Michael Leask

In my previous blog, I mentioned antagonism, and I thought I would use this blog to describe two examples that stood out to me. The instructor, Nancy Lee, explained the subject well in her video, The Three Levels of Antagonism. She made me re-think what an antagonist is and how I can apply it to my story.

One of the interesting ways to look at antagonist/antagonism is an antagonist doesn’t need to look the part, like an obvious ‘bad or evil’ character, think Sauron or Bowser. I’m paraphrasing here, but the example Nancy Lee gave was the journey of a young woman protagonist.

Marisa wants to have a career and be independent, not settle down, but her mom constantly tries to push the idea that she needs to have a husband and raise babies. The mom is being the antagonist. The mom can still be a loving, kind, and nurturing human being, but to the daughter, she is the conflict, the obstacle on her journey to having the life she wants. The mom doesn’t have to be wicked, deformed, or monstrous to be an antagonist; she just has to prevent the protagonist from achieving her goal.

Another example of antagonism, I inferred, was a person doesn’t have to be the antagonist. The antagonism could come from life or a life event. Imagine a story from the perspective of a tourist or resident in Turkey going through the recent earthquake (Feb. 2023). Perhaps the journey or goal of the protagonist is to go from work to home to ensure his children are okay. The threat of more earthquakes, aftershocks, or tremors could be the antagonism that prevents him from getting home to find them.

I highly encourage writers to check out the link to the course. It was a short video, about three minutes long, but Nancy Lee expertly expressed the three levels of antagonism. Videos like Nancy’s and others in character development are invaluable for emerging writers and those who want to have re-freshers. The course is inexpensive, and I encourage you to help support the instructors.