Protagonist vs Antagonist

Introduction

You have likely been told that characters in your story should want something, and it would be a frightfully dull novel if your characters got everything they wanted without any effort (or, as Agent Smith puts it in The Matrix: a dream our primitive cerebrums would keep trying to wake up from).

The duology of protagonist vs. antagonist provides your narrative with the conflict that keeps readers up way past their bedtimes, wondering if your main character will succeed. Your protagonist wants something, and wants it deeply, and your antagonist stands in their way. This opposition drives your story.

This article will help you understand what the roles of protagonist and antagonist mean for your story, and offer suggestions to make your protagonist and antagonist stronger.

But first, a caveat…

Protagonist vs antagonist is not the only type of story

While popular in Western literature, there are many other types of stories in which the role of antagonists may be muted, or in which there may not be any antagonists at all, or even in which the protagonist is not a character but the setting or some other inanimate force (and thus can’t want anything at all).

While the advice in this blog post primarily applies to Western narrative structures, we would encourage readers to explore other types of stories from cultures around our wonderful and varied world.

What is a protagonist?

The English word protagonist comes from the Greek word πρωταγωνιστής (prōtagōnistḗs), meaning an “actor who plays the first part”.

The protagonist of your story is the main character, or the character your readers are meant to follow and identify with.

The role of the protagonist

A protagonist should be the character whose goals and actions reflect the themes of your story — and, in most cases, the fortunes of your protagonist are linked directly to your story’s structure. If you look at most structural guides (for Western narratives), you’ll find they are centred around a journey or the emotional state of your protagonist. From the Hero’s Journey to elements like ‘the darkest night’ in Save the Cat, as your protagonist grows, changes, cries, suffers heartbreak, or triumphs, so too does your reader.

It is not always true, however, that the protagonist must be the point-of-view (POV) character. Stories can be about someone but told by someone else. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, it is millionaire Jay Gatsby who plays the protagonist and main character, or the character we are meant to empathize with, as he attempts to reunite with his lost love Daisy. However, the story is narrated by Nick Carraway, and we follow his observations of Gatsby.

It is absolutely possible to have more than one protagonist in a story, especially in multi-POV stories, though usually there is one main protagonist who most closely embodies your story’s themes or main message.

Types of protagonists

Protagonists can come in all shapes and flavours, from the ultra good to the very bad, and just about everything in between. Here are two suggested ways to help you classify where your protagonist might land.

Protagonists: The Heroic Scale

Heroism is a loosely defined trait, and changes over time. What defines a heroic deed is culture-dependent. For example, rebellion against over-bearing authority is considered heroic in Western culture today, but hasn’t always, and would not be in other cultures.

Regardless of how you define heroism, your protagonist can fall anywhere along the scale from a goodie-goodie to an ultra-baddie. They can even change as the story progresses, like Carrie White from Stephen King’s Carrie, who slips from an ordinary person protagonist to a villain protagonist in a telepathic bloodbath.

Classic Hero

The kind of protagonist who, in Western literature, fights evil while saving children, helping the sick, and rescuing the cat. Classic heroes conform to the perfect ideals of the society in which they are crafted, and are often driven by a desire to uphold those morals.

They are also often superheroes — like Wonder Woman or Superman — endowed with outstanding abilities or supernatural powers that help them maintain their perfection. However, protagonists that fall too far into this category can be flat and uninteresting; without any flaws to make them feel human, it’s difficult for readers to relate.

Ordinary Person

Many stories are written about perfectly ordinary people thrust unwittingly into a plot, whether ordinary or extraordinary. These protagonists often don’t set out to be heroes; they may have ordinary goals, like going to school or getting a job, that lead them into your story. They have no supernatural or outstanding powers or magic, though they may acquire them as the story progresses. Where classic heroes tend to come off as caricatures, ordinary protagonists are effective because they show readers what they themselves might be capable of.

Two compelling examples are Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit and Frodo Baggins from The Lord of the Rings. Each wishes for nothing more than an ordinary (hobbit-sized) life. Instead, they find themselves on extraordinary adventures and ultimately save their entire realm.

Antihero

These protagonists technically fight for the good guys, but may possess morally ambiguous traits or use questionable methods to obtain good results. For antiheroes to work, they can’t just be jerks. The flaws they possess need to make them relatable or interesting, even if we cringe (or revel) in their rule-breaking behaviour.

Characters such as Harley Quinn from The Suicide Squad or Dexter Morgan from Dexter are perfect examples of antiheroes: characters who, in another scenario, would be considered villains, but their goals are (theoretically) honourable, or at least the results of their actions end up being considered so.

Villain

Protagonists do not have to be synonymous with good guys. Villain protagonists can be driven by the same variety of goals as heroic protagonists, but they fall foul of the morals of their society. Examples include Alex DeLarge from A Clockwork Orange or Humbert Humbert from Lolita, or even more classic villains like The Grinch.

Protagonists: Character Traits

People are not only defined by how heroic they are, and likewise your protagonist may have any range of characteristics that show readers what type of main character they are going to be. These are a few possibilities, but there are a whole range of factors to explore when developing strong characters.

• Chosen One: protagonists destined for greatness, whether they accept it or not, such as Neo in The Matrix.
• Reluctant hero: protagonists who want nothing to do with adventures and heroism and would rather like to stay home, thank-you-very-much, but, through the events of the story, rise to the challenge, such as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit.
• Tragic hero: protagonists who possess a tragic flaw they are unable to overcome, ultimately leading to their failure. Shakespeare was particularly good at this, writing perhaps the most well-known tragic hero, Macbeth.
• Underdog: protagonists who start with a severe disadvantage, like poverty or poor social status, but who showcase their remarkable qualities when thrown into exceptional circumstances. Charlie Bucket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory makes an excellent example, as a poor boy who rises to greatness by virtue of his honesty and humility.
• Rebel: Protagonists who fight against the status quo, like Katniss in The Hunger Games.
• Outsider or Outcast: a protagonist outside of or alienated from mainstream society, like the nameless narrator of Viet Thanh Nguyen’s The Sympathizer, who finds himself an outsider as a mole in South Vietnam’s special forces, then later as an immigrant to the US.

False Protagonists

A false protagonist initially appears to be the main character, but is removed from the story by some means (and supplanted by the true protagonist). In Ira Levin’s A Kiss Before Dying, Dorothy Kingship appears to be the main character until she is murdered (and is one of two false protagonists in the story).

This is a difficult trick to pull off! Readers become invested in a good protagonist and can be shaken or feel cheated when they die. If you’re working on your first novel, it’s probably a good idea to have your protagonist stay the protagonist throughout your story.

What is an antagonist?

The English word antagonist comes from the Greek ἀνταγωνιστής (antagōnistḗs), literally meaning competitor, opponent, or enemy.

This doesn’t mean your antagonist must be a villain. They are simply any character or force in your story that opposes the protagonist.

The role of the antagonist

In Western narratives, antagonists provide conflict, giving the protagonist obstacles to overcome in pursuit of their goals. This conflict is often divided into six types:

1. Character versus character: when another person (or sentient creature) opposes your protagonist.
2. Character versus self: when your protagonist’s flaws are their own worst enemy, such as Marlin in Finding Nemo, who needs to overcome his fear and helicopter-parenting to find and reconcile with his son.
3. Character versus nature: any disaster, illness, or wilderness survival story, such as Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain or Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea.
4. Character versus society: a tradition or cultural norm, or cultural change, impeding your protagonist. In The Hunger Games, Katniss fights against Panem’s government, but also fights against the culture of acceptance and apathy within the districts.
5. Character versus technology: when science or technology forms a barrier to your protagonist, such as Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, where android technology presents a moral conundrum over what it means to be human, or in James Dashner’s Maze Runner, in which the protagonists must overcome a constantly shifting maze to escape their prison.
6. Character versus supernatural/magic: these types of antagonists are usually represented by forces that are not within a character. It could be the magic your protagonist struggles to learn, as in just about every magic school story, or an external force standing in your protagonist’s way. The One Ring in The Lord of the Rings is an example of this. While not exactly sentient, the Ring is still said to “want” to return to Sauron, its master, and its magic allows it to betray or lead astray characters throughout the story without direct instruction from Sauron, and Frodo must overcome its magic before he can defeat Sauron.

Your story can have multiple antagonists representing any of these types of conflicts, presenting different obstacles at different points of your narrative. However, there is usually one main antagonist which your protagonist must overcome before the story is truly over (even if it happens over multiple books). In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo faces multiple antagonists across the trilogy (who sometimes then become allies), but the story isn’t over until Sauron has been defeated.

Types of antagonists

As an antagonist can count as anyone or anything opposing the protagonist, they — like protagonists — can come in all shapes and flavours. Much like we ranked protagonists on a heroic scale, we can rank antagonists on a villainy scale.

Antagonists: The Villainy Scale

Classic Villain

Your typical mustache-twirling, loud cackling, puppy-fur-coat wearing, steals-candy-from-babies baddie, these truly evil antagonists are evil simply because they are. Much like the classic heroic protagonist, these types of antagonists can come off as flat and uninteresting. If you are going to use one, make sure they have strong motivations to behave the way they do, or readers will not feel they are believable.

Anti-Villain

If we can have antiheroes, why not anti-villains?* Anti-villain antagonists play the role of the baddie within a story, but may have noble motivations, heroic traits, or even noble methods with unintended side effects. From misguided robotic overlords like the Agents in The Matrix to peace-loving mass murderers like Thanos in The Avengers, these antagonists truly believe they are the heroes of their own stories.

*Actually, the absence of a dictionary entry suggests we can’t. But when has that stopped anyone?

Impersonal Force

These types of antagonists don’t have any personal motivation, heroic or villainous or otherwise, because they aren’t sentient beings. Impersonal forces may include cultural tradition, disease, magic, nature, or time. Though they may be neutral, they still stand in the way of the protagonist accomplishing their goal. For example, when characters battle against nature, nature’s primary goal is its own survival; it holds nothing personal against the protagonist, but the protagonist must still overcome the challenge it presents in order to succeed.

Well-Meaning Objector

Much like the ordinary person protagonists, well-meaning objector antagonists can come from pretty much anywhere. They are characters who are either on the same side as the protagonist, or who are neutral parties, but have their own good reasons for standing in the way of the protagonist. For example, in many children’s stories, parents are always trying to stop children protagonists from sneaking out to fight evil.* Even an ordinary shopkeeper who refuses to sell the protagonist their much-needed magic weapon because — gasp! — the protagonist doesn’t have the money and the shopkeeper wants to feed their family, temporarily becomes an antagonist under this banner.

*Seriously, listen to your parents when they try to stop you.

Heroic Antagonist

Heroic antagonists often stand for when the perfect ideals of a society have gone wrong. Javert in Victor Hugo’s Les Miséables is an excellent example. In one sense, Javert is a hero, representing the law in unbending perfection. However, this inflexibility leads to moral dilemmas Javert cannot overcome, and ultimately, he commits suicide.

Heroic antagonists are more often seen in video games where players play as the villain, such as the Dungeon Keeper series or the Grand Theft Auto series (though arguably, no one is truly heroic in that world).

Protagonists and antagonists: What’s the difference?

Protagonists and antagonists have a lot in common. Both drive the conflict in your story. Both should be well-rounded characters with strong needs and motivations (at least in the case of sentient antagonists). Both should have traits and flaws that make them relatable to readers, whether we love them or hate them. Both should embody the theme or main message of your story.

But if protagonists and antagonists can be heroic, villainous, or morally ambiguous, what’s the difference between the two?

Much comes down to the role they play in your story. Your protagonist is the character who the story is about; it is their needs that must be met before the story can end (or, in the case of tragic characters, it is they who must fail). Your antagonist stands in the way of the protagonist getting what they want.

Strong protagonists and antagonists mirror one another. If your story’s core themes are cooperation and altruism, your protagonist either stands for these traits or learns them along the way, while your antagonist might stand for individualism and selfishness. The fact that the protagonist learns or represents your theme is what helps them overcome the antagonist, or, your tragic protagonist’s failure to accept these traits is why they do not prevail.

There is also a difference in the way readers are meant to perceive the characters. Your protagonist is usually the character readers are cheering for, who we want to succeed by the end of the story. By contrast, your antagonist is usually the character we want to see fail, or be overcome, by the end of the story.

How to write strong protagonists and strong antagonists

“Say what you want about it, Hell is story-friendly. If you want a compelling story, put your protagonist among the damned. The mechanisms of hell are nicely attuned to the mechanisms of narrative. Not so the pleasures of Paradise. Paradise is not a story. It’s about what happens when the stories are over.” – Charles Baxter, Burning Down the House

Your primary protagonist and your primary antagonist should form a duology, functioning in opposition to each other to show readers what your story is really about. Because they are so closely linked, the techniques for writing strong protagonists or strong antagonists often apply to both.

Protagonists and antagonists for today

The way we craft our characters has changed over time. As an example, compare three iterations of Disney’s Peter Pan. (Note: Potential Spoilers!)

• In the 1953 animated film, Peter Pan, the antagonist Captain Hook is a classic villain, while the protagonist Peter is a classic hero. Though both have flaws — Peter is arrogant and Hook seems to have a soft spot for his “mommy” — they are unquestionably in a fight of good vs. evil.
• In the 1991 film Hook, the antagonistic Captain remains much like a classic villain and is still bent on revenge for unspecified slights, but the protagonist Peter has taken on a few more flaws (and years). In this film, the true antagonist is Peter growing up, forgetting his family, and forgetting how to have fun. Hook is defeated near the end of the film, but the story isn’t over until Peter returns home to reconnect with his family and his sense of adventure.
• By the 2023 film Peter Pan & Wendy, both Peter and Hook are revealed to be morally ambiguous characters. Peter shares the protagonist spotlight with Wendy, but it is the legacy of conflict between Peter and James Hook, back when they were both Lost Boys, that plays the part of the main antagonist. When this antagonist is overcome, the redemption arc for both Peter and Hook is complete.

This author is not attempting to assign any measure of quality on these three movies, that’s up to you. But these films are a reflection of how readers and viewers have come to prefer more realistic, more nuanced protagonists and antagonists.

Your characters hold mirrors to reality

To be strong characters in literature today, your protagonists and antagonists need to mirror how real people think and behave. Craft protagonists who are too perfect and they feel flat; craft antagonists who are too evil and they feel like a caricature. Readers need to see themselves in your characters, both the good and the bad. Flawed protagonists, especially those who overcome obstacles despite, or because of, their flaws, help us to believe in ourselves. Flawed antagonists, especially those with redemption arcs, show us there is hope even in darkness.

Let your protagonists (and your antagonists) make mistakes. Your protagonist does not have to be likeable, but they do have to be relatable. As John Yorke states in Into The Woods, characters who self-sabotage or act contrary to what they claim to believe are more interesting, and more exciting to write. They feel more real.

Even if your protagonist is not human, they still need to possess at least some human characteristics. Without something to relate to, readers would struggle to understand and empathise with the motivations and actions of your characters.

Likewise with antagonists, readers need to understand the motivations that have led them to choose the path of resistance. They don’t need to be evil, or may not believe themselves to be evil. They may not be sentient at all — nature, technology, or other forces can provide just as strong, or even stronger opposition than a sentient antagonist. The important thing is that your antagonist’s goals and motivations make sense. Inanimate forces are incapable of plotting revenge (contrary to what some movies might suggest).

Your characters need to grow and change

Going back to the idea of a journey, in most Western literature story structures, the protagonist wants something, embarks on some kind of quest to get it (physical and/or emotional), discovers what they really need, and by the end of the story has changed for the better. For most readers, it would be an unsatisfactory ending if things simply went back to the way they were at the start of the story — nothing would be resolved, and your readers would wonder why they read your story at all.

Since your protagonist and antagonist function as mirrors of each other, their fortunes in the story tend to mirror each other as well. An excellent example comes from The Unwanteds (specifically the first book of the series — note: spoilers!):

At the start of the book, Alex is declared “unwanted” because of his artistic ability, and sent to his death along with a group of other thirteen-year-olds, while his twin Aaron is declared “wanted” and rises to new opportunity within the city of Quill. Alex is of course not killed, and instead spends the first half of the book learning new artistic talents at a hidden school. Power appears to be shifting into his favour, until he makes a mistake and draws the attention of Quill. Power shifts back to Aaron as Quill threatens to destroy the hidden school and all its students. However, by the end of the book, Alex defeats Aaron and it is instead Aaron who is sent into exile.

Suggestions to get you started

If you’re struggling to write a strong protagonist readers want to cheer for, or a great antagonist readers love to hate, it’s possible you don’t yet know enough about your character to fully appreciate their role in your story. Two possibilities to consider:

1. Write out 40 facts about your antagonist or your protagonist. It may seem like a lot, but this deep dive into your characters’ personalities will help you imagine and discover new layers you can add to the conflict in your story. You can then leverage these facts to build stronger, more believable motivations.
2. Interview your characters. Pose the same questions to your protagonist and your antagonist, and imagine how they would differ in their responses. Not only will this help you understand their motivations, it will highlight their conflict, and you can use this to strengthen your story.

You can also explore this post on why your protagonist might not be working.

Still struggling? Consider stepping back and writing a high-level pitch for your story. Indicate (a) who the protagonist is, (b) who/what the antagonist is, and (c) what’s at stake — what does your protagonist want and what will happen if they don’t get it. Don’t go into details; keep this pitch to a sentence or two at most. Once you’ve nailed this core of your story, you can build from there. (The Novel Factory also provides tools to help you organise your pitch and story premise.)

Conclusion

Your protagonist and antagonist form the core conflict of your story. However you cast them, whether heroic, villainous, or somewhere in between, build up their motivations, nuances, and flaws, to make them feel realistic and relatable, and you’ll have readers turning your pages well after bedtime.

 

Author bio: Adam Jarvis writes fantasy for all ages. His short stories and poems have been published in DreamForge Magazine and the Summer of Sci-Fi and Fantasy anthologies, and through the Canadian Authors Association. He is working towards publishing his debut novel.