Protagonist

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A protagonist is the central figure of a story. Alternatively, the phrase denotes a primary advocate of or proponent for a cause or movement. The main character can be a hero or a villain in a story - it is just the character with the lead role.

In literature, the protagonist (Classical Greek πρωταγωνιστὴς) is characterized by his/her ability to change or evolve^{[citation needed]}. Although a novel may center on the actions of another character, as in Herman Melville's "Bartleby the Scrivener", it is the dynamic character that typically allows the plot to progress in a manner that is conducive to the thesis of the work and earns the respect or attention of the audience. The original Greek phrase refers to the central character within a drama, deriving from a conflation of πρωτο-, proto- (the combinative form of 'first') and agōnists ('one who contends for a prize').

It should be pointed out that the protagonist is not always the hero of the story. Many authors have chosen to unfold a story from the point of view of a character who, while not central to the action of the story, is in a position to comment upon it. However, it is most common for the story to be "about" the protagonist; even if the Main Character's actions are not heroic, they are nonetheless usually vital to the progress of the story. Neither should the protagonist be confused with the narrator; they may be the same, but even a first-person narrator need not be the protagonist, as they may be recalling the event while not living through it as the audience is.

The Main Character is often faced with a "foil", and character known as the antagonist who most represents obstacles that the protagonist must overcome. As with protagonists, there may be more than one antagonist in a story. (Note that the term antagonist in this context is much more recent than the term protagonist, and rests on the same misconception as the use of protagonist to mean proponent. See below.)

Sometimes, a work will initially highlight a particular character, as though they were the protagonist, and then unexpectedly dispose of that character as a dramatic device. Such a character is called a false protagonist.

When the work contains subplots, these may have different Main Characters from the main plot. In some novels, the book's main character may be impossible to pick out, because the plots do not permit clear identification of one as the main plot, as in Alexander Solzhenitsyn's The First Circle, depicting a variety of characters imprisoned in and living about a gulag camp.

1 Usage
2 See also

[edit] Usage

[edit] Main Character or Characters

In an ancient Greek drama, the Main Character was the leading actor and as such there could only be one main character in a play. As has been noted, the original Greek phrase refers to 'the first amongst those who compete' (see above). Thus, in the spirit of the original phrase, a drama or literary work may not contain more than one main character, as it is logically incoherent that several characters might all be 'first'. Alternatively, secondary and tertiary characters might be referred to with the phrases deuteragonist (from the combinative form for 'second') and tritagonist ('third') respectively^[1]. Otherwise, stories focussing on several characters with no clear protagonist might be referred to as featuring 'ensemble acting'. Such casting is popular in television stories and film, and has been featured in, for example, Lost and The Lord of the Rings film trilogy.

However the word 'protagonist' has come to be used in the plural to denote 'important actors' or 'principal characters' since at least 1671 when, as noted in the Oxford English Dictionary, satirical poet John Dryden wrote "Tis charg'd upon me that I make debauch'd persons... my protagonists, or the chief persons of the drama"^[2]. When there is more than one protagonist the story becomes more complex^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Main Character as proponent

The use of 'Main character' in place of 'proponent' has become common in the [20th century] and may have been influenced by a misconception that the first syllable of the word represents the prefix pro- (ie. 'favoring') rather than proto-, meaning first (as opposed to deuter-, second, in deuteragonist, or tri-, third, in tritagonist). For example, usage such as "He was an early protagonist of nuclear power" can be replaced by 'advocate' or 'proponent' [1].

[edit] Main Character in psychodrama

In psychodrama, the "Main Character" is the person (group member, patient or client) who decides to enact some significant aspect of his life, experiences or relationships on stage with the help of the psychodrama director and other group members, taking supplementary roles as auxiliary egos.