Discover

An 'antagonist' is a character or group of characters, or, sometimes an institution of a happening who represents the opposition against which the protagonist(s) must contend. In the classic style of story where in the action consists of a hero fighting a villain, the two can be regarded as protagonist and antagonist, respectively.
Contrary to what some people commonly believe, the antagonist is not always the villain, but simply those who oppose the main character.
Writers have also created more complex situations. In some instances, a story is told from the villain's point of view, and any hero trying to stop said villain can be regarded as an antagonist. Such antagonists are usually police officers or other law enforcement officials. In the film , an American film about a Soviet Cold War submarine crew, the crew, enemies of the United States, are depicted as protagonists, creating something of a paradox -as very often the American film industry tends to depict the forces of the United States as the people that fight for "good" and "justice", in opposition to them being the antagonists.
More often, stories simply do not have characters that are readily identifiable as most heroic or villainous. Instead, the antagonist becomes that character, group, or metaphysical force which provides the chief obstruction to the protagonist(s) of the story. Note that the antagonist is not necessarily human; often, the forces of nature or psychological elements provide this element of opposition. For example, ''Final Destination'' features a metaphysical, though possibly sentient, personification of death which tries to kill people in gruesome "accidents" as part of some large plan.

Contents

See also

See also

★ Boss (video games)

★ Protagonist

★ Silent protagonist

★ False protagonist