Protagonist

Shakespeare's Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. William Morris Hunt, oil on canvas, circa 1864

A protagonist (from Ancient Greek πρωταγωνιστής (protagonistes), meaning 'one who plays the first part, chief actor') [1][2] is the leading character of a story.

The protagonist is at the center of the story, makes the key decisions, and experiences the consequences of those decisions. The protagonist is the primary agent propelling the story forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a story contains a subplot, or is a narrative made up of several stories, then each subplot may have its own protagonist.[3]

The protagonist is the character whose fate is most closely followed by the reader or audience, and who is opposed by the antagonist. The antagonist will provide obstacles and complications and create conflicts that test the protagonist, thus revealing the strengths and weaknesses of the protagonist's character.[4]

Ancient Greece

The earliest known examples of a protagonist are found in Ancient Greece. At first, dramatic performances involved merely dancing and recitation by the chorus. Then in Poetics, Aristotle describes how a poet named Thespis introduced the idea of one actor stepping out and engage in a dialogue with the chorus. This was the invention of tragedy, and occurred about 536 B.C.[5] Then the poet Aeschylus, in his plays, introduced a second actor, inventing the idea of dialogue between two characters. Sophocles then wrote plays that included a third actor.[6][7][8][9]

Examples

Euripides' play Hippolytus may be considered to have two protagonists. Phaedra is the protagonist of the first half, who dies partway through the play. Her stepson, the titular Hippolytus, assumes the dominant role in the second half of the play.[10]

In Ibsen’s play The Master Builder, the protagonist is the architect Halvard Solness. The young woman, Hilda Wangel, whose actions lead to the death of Solness, is the antagonist.[11]

In Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, Romeo is the protagonist. He is actively in pursuit of his relationship with Juliet, and the audience is invested in that story. Tybalt, as an antagonist, opposes Romeo and attempts to thwart the relationship.[12]

In Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, Prince Hamlet, who seeks revenge for the murder of his father, is the protagonist. The antagonist would be the character who most opposes Hamlet, Claudius (though, in many ways, Hamlet is his own antagonist).[13]

Sometimes, a work will have a false protagonist, who may seem to be the protagonist, but then may disappear unexpectedly. The character Marion in Alfred Hitchcock's film Psycho (1960) is an example.[14]

A novel that contains a number of narratives may have a number of protagonists. Alexander Solzhenitsyn's The First Circle, for example, depicts a variety of characters imprisoned and living in a gulag camp.[15] Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace, depicts fifteen major characters involved in or affected by a war.[16]

Little Women boasts a cast of over five diverse females struggling with the inevitability of the crossing between childhood and womenhood.[17]

In Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre, Jane's spiritual and emotional growth captivate the social criticism of its day, exploring heavy subjects such as classism, sexuality, religion, and proto-feminism during the early 1800s.[18]

In some cases, the protagonist is not a human: in Richard Adams' novel Watership Down, a group of anthropomorphised rabbits, led by the protagonist Hazel, escape their warren after seeing a vision of its destruction, starting a perilous journey to find a new home.[19]

References

  1. πρωταγωνιστής, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library.
  2. "protagonist". Dictionary.com, Random House. Retrieved November 17, 2017.
  3. Duncan, Stephen. A Guide to Screenwriting Success: Writing for Film and Television. Rowman & Littlefield (2006) ISBN 9780742553019
  4. "protagonist - Search Online Etymology Dictionary". www.etymonline.com.
  5. Müller, K.O. History of the literature of Ancient Greece. [Library of Useful Knowledge.] Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. London (1840) page 306
  6. "Protagonist - literature".
  7. Aristotle. Poetics. Oxford University Press (January 20, 2013) ISBN 978-0199608362
  8. Packard, William. The Art of the Playwright. Thunder’s Mouth Press. 1997 ISBN 1-56025-117-4
  9. Storey, Ian. Allan, Arlene. A Guide to Ancient Greek Drama. John Wiley & Sons (2008) ISBN 9781405137638. page 84
  10. Euripides. Hippolytos. Oxford University Press (October 29, 1992) ISBN 978-0195072907
  11. Ibsen, Henrik. Meyer, Michael Leverson. editor. Ibsen Plays: 1: Ghosts; The Wild Duck; The Master Builder. Dramatists Play Service Inc. (1980) ISBN 9780413463302. page 241
  12. Shakespeare, William. Romeo and Juliet. Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare; Third edition (July 15, 2012) ISBN 9781903436912
  13. Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Simon & Schuster (July 1, 1992) ISBN 978-0743477123
  14. Kolker, Robert Phillip. Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho: A Casebook. Oxford University Press (2004) ISBN 9780195169195
  15. The Solzhenitsyn Reader: New and Essential Writings, 1947–2005: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Edward E. Ericson, Jr., Daniel J. Mahoney.
  16. Moser, Charles. 1992. Encyclopedia of Russian Literature. Cambridge University Press. pp. 298–300.
  17. Sarah., Elbert, (1987). A hunger for home : Louisa May Alcott's place in American culture. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0813511992. OCLC 14932247.
  18. Martin, Robert B (1996). Charlotte Brontë's Novels: The Accents of Persuasion. NY: Norton.
  19. Adams, Richard, 1920-2016. Watership Down. London :Rex Collings Ltd, 1972. Print.
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