Character Roles Flashcards
What is a protagonist?
The main character of the story.
They are carefully crafted with a logical backstory, personal motivation and a character arc over the course of the story.
What is a antagonist?
The villain of the story.
Not the same as anti-hero: a villanous person functioning in the protagonists role.
What is a love interest?
The protagonist’s object of desire: a compelling, three dimensional person. The love interest is the device an author uses to show the vulnerabilities and strengths of the protagonist. This device allows writers to complicate the main character’s life, and to put stumbling blocks in the way of attaining the story goal. It is the most common sub-plot.
What is a confidant?
A type of bestfriend or sidekick of the protagonist.
The protagonists goals often flow through the confidant.
What is a deuteragonist?
In literature, the deuteragonist or secondary main character is the second most important character of a narrative, after the protagonist and before the tritagonist. The deuteragonist often acts as a constant companion to the protagonist or someone who continues actively aiding a protagonist.
What are tertiary characters?
Characters populating the world of the story, but do not necessarily link to the main storyline.
What is a foil character?
In any narrative, a foil is a character who contrasts with another character; typically, a character who contrasts with the protagonist, in order to better highlight or differentiate certain qualities of the protagonist. A foil to the protagonist may also be the antagonist of the plot.
An example of a foil character would be Draco Malfoy to Harry Potter
