. I think something similar may be happening there—prior to that Pelleas is pretty much just letting himself be pushed around by the forces around him; you could argue that the bit with Almedha is his first strong act of agency. (And everything that's happened to him, pushed him around, etc, up to that point has prepared us for him doing that.)
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A character who sits and angsts and is paralyzed into inaction is fine, I think, so long as we eventually get to see them do something. Prior to that act, it's just a victim narrative: they are sad and life is hard, etc. There's just not much to agree or disagree with there; you're just watching and feeling bad and sympathizing, but it's hard to empathize. But the second that character actually does something is the moment the reader can identify/empathize with them, or be shocked by them, or be repulsed by them, or whatever. (And I think it's a fairly common construction in short stories, really, to have lots of passivity and observation concluding with One Moment of Finally the Character Does Something: but that one moment is all it takes.)
(And also, obviously, a longer work probably needs to be punctuated by a character doing More than One Thing—just like you can't have an entire novel that is just raw suspense with no payoff til the final chapter, but you certainly can do that with a short story.)
I think I heard someone mention once that they only really grew to like Pelleas on a second playthrough of RD, particularly in that scene near the end where he tells Almedha that he's not her son. I think something similar may be happening there—prior to that Pelleas is pretty much just letting himself be pushed around by the forces around him; you could argue that the bit with Almedha is his first strong act of agency. (And everything that's happened to him, pushed him around, etc, up to that point has prepared us for him doing that.)