Ant

All you want to know about Ant

This article is about the literary term. For other uses, see Antagonist (disambiguation).

An antagonist (from Greek ανταγωνιστής - antagonistes, "opponent, competitor, rival"^[1]^[2]) is a character or group of characters, or, sometimes an institution of a happening who represents the opposition against which the protagonist(s) must contend.^[3] In the classic style of story where in the action consists of a hero fighting a villain, the two can be regarded as protagonist and antagonist, respectively.^[4] Contrary to popular belief, the antagonist is not always the villain, but simply those who oppose the main character.

Many sports or racing-oriented movies blend antagonists and villains into one type of character. In fact, the protagonist is often displayed as an innocent young boy whose dream is to win a race or sportive event. Thus, his most serious opponent is usually depicted as a cheater and/or thief. Such examples are very common in Disney's movies.

Writers have also created more complex situations. In some instances, a story is told from the villain's point of view, and any hero trying to stop the villain can be regarded as an antagonist. Such antagonists are usually police officers or other law enforcement officials. In the film K-19: The Widowmaker, an American film about a Soviet Cold War submarine crew, the crew, enemies of the United States, are depicted as protagonists, creating something of a paradox -as very often the American film industry tends to depict the forces of the United States as the people that fight for "good" and "justice", in opposition to Russia (especially the former Soviet Union) being the antagonists who often have maniacal and/or malicious intentions (e.g. world domination). Sometimes, antagonists and protagonists may overlap, depending on what their ultimate objectives are considered to be.

Ironically, in most cases, the "hero" is the true antagonist : it all starts with a man who places achievement higher than common (and often dictated and useless) morals (such as "Don't get even, just be the victim and forgive"). Such a man is then opposed by a very classic and common breed of hero : the man who just fights all that do not abide to his unquestioned and uncomprehended moral codes. Thus, the "hero" is the real antagonist, while the man with a different moral code is declared "villain", whether he truly is evil or not. Similarly, in Gregory Maguire's "Wicked", the origins of evil and good are discussed. In a chapter, a character defends their opinion that "evil predates good" : an evil must by done, for a good to oppose it. It just doesn't (or extremely rarely) work the other way. The either evil or amoral or tragic character is opposed by the either good or morale-unquestioning character.