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Common Core ELAGrades 9–10Reading: Literature

RL.9-10.3: Analyze Complex Characters

Also written as CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.3 · Cluster: Key Ideas and Details.

All 41 Grades 9–10 ELA Standards

The Official Wording

Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.

Common Core State Standards, Grades 9-10, Reading: Literature · Read it at the source · Checked October 14, 2026

What RL.9-10.3 Means in Plain English

Ninth and tenth graders follow characters who want more than one thing, like Macbeth, ambitious and afraid. They show how those clashing motives change the character, play out against other characters, and push the plot forward. A tow driver who wants revenge and wants to help does both.

In 8th grade (RL.8.3) students explained how one line of dialogue or one incident reveals a character or moves the plot. Now they follow a conflicted character’s whole arc. In grades 11 and 12 (RL.11-12.3) students weigh how an author’s choices about setting, order and characterization shape a work.

RL.9-10.3 I Can Statements

  • I can name a character’s conflicting motives and quote where each shows.
  • I can explain how other characters bring out new sides of a character.
  • I can show how a character’s choices move the plot or theme.

RL.9-10.3 Worked Example

A teenage tow truck driver is called out at night to a family he has every reason to resent.

Read the Story
The call came in after midnight: minivan in the ditch on the county road, family of four, cash only. Teo knew the plate before he knew the road. It was the Pells’ van.Two years ago Jonah Pell had told the whole team why Teo’s family really lost the house. Now Jonah stood in the headlights holding his little sister’s hand, and he would not look up.“Ninety dollars for the tow,” Teo said, and hated how good it felt to say it.Mr. Pell emptied his wallet: sixty-two dollars. Teo took it, ran the winch, hauled the van to their driveway, and then, as Jonah turned away, pushed the folded bills back through the open window.At home his mother checked the log. “No charge?” she asked. “Flat tire, not a tow,” Teo lied, and went to bed before she could ask him anything else.
A short passage written for this page.
Question: What does Teo want in this scene, and how do his conflicting motives shape what he does and where the story is heading?
Not Yet“Teo is nice because he gives the money back.”It flattens Teo into one trait and skips the pleasure he takes in naming the price, the grudge behind it and the lie at the end. A complex character can’t be summed up by his last act.
Meets the Standard“Teo wants two opposite things. He wants Jonah to feel small: he names the price and ‘hated how good it felt to say it,’ a grudge from the day Jonah told the team ‘why Teo’s family really lost the house.’ But he also sees a family in a ditch, and the money goes back through the window only ‘as Jonah turned away,’ so mercy and pride both get what they need: Jonah never sees him being kind. The lie to his mother moves the plot. A family business that needed the ninety dollars now has a free tow on its log, and Teo has a secret to keep at home too.”It names two motives that pull against each other, quotes where each shows, explains how they combine in one act, and says how the closing lie sets up what comes next.
Question Stems to Use
What two things does this character want that cannot both happen?Which line shows the motive the character would never admit to?How does another character bring out a side we had not seen?What does this choice set in motion for the rest of the story?Why does the character act at that exact moment, and not before?

Common Mistakes with RL.9-10.3

One trait for a complex character

“Teo is kind.” Or just as often, “Teo is bitter.”

Try this: Have students name two motives that pull against each other and find the line where each one shows.

Character analysis cut off from the plot

A paragraph on Teo’s feelings that never mentions what the lie to his mother sets up

Try this: Ask “What happens next because of this choice?” after every claim about a character, and require one sentence on consequences.

Ignoring the other characters

Writes about Teo as if Jonah, Mr. Pell and his mother were not in the scene

Try this: Chart each interaction in a two-column table, what the other character does and what it brings out in the main one.

Where RL.9-10.3 Fits

Comes BeforeRL.8.3Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents reveal character or move the plot.
AlongsideRL.9-10.2Trace the theme that a character’s choices help develop.W.9-10.3Build characters with mixed motives in their own narratives.
Comes NextRL.11-12.3Analyze how an author’s choices about setting, order and characterization shape a story.

Practice RL.9-10.3

Quick Check

  1. Why does Teo resent Jonah?
  2. How much money does Mr. Pell have, and what does Teo do with it?
  3. What does Teo tell his mother about the call?

RL.9-10.3: Other Names

RL.9-10.3CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.3

Common Core State Standards © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved. Official wording from the Common Core State Standards PDFs at corestandards.org, last checked October 14, 2026. The explanation, I can statements, example, mistakes and practice on this page are EMStudio’s own, written beside the official wording. They are not part of the standard.