Antagonist

Etymology and Meanings of Literary Device of Antagonist

Etymologically, the term antagonist is a derivative of a French term called antagoniste which entered the English language in or around 1590. It means the person who contends with another person. Its trace goes to the Latin term antagonista and the Greek term antagonists which means an opponent, a rival, or a competitor, or a person who opposes the main character of a text.

Its verb in the Greek language is antagonizesthai which means to wage a struggle, or make efforts to win in a context. It mostly occurred and still occurs in battles or sports. However, it entered the sphere of human acts in the beginning of the 17^th century and since then has been used in narratives for a character who opposes the protagonists, or the hero of the story.

Grammatically, it is a noun. Its verb is antagonize that means to make somebody become angry, touchy, furious, or irritating.

Definition of Literary Device of Antagonist

As a literary term, the antagonist is the principal rival, arch enemy, or foil of the main character, called the protagonist who is the source of goodness and virtue, while the antagonist is often the source of evil or bad actions happening in the storyline.

However, a protagonist could be an antagonist himself, or even the situation, or nature could be the antagonist of the protagonist in the case of which it is not bad things that nature is suggestive; rather it just obstructs the good intentions of the protagonist.

Common Examples of Literary Device of Antagonists

1. Satan is a common antagonist of the entire mankind.
2. Some animals such as a snake are painted in a bad light, making them antagonists.
3. Some nouns are permanent antagonists such as criminals, thieves, burglars, etc.
4. Conventional movies from Latin America, India, and even old English movies in the line of 007 have villains instead of antagonists.

Literary Examples of Antagonists

Example # 1

From All Quiet on the Western Front by Eric Maria Remarque

He is right. We are not youth any longer. We don’t want to take the world by storm. We are fleeing. We fly from ourselves. From our life. We were eighteen and had begun to love life and the world; and we had to shoot it to pieces. The first bomb, the first explosion, burst in our hearts. We are cut off from activity, from striving, from progress. We believe in such things no longer, we believe in the war.

This passage from the novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, shows Paul Baumer, the protagonist of the novel, ruminating over the comments of his colleague who think that he is right. They are no longer young. They have become adults and that they are now independent but the point is that they are independent only in war and war zone. They have no social experience. Therefore, this war or war-like social structure is the main antagonist working against the protagonist, Paul Baumer.

Example # 2

From Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck

“I’ll try to catch him,” said Curley. His eyes passed over the new men and he stopped. He glanced coldly at George and then at Lennie. His arms gradually bent at the elbows and his hands closed into fists. He stiffened and went into a slight crouch. His glance was at once calculating and pugnacious. Lennie squirmed under the look and shifted his feet nervously. Curley stepped gingerly close to him. “You the new guys the old man was waitin’ for?”

This passage shows Curley, the antagonist of the novel, Of Mice and Men, by Steinbeck. He clearly looks at Lennie and George to see if he could take on both of them. His stiffening posture and crouching position point to his evil intentions. Therefore, it is clear that he is the antagonist of the novel.

Example # 3

From To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

There was indeed a caste system in Maycomb, but to my mind it worked this way: the older citizens, the present generation of people who had lived side by side for years and years, were utterly predictable to one another: they took for granted attitudes, character shadings, even gestures, as having been repeated in each generation and refined by time. Thus the dicta No
Crawford Minds His Own Business, Every Third Merriweather Is Morbid, The Truth Is Not in the Delafields, All the Bufords Walk Like That, were simply guides to daily living: never take a check from a Delafield without a discreet call to the bank; Miss Maudie Atkinson’s shoulder stoops because she was a Buford; if Mrs. Grace Merriweather sips gin out of Lydia E. Pinkham bottles it’s nothing unusual—her mother did the same.

This passage from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee presents Maycomb as a society facing fissures and crevices on account of the prevalent caste system in it. Therefore, almost all the families witness cracks despite having generations of people with good characters and grand portfolios. Therefore, despite good characters such as Mrs. Grace and Miss Maudie, society obstructs the protagonist, Scout. Therefore, society itself is the main antagonist of the novel.

Example # 4

From The Color Purple by Alice Walker

I know you think I am dead. But I am not. I been writing to you too, over they ears, but Albert said you’d never hear from me again and since I never heard from you all this time, I guess he was right. Now I only write at Christmas and Easter hoping my letter get lost among the Christmas and Easter greetings, or that Albert get the holiday spirit and have pity on us.

This passage occurs in Alice Walker’s popular novel, The Color Purple. As Nettie informs her sister that she has tried her best to reach out to her, she mentions who was causing the obstruction. This shows that his intention was to stop the sisters from meeting each other and causing a stop to his blackmail and bullying. Therefore, he is the main antagonist of the story.

Example # 5

Antagonist in The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

The story of the novel The Killer Angels shows Lee and Longstreet as antagonists in the entire battle, yet they are not outright antagonists. They are somewhat good as Lee is a good commander of his group. His admission of the failure of his responsibility during a charge shows this feature, yet he joins Longstreet characters in showing that they have been fighting for a failed cause. Therefore, they are antagonists of the story.

How to Create an Antagonist

1. Make a plan for a protagonist and antagonist when weaving your story.
2. Decide whether the protagonist is a society, abstract idea, or person.
3. Create features of the antagonist opposite to the protagonist.
4. Evaluate the role of the antagonist vis-à-vis the protagonist and sees its features distinctly opposite to that of the protagonist.

Benefits of Using Antagonist

1. It makes readers aware of the bad side of life as well as the characters.
2. It informs readers about virtue and evil.
3. It makes the author present a balanced approach toward life.
4. It helps the readers and the audiences to apply the same situation to life and be able to make an informed decision in their lives.

Literary Device of Antagonist in Literary Theory

1. Antagonist in Postcolonialism: As a cultural critique, postcolonialism represents literature that sets it apart from other literary pieces in terms of power and indigenous awakening. That is why almost all the postcolonial literary pieces have one thing in common; they present colonialists or collaborators as antagonists of the protagonists. Therefore, an antagonist is an important part of the postcolonial literary pieces or critique.
2. Antagonist and Archetypal Theory: Even in the archetypal literary theory, an antagonist plays their part in creating the archetypes and impacts the storyline as well as the readers and the audiences.
3. Antagonist in Indigenous Critical Theory: Indigenous critical theory also takes an antagonist as a necessary element of the indigenous narratives though poetry and paintings could be exceptions. The reason is that indigenous theoretical assumptions stipulate the presence of paracolonialism which makes it mandatory to have an antagonist vis-à-vis a protagonist.
4. Antagonist in Postmodernism: The term antagonist gets diluted in postmodernism on account of the cultural streak of turning every cultural or literary tradition or convention topsy turvy. Therefore, an antagonist could be a protagonist or vice versa, or even a single person simultaneously.
5. Antagonist in Other Theoretical Perspectives: In fact, an antagonist has become such an integral part of social lifestyle and narratives that it is hard to eschew him/her in theoretical perspectives. However, in some theoretical perspectives, it could be explored on different levels such as in structuralism, poststructuralism, formalism, or new criticism.

Suggested Readings

Abrams, Meyer Howard, and Geoffrey Harpham. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Cengage Learning, 2014.

Bilof, Edwin G. “The Killer Angels: A Case Study of Historical Fiction in the Social Studies Curriculum.” The Social Studies 87.1 (1996): 19-23.

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Random House, 2010.

Shaara, Michael. The killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War. Vol. 2. Ballantine Books, 2010. Walker, Alice. The Color Purple. Vol. 1. Open Road Media, 2011.

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