Unless you\u2019ve spent time studying Ancient Greek drama tropes and terminology, the words \u2018deuteragonist\u2019 and \u2018tritagonist\u2019 may sound like a load of old tosh. And in truth, they\u2019re not used all that often\u2014but they exist in pretty much every story you\u2019ve ever read, to varying degrees of strictness. But let\u2019s start off with that first one, the one we all recognise.<\/p>\n
protagonist (noun)\u2014the leading character in a story<\/p>\n
Identifying your protagonist is normally very easy. If you\u2019re looking at a movie poster or a book cover, it\u2019s probably the face that\u2019s the biggest and in the middle. Think of your Luke Skywalkers, Harry Potters, James Bonds, Elizabeth Bennetts, Jessica Joneses and Katniss Everdeens.<\/p>\n
A protagonist isn\u2019t always \u2018the good guy\u2019, however, as many famous stories can attest\u2014Hamlet, Heathcliffe from Wuthering Heights<\/em>, Alex from the first part of A Clockwork Orange<\/em> and Dr Sheppard from The Murder of Roger Ackroyd<\/em>, for instance.<\/p>\n And a story isn\u2019t limited to a single protagonist either\u2014just think of The Lord of the Rings<\/em> being told from multiple different story angles (Frodo, Sam, Aragorn, Faramir, Eowyn, Merry and Pippin), as well as the more recent A Song of Ice and Fire<\/em> series, which, despite GRRM\u2019s best efforts, still has enough characters left alive to tell a story (such as Jon, Tyrion, Arya, Daenerys, Sam, Cersei, Jaime, Bran, Theon and many others come and gone\u2014not all of them \u2018goodies\u2019).<\/p>\n What defines a protagonist, therefore, does have a lot to do with the story that\u2019s being told. It\u2019s hard to sit down and think who is the main character in The Lord of the Rings<\/em>. Yes, Frodo probably comes to mind, because he\u2019s the one with the Ring, but in terms of who has the most \u2018important\u2019 chapters, that\u2019s not so readily obvious, especially after the Fellowship parts ways. Equally true is the case with A Song of Ice and Fire<\/em>, where each character follows their own storyline for much of the series, none of which seems to be the \u2018most\u2019 important. Yes, you may think perhaps Jon is the \u2018main\u2019 character because he\u2019s the one who\u2019s been facing the White Walkers for the longest, but like with Frodo, he shares his chapters with so many others equally.<\/p>\n Which brings me to the deuteragonist.<\/p>\n deuteragonist (noun)\u2014the secondary or second most important character in a story<\/p>\n The role of the deuteragonist is often identifiable as a sidekick-like character to the protagonist. If The Lord of the Rings<\/em> were simply a story about Frodo and Sam and Sauron, disregarding all the (in my opinion) best bits of the series, then Sam would be the deuteragonist. The sidekick role is the helpful companion, someone who aids the protagonist in their struggle in some capacity\u2014perhaps physically, but often intellectually. Take Dr Watson as the deuteragonist to Sherlock Holmes\u2019 protagonist, for example, or Ron Weasley to Harry Potter, Robin to Batman, Eleven to Mike (in Stranger Things<\/em>) and Spock to Captain Kirk.<\/p>\n Like with the protagonist, however, it really does depend on the story. Not all sidekicks are substantial enough to be worthy of the label of deuteragonist (think Snowy from Tintin<\/em> compared with the more substantial Captain Haddock, or Abu from Aladdin<\/em> compared to the Genie).<\/p>\n Nor are all deuteragonists supportive of the protagonist. Many secondary characters who appear to be the protagonist\u2019s friend or a supportive character actually turn out to be hindering them in some way (out of jealousy is a common reason), or reveal themselves to be the antagonist. As some examples, Iago from Othello<\/em>, Prince Hans from Frozen<\/em> and Talia al Ghul from The Dark Knight Rises<\/em>.<\/p>\n In fact, depending on how the story is told, the deuteragonist could very well be the antagonist in plain sight. In Heat<\/em>, Robert DeNiro plays a thief (our protagonist) and the secondary character in the film is Al Pacino who plays the detective in pursuit. Similarly, it could be argued that the Joker in The Dark Knight<\/em> is the secondary character in the film, rather than Rachael or Harvey Dent. Also, Hans Gruber in Die Hard<\/em> fills this role, as does Hannibal Lector from The Silence of the Lambs<\/em> and Darth Vader.<\/p>\n Now, to the third of our \u2018-ist\u2019 trio.<\/p>\n tritagonist (noun)\u2014the third main character in a story<\/p>\n As with the deuteragonist, the tritagonist\u2019s role in the story is very much a case-by-case situation, depending on the story.<\/p>\n Examples of the tritagonist being a secondary sidekick character could be Hermione from Harry Potter<\/em> (forming a trio of good guys), as could Jessie from Toy Story<\/em> with both Woody and Buzz, and both Princess Leia and Han Solo from Star Wars<\/em>.<\/p>\n Tritagonists, however, can also be the antagonist, the evil that the two main characters (and their lesser friends) must fight against. Think LeChiffe from Casino Royale<\/em>, Doctor Evil from Austin Powers<\/em>, Kahn from Star Trek: Into Darkness<\/em> and Gothel from Tangled<\/em>.<\/p>\n Of course, stories are so beautifully varied that characters don\u2019t really have to adhere to any of the above \u2018rules\u2019 or trends, so if you can’t label characters… well, good!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The big three of Ancient Greek drama, but what do they mean?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":570,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486\/revisions\/570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/carmelsealey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}