the protagonist–antagonist relationship: why stories need conflict

In most stories:

• Protagonist = the character whose goal/need drives the plot. They make the key choices, take the biggest risks and experience the main change (or refusal to change).

• Antagonist = whatever most actively blocks that goal. This can be a person, but also a system, a force of nature, a community, a lover, an institution, time, addiction, grief, shame, etc.

A quick way to spot them:

What does someone want, specifically? → that’s usually your protagonist.

What keeps them from getting it, scene after scene? → that’s your antagonist (or antagonistic force).

Two common twists that trip people up:

1. The antagonist isn’t always “the villain.” They might be right, or sympathetic — just in the way.

2. You can have multiple antagonists, but usually one is the primary pressure that makes the story move.

Here are solid modern-classic play examples where the protagonist/antagonist dynamic is clear — even when the “antagonist” is a system, a belief or an inner engine:

• Death of a Salesman (Arthur Miller)

o   Protagonist: Willy Loman

o   Antagonist: the success myth / Willy’s delusion (and the economic system

that rewards it)

• A Streetcar Named Desire (Tennessee Williams)

o   Protagonist: Blanche

o   Antagonist: Stanley (and the blunt force of “reality”)

• The Crucible (Arthur Miller)

o   Protagonist: John Proctor

o   Antagonist: theocratic mass hysteria (embodied by Danforth/Abigail)

• A Raisin in the Sun (Lorraine Hansberry)

o   Protagonist: the Younger family (often Walter Lee as driver)

o   Antagonist: racism + housing discrimination (embodied by Karl Lindner)

• Fences (August Wilson)

o   Protagonist: Troy Maxson

o   Antagonist: Troy’s pride/bitterness (and the racist limits he internalizes)

• Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Edward Albee)

o   Protagonist: George & Martha (as a unit)

o   Antagonist: each other’s games — and the void they’re protecting with them

• Waiting for Godot (Samuel Beckett)

o   Protagonist: Vladimir & Estragon

o   Antagonist: time/meaninglessness/stasis (the “waiting” itself)

• Glengarry Glen Ross (David Mamet)

o   Protagonist: Shelly Levene

o   Antagonist: capitalist incentive system (embodied by Williamson/Mitch &

Murray’s pressure)

• Top Girls (Caryl Churchill)

o   Protagonist: Marlene

o   Antagonist: patriarchy wearing a “success” mask (and Marlene’s buy-in)

• True West (Sam Shepard)

o   Protagonist: Austin

o   Antagonist: Lee (and the identity crisis of masculinity)

• Angels in America (Tony Kushner)

o   Protagonist: Prior Walter (and Harper/Louis as parallel engines)

o   Antagonist: AIDS-era abandonment + political cynicism (embodied by Roy

Cohn)

• Topdog/Underdog (Suzan-Lori Parks)

o   Protagonist: Lincoln

o   Antagonist: Booth (and the rigged script of history/identity they’re trapped in)

• Ruined (Lynn Nottage)

o   Protagonist: Mama Nadi

o   Antagonist: war’s economy (violence as the governing system)