What is the difference between a protagonist and an antagonist?

Answer 1

The answer to your question has nothing to do with who is good and who is bad. It has to do with conflict.

The protagonist is the main character of the story. He or she may be good, bad, or a combination of both. In any case, s/he is the character at the story's heart and is typically (though not always) the character who changes the most from the beginning to the end of the story or novel.

The antagonist is any character in conflict with the protagonist. He or she **may** be a villain, but may also be a good, kind, loving, caring individual. It is not the character's goodness or lack of it that defines the antagonist: it is his or her relationship to and interaction with the protagonist.

Most stories have only one protagonist, but may have many antagonists. In stories where the protagonist is facing an internal conflict or struggle, he or she is also an antagonist.

Answer 2

Protagonist- Hero, main character of the book Antagonist- Villian, the one the main character has to defeat The protagonist is always a person, however with the antagonist this is not the case. The antagonist can be an "internal demon" or some piece of nature that is giving the main character a problem, or pretty much anything (ex. in Prometheus the antagonist would be death).

Answer 3

You are asking the wrong question. The difference is between a hero and a protagonist. The hero was the brave, principal actor in a story, a doer of great deeds. Ulysses was the hero of the Odyssey, because he did great things and was always on the good side. In "Crime and Punishment," the protagonist is not a hero. He killed the woman pawnbroker. At the end, the police inspector works him around to confessing that he did indeed kill her. The killer is a prot- (first or foremost) -agonist (actor). Indeed, there is today the idea of the anti-hero. In "Bonnie and Clyde," Clyde Barrow is an anti-hero. We hope he will not do too much bad (But of course, he does.) We hope there may be redemption for him. (Fugeddabatit!)

Answer 4

These are important old Greek terms, that need some clear defining.
"An agonia" is a struggle, anything from a battle of armies to a personal difficulty with a problem one tries to resolve to a wrestling match.

The term "protagonist" refers to one whom tries to accomplish some end against opposition, odds, difficulties.
The term "antagonist" refers to someone who categorically opposes him getting what he wants and who therefore personally acts to stop him/her.
But Aristotle also said that to be "fiction" a narrative or play can't exhibit someone/anyone just doing anything; the protagonist has to be someone trying to do the categorically right thing, and by the best means he know.

That's where the idea of an "heroic" of unusually brave, capable doer of deeds, participant in agonia or struggle, comes from--from Aristotle's rule.

And that's why the idea of a moral-ethical central character who is "anti-heroic" is logically an impossibility.

You can of course choose tell a story about or exhibit the acts of a categorically bad or mistaken human being; but he's no hero; it's not going to be fiction; and it's not worth hearing as a play.

And that is not arguable, not if Aristotle's was right in differentiating fictional deeds from mere non-fictional history. And since all the characters in a play or novel are
defined around the hero's specific moral-ethical value end and his categorical-level try to achieve it, any play or novel with a strong, purposive hero will make all the other characters more interesting and memorable by comparison also.

Answer 5

The protagonist is the hero of the story and does everything s/he needs to do to complete his/her objectives.

The antagonist is typically the villain with a personal grudge against the hero and will do everything in his/her power to try and stop the protagonist from achieving his/her goals.

Answer 6

The protagonist is the main character of the story; the antagonist is the opposing character in the story, but not the main character.

Answer 7

The protagonist is considered the "good guy" of the story.
The antagonist is considered the "bad guy" of the story.

Answer 8

The protagonist is typically the main character, the focus of the story.
The antagonist is typically the villain or the problem of the story

Answer 9

a protaganist is the good guy in the story and is the main character for the most part; whereas, the antaganist is the bad guy in the story or the person who is against the main character

Answer 10

protagonist - main character
antagonist - villian or someone who causes the problem ( evil/bad guy? )