This will help you answer 1 and 2 in your packet Protagonist Main character who comes into conflict with an opposing major character or force In fiction the story of the protagonist can be told from the perspective of a different character who may also but not necessarily be the ID: 210263
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Slide1
Protagonist vs antagonist
This will help you answer 1 and 2 in your packetSlide2
Protagonist
Main character who comes into conflict with an opposing major character or force
In fiction, the story of the protagonist can be told from the perspective of a different character (who may also but not necessarily, be the
narrator
).
An example would be a narrator who relates the fate of several protagonists - perhaps as prominent figures recalled in a biographical perspective
.
Often, the protagonist in a narrative is also the same person as the
focal character
, though the two terms are distinct.
Sometimes, antagonists and protagonists may overlap, depending on what their ultimate objectives are considered to beSlide3
Protagonists continued…
Excitement and intrigue alone is what the audience feels toward a focal character, while a sense of empathy about the character's objectives and emotions is what the audience feels toward the protagonist
.
Although the protagonist is often referred to as the "good guy", it is entirely possible for a story's protagonist to be the clear villain, or
antihero
, of the piece
.Slide4
Examples:
Sometimes, a work will offer a particular character as the protagonist, only to dispose of that character unexpectedly, as a
dramatic device
. Such a character is called a
false protagonist
. Marion in
Alfred Hitchcock
's
Psycho
(1960) is a famous example.
When the work contains
subplots
, these may have different protagonists from the main plot. In some novels, the protagonists may be impossible to identify, because multiple plots in the novel do not permit clear identification of one as the main plot, such as in
Alexander Solzhenitsyn
's
The First Circle
, depicting a variety of characters imprisoned and living in a
gulag
camp, or in
Leo Tolstoy
's
War and Peace
, depicting fifteen major characters involved in or affected by a war.Slide5
antagonist
The principal opponent of the protagonist is a character known as the antagonist, who represents or creates obstacles that the protagonist must overcome.
As
with protagonists, there may be more than one antagonist in a story. The antagonist may be the story's hero; for example, where the protagonist is a criminal, the antagonist could be a law enforcement agent that tries to capture him
.
In the classic style of stories where the action consists of a
hero
fighting a
villain
/
enemy
, the two may be regarded as protagonist and antagonist, respectively. However, the villain of the story is not always the same as the antagonist, as some narratives cast the villain in the protagonist role, with the opposing hero as the antagonist.Slide6
Antagonist continued…
An antagonist also may represent a threat or obstacle to the main character by its existence and not necessarily targeting him or her in a deliberate manner
.
In stories, a convention of antagonists is that moral choices are less savory than that of protagonists. This is often used by an author to create conflict within a story. However, this is merely a convention, and the reversal of this can be seen in the character
Macduff
from
Macbeth
,
who is arguably morally correct in his desire to fight the tyrant
Macbeth
.
Characters may be antagonists without being villainous or evil – they may simply be injudicious and unlikeable for the audience. In some stories, such as
The Catcher in the Rye
, almost every character other than the protagonist may be an antagonist.
[4]Slide7
Aspects of the protagonist
An
aspect or trait of the protagonist may be considered an antagonist, such as morality or indecisiveness
.Slide8
Non-corporeal
An
antagonist may not always be a person or persons. In some cases, an antagonist may be a force, such as a tidal wave that destroys a city; a storm that causes havoc; or even a certain area's conditions that are the root cause of a problem. An antagonist also may or may not create obstacles for the protagonist
.
Societal norms or other rules also may be antagonists
.Slide9
Usage
An
antagonist is used as a plot device, to set up conflicts, obstacles, or challenges for the protagonist
.
Though not every story requires an antagonist, it often is used in plays to increase the level of drama. In tragedies, antagonists are often the cause of the protagonist's main problem, or lead a group of characters against the protagonist; in comedies, they are usually responsible for involving the protagonist in comedic situations.