Hey Fuse fans! Today I want to talk about a key feature of any compelling novel.
Every story needs an antagonist. It may have many villains (or, if your protagonist is a villain, many heroes!), but it has only one primary antagonist.
- The antagonist is the person or thing whose relationship with the protagonist creates the conflict.
Some examples of traditional antagonists, individual characters who actively try to cause the protagonist harm:
- In The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, the antagonist is Jadis, the White Witch. Jadis acts in direct opposition to the protagonist, Lucy Pevensie, and her siblings.
- In the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, the antagonist is Lord Voldemort. Voldemort and his Death Eaters act in direct opposition to the protagonist, Harry Potter, and his friends.
- In Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley, the antagonist is the Creature that Victor Frankenstein, the protagonist, creates and subsequently rejects, which then seeks revenge upon him and all he holds dear.
In a disaster story, the antagonist is usually nature itself (which acts as a symbol for some big theme, or whatever):
- In Jaws by Peter Benchley, the antagonist is the big shark that’s eating people.
- In The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton, the antagonist is an extraterrestrial virus.
- In Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, the antagonist is the inhospitable wilderness.
Sometimes, the antagonist is more ephemeral:
- In Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, the antagonist is the eponymous Rebecca, who is long dead before the novel begins. It is her memory and lingering influence that act against the protagonist, the second Mrs. de Winter—as well as the terrible secret of her demise. The sinister Mrs. Danvers works what she sees as Rebecca’s will from beyond the grave, but she is a secondary threat rather than the true antagonist of the story.
- In The Shining by Stephen King, the antagonist is the Overlook Hotel, which has supernatural properties that drive the protagonist, Jack Torrance, insane. Torrance himself becomes the threat to the other characters as the story continues, but is still the protagonist. (This is a common feature of King’s work—Carrie has a similar role reversal, but Carrie White too remains the protagonist.)
- In much of Greek tragedy, most famously Oedipus the King by Sophocles, the antagonist is Fate. Oedipus struggles against a terrible prophecy that somehow conspires to take place no matter what measures are taken to avoid it. The narrative is a give and take between protagonist and antagonist, with Oedipus seemingly avoiding the prophecy and then the prophecy continually reasserting itself.
Certain stories, by virtue of their structure, complicate the very idea of the antagonist:
- In the Romance genre, the antagonist is often the love interest. That doesn’t mean the character is evil, or hates the protagonist, or means to do her harm, but instead that plot twists and reversals between those two characters are what make up the central conflict. The conflict is whether or not the lovers will get together, and it’s a battle between the two of them to reach a yes or no conclusion. Any other opposing forces are usually secondary.
- In a multi-protagonist structure, with many POV characters, the role of antagonist becomes more complicated. For example, in A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin, Tyrion Lannister and Catelyn Stark each serve as the protagonist or antagonist for one another in their respective chapters. Depending on the perspective the reader is given, each character assumes the opposite role—Tyrion as Catelyn’s antagonist and vice-versa. Each POV character has a personal narrative with its own reversals, and therefore the antagonist may be different for each storyline. (Ned Stark’s storyline, the “main” storyline of the book, has a more traditional antagonist in Cersei Lannister.)
- Literary Fiction often has a different sort of conflict entirely. For example, in Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, Janie Crawford is both the protagonist and the antagonist. The narrative is about Janie deciding what she wants from life, and fighting with her own self-doubt. In a structure like this, it is vitally important to have secondary antagonists who drive the plot—Hurston provides the reader with Janie’s three husbands, who largely fulfill this function, as well as a climactic battle with nature in the form of a hurricane. This kind of structure, where the protagonist is her own antagonist, is very ambitious and should be approached with caution.
Identifying the antagonist is absolutely essential to plotting your novel. The power dynamic between protagonist and antagonist (i.e., which one is “on top” of the conflict at any given time) is the primary driving force of the plot. Stories without a defined antagonist are ponderous and lack urgency.
For more tips on how to make your narrative really stand out, you can check out my Short Fuse Guide to Plotting Your Novel for just 99 cents.
