Protagonist: Definition & Examples
- Melchior Antoine
- Aug 3
- 7 min read
Updated: Aug 5
A protagonist is the soul of any story. They drive the action and plot of a narrative and decide the denouement (how a conflict is resolved) of a tale. However, a protagonist does not always have to be the “good guy.” In fact, many of the most interesting protagonists are called anti-heroes.
These are heroes that can be described as at best complicated, and at worst, villainous. Examples include Macbeth in Macbeth and Iago in Othello. Macbeth is complicated in the sense that he started off as upright and reluctant to kill Duncan, only to turn into a stone-cold monster after the evil deed. There’s nothing complicated about Iago. He is simply a petty and jealous man who begins and ends the play as such.
On the other hand, traditional protagonists are those that the typical reader can identify with. There are two types of traditional protagonists: the tragic protagonist and the conventional protagonist. The tragic protagonist suffers from a fatal flaw or internal conflict that leads to their downfall. Think of figures like Antigone and her father Oedipus from Sophoclean Greek tragedy or Okonkwo from Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart (published in 1958).
Conventional protagonists are those who resolve their internal or external conflict without succumbing to tragedy. Think of Pip in Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations (published in 1861) or Jane in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre (published in 1847). With these types of protagonists, we have a traditional narrative arc, which involves them starting off as naive and untested. However, after going through a series of conflicts, they become wiser, more knowledgeable, and achieve a transformation that makes them better off than when they started.
The conventional protagonist
A protagonist can be defined as the leading character in a play, movie, or novel. The word is not typically used to apply to poetry. A protagonist in a poem would normally be referred to as a persona. And in many cases, it is little more than the voice of the poet. The word can also be used to describe other major characters.
As mentioned earlier, protagonists don't always have to be "good." However, most of them are typically conventionally good. The conventional protagonist goes through the traditional narrative arc or hero's journey. Now, the hero’s journey does not mean that the story has to be full of action and adventure, including a descent physical or metaphorical into hell, like Odysseus.
Even the most ordinary stories in the most ordinary settings can include protagonists who achieve major positive transformations. They start off as flawed, inexperienced, or naive, and they eventually learn and grow beyond their original flaws and shortcomings. A good example of a conventional protagonist would be Emma in Jane Austen’s novel of the same name — Emma (published in 1815).
While the novel cannot be described as being action-packed and adventurous, it nonetheless maps out a journey of discovery, growth, and self-awareness for the titular character Emma Woodhouse. Jane Austen uses irony, satire, and the narrative technique called free indirect discourse to expose Emma’s immaturity and flawed thinking. The character undergoes a significant transformation: from a confident matchmaking busybody with no knowledge of self and a shallow sense of class to a mature, self-aware and compassionate individual.
Emma’s self-growth can be seen regarding her attitude toward the love interest of Harriet, a character, whom she is trying to match with someone she sees as more worthy. The love interest in question is Robert Martin, a kind and well-to-do farmer whom Harriet genuinely likes. Emma thinks that Martin is beneath Harriett’s social station and encourages her to reject Martin’s proposal.
Instead, she encourages and tries to set up a match between Harriet and an ambitious, high-status vicar named Reverend Philip Elton, who is only interested in marrying into a wealthy family and sees Harriet as beneath him. By the end of the novel, Emma learns to judge people by more than their social class and status and gains a deeper sense of who she is and of her own limitations.
The tragic protagonist
The tragic protagonist is one who suffers from a fatal flaw or some sort of internal conflict that they are unable to resolve. This type of character features in tragedies and may not be as straight-laced as a conventional protagonist. However, they more often than not are able to gain more sympathy and empathy from an audience despite their imperfections.
A tragic protagonist may even be referred to as an anti-hero. An example of a tragic protagonist who is an anti-hero is Macbeth. For most of the play, we see Macbeth acting like a super villain, killing innocent men, women, and children. It’s hard to understand why anyone would feel or empathize with such a protagonist. However, all the sympathy and empathy we have for Macbeth is based on the remorse and sense of guilt that he portrays in the beginning of the play.
Unlike his wife, Macbeth knows that the vile act of murdering the king — Duncan — as he sleeps as a guest in his home, is akin to sacrificing his moral soul. His wife is an even more tragic character than he is. He understands the depth of depravity that he is engaging in and weeps and wails at the death of his moral self, as in the case of Act 2, Scene 2:
Whence is that knocking?
How is't with me, when every noise appals me?
What hands are here? ha! they pluck out mine eyes.
Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas in incarnadine,
Making the green one red.
His conscience is wallowing in an immensity of guilt. However, after mourning the death of his moral self, he is prepared to carry on the grim work of killing indiscriminately to remain in power. Close to the end of the play, he hears news of his wife’s death, and his soul is so hollowed out, he simply answers that life “is a tale / Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.”
Macbeth’s narrative arc doesn’t represent the traditional hero’s journey. In the traditional version of that journey, the hero spends a brief stint in hell to gain some kind of wisdom. In the case of Hamlet, he spends most of his time in hell. His tragedy lies in the deep sense of humanity that he betrayed in his disturbing hesitancy and remorse just before and after killing King Duncan. The play is a powerful lesson in how the desire for power can morally corrupt individuals.
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The protagonist as a villain
Let’s take a look at one of literature’s most notorious protagonists: Iago from Othello. A casual reader would be tempted to see Iago as the antagonist instead of the protagonist. We typically assume the protagonist to be the good guy and the antagonist the bad guy who opposes him. Therefore, in a play like Othello, we would expect that the protagonist would be Othello. He is after all the noble Moor, with some of the most beautiful poetic language that Shakespeare has ever penned.
His love for Desdemona seems genuine and appears to be the outcome of a beautiful love story. However, Othello fails in every aspect that makes for a good protagonist or even a good tragic hero. A tragic hero or protagonist is supposed to drive the plot by taking decisions based on their own knowledge of the truth and their agency.
Othello is manipulated throughout the play by the master manipulator, Iago. Iago is the one who drives the plot of the play and acts like a puppet master by fooling people into acting in a way that would achieve his ultimate goal — the ruin of Othello. He contributes to the way in which the play unfolds as much as Shakespeare the author. If Shakespeare is the author of the play, then Iago is the author of the pain and tragedy that most of the characters in the play suffer.
This makes him the protagonist of the play. He can be described as an anti-hero. The closest thing he has to an antagonist is Cassio, the only major male character not infected with jealousy. Almost every character is manipulated or tricked into acting exactly the way Iago wants them to. Here he is in a soliloquy laying his plans bare in Act 1, Scene 3:
. . . I hate the Moor,
And it is thought abroad that ’twixt my sheets
’Has done my office. I know not if ’t be true,
But I, for mere suspicion in that kind,
Will do as if for surety. He holds me well.
The better shall my purpose work on him.
Cassio’s a proper man. Let me see now:
To get his place and to plume up my will
In double knavery—How? how?—Let’s see.
After some time, to abuse Othello’s ear
That he is too familiar with his wife.
He hath a person and a smooth dispose
To be suspected, framed to make women false.
The Moor is of a free and open nature
That thinks men honest that but seem to be so,
And will as tenderly be led by th’ nose
As asses are.
I have ’t. It is engendered. Hell and night
Must bring this monstrous birth to the world’s light.
He hates Othello, the moor (or Black man) because Othello has promoted an officer Cassio over him. Iago attempts to justify his desire to do Othello harm by claiming that he believes that Othello slept with his wife (or as he puts it, “And it is thought abroad that ’twixt my sheets / ’Has done my office”). He doesn’t know if it's true but chooses to believe for sure that it is.
Samuel Taylor Colerdige described this type of thinking as “the motive-hunting of motiveless Malignity.” Iago is simply driven by jealousy of both Othello and Cassio. This jealousy transforms him into a kind of demon, and he even makes reference to “Hell and night” in his soliloquy.
He has no character depth, no internal conflict, and no fatal flaw in an otherwise noble person. Just as demons have no other purpose or meaning besides the specific vices that they embody, Iago cannot be understood beyond the malignant jealousy that drives him.
Cite this EminentEdit article |
Antoine, M. (2025, August 08). Protagonist: Definition & Examples. EminentEdit. https://www.eminentediting.com/post/protagonist |
