Protagonist
noun
The main character in a story, movie, or drama.
Harry Potter is the protagonist in the 'Harry Potter' series.
Often appears as...
- female protagonist
- lead protagonist
Usage tips
Literary
noun
The leading person in a movement or cause.
Martin Luther King Jr. was a protagonist in the Civil Rights Movement.
Often appears as...
- political protagonist
- chief protagonist
Usage tips
Approving
Academic
noun
The main character in a story, movie, or drama.
Harry Potter is the protagonist in the 'Harry Potter' series.
Often appears as...
- female protagonist
- lead protagonist
Usage tips
Literary
noun
The leading person in a movement or cause.
Martin Luther King Jr. was a protagonist in the Civil Rights Movement.
Often appears as...
- political protagonist
- chief protagonist
Usage tips
Approving
Academic
Definition 1 of 2
Pro Tip 1/3Identity Center
The protagonist drives the story forward; their decisions matter most to the plot.
In 'The Hobbit', Bilbo is the protagonist whose actions shape the adventure.
Pro Tip 2/3Empathy Hook
Readers often sympathize with the protagonist, experiencing the story through their eyes.
Katniss Everdeen is the protagonist in 'The Hunger Games', whom readers root for.
Pro Tip 3/3Not Always Good
The protagonist isn't always morally good; they can be flawed or even villainous.
Macbeth is the protagonist but also the villain in Shakespeare's play.
Pro Tip 1/3Identity Center
The protagonist drives the story forward; their decisions matter most to the plot.
In 'The Hobbit', Bilbo is the protagonist whose actions shape the adventure.
Pro Tip 2/3Empathy Hook
Readers often sympathize with the protagonist, experiencing the story through their eyes.
Katniss Everdeen is the protagonist in 'The Hunger Games', whom readers root for.
Pro Tip 3/3Not Always Good
The protagonist isn't always morally good; they can be flawed or even villainous.
Macbeth is the protagonist but also the villain in Shakespeare's play.
Pro Tip 1/3Identity Center
The protagonist drives the story forward; their decisions matter most to the plot.
In 'The Hobbit', Bilbo is the protagonist whose actions shape the adventure.
Pro Tip 2/3Empathy Hook
Readers often sympathize with the protagonist, experiencing the story through their eyes.
Katniss Everdeen is the protagonist in 'The Hunger Games', whom readers root for.
Pro Tip 3/3Not Always Good
The protagonist isn't always morally good; they can be flawed or even villainous.
Macbeth is the protagonist but also the villain in Shakespeare's play.
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Video examples
Steven Johnson: A guided...
One single thing that everybody was going to because it didn't have the traditional slower path of infections that you might expect. And so he went right in there and started interviewing people. He eventually enlisted the help of this amazing other figure, who's kind of the other protagonist of the book --
Video examples
Storytellers Summit Day...
the protagonists of the narrative it's their story and I think just you know a quick aside of what that blot the story did you just said it's so powerful about the blind kid who knew like even though he can't see he he wants to be in the frame well and he wants to be represented also well there is a bigger
Video examples
For the love of fangirls...
of stories that actually place me as a protagonist inside of various imagined romances with him. So in one, I tell him that I'm pregnant with his child. In another, we meet in hospital where we're both fighting cancer, and in another, we fall so deeply in love that we become fugitives who kill people.
Video examples
The wicked wit of Jane...
Of course, these characters are far from perfect. They often think they have all the answers. And by telling the story from their perspective, Austen tricks the viewer into believing their heroine knows best– only to pull the rug out from under the protagonist and the reader.
Video examples
Why should you read...
and must negotiate with a shadowy cast of characters. Like many of Dickens’s protagonists, poor Pip's position is constantly destabilized, just one of the reasons why reading Dickens is the best of times for the reader, while being the worst of times for his characters.
Video examples
What makes something...
K, the protagonist, is arrested out of nowhere and made to go through a bewildering process where neither the cause of his arrest, nor the nature of the judicial proceedings are made clear to him. This sort of scenario is considered so characteristic of Kafka's work
Video examples
Sarah Lewis: Embrace the...
and he felt the protagonist was the painter himself. Franz Kafka saw incompletion when others would find only works to praise, so much so that he wanted all of his diaries, manuscripts, letters and even sketches burned upon his death.
Video examples
Why should you read...
where books are banned from all areas of life - and possessing, let alone reading them, is forbidden. The protagonist, Montag, is a fireman responsible for destroying what remains. But as his pleasure gives way to doubt,
Video examples
Sisonke Msimang: If a...
But you didn't. You haven't done anything. Listening is an important but insufficient step towards social action. Secondly, I think often we are drawn towards characters and protagonists who are likable and human.
Video examples
Tales of passion -...
love the protagonists of my books are strong and passionate women like rose map endo I don't make them up there's no need for that I look around and I see them everywhere I have worked with women
Video examples
Steven Johnson: A guided...
One single thing that everybody was going to because it didn't have the traditional slower path of infections that you might expect. And so he went right in there and started interviewing people. He eventually enlisted the help of this amazing other figure, who's kind of the other protagonist of the book --
Video examples
Storytellers Summit Day...
the protagonists of the narrative it's their story and I think just you know a quick aside of what that blot the story did you just said it's so powerful about the blind kid who knew like even though he can't see he he wants to be in the frame well and he wants to be represented also well there is a bigger
Video examples
For the love of fangirls...
of stories that actually place me as a protagonist inside of various imagined romances with him. So in one, I tell him that I'm pregnant with his child. In another, we meet in hospital where we're both fighting cancer, and in another, we fall so deeply in love that we become fugitives who kill people.
Video examples
The wicked wit of Jane...
Of course, these characters are far from perfect. They often think they have all the answers. And by telling the story from their perspective, Austen tricks the viewer into believing their heroine knows best– only to pull the rug out from under the protagonist and the reader.
Video examples
Why should you read...
and must negotiate with a shadowy cast of characters. Like many of Dickens’s protagonists, poor Pip's position is constantly destabilized, just one of the reasons why reading Dickens is the best of times for the reader, while being the worst of times for his characters.
Video examples
What makes something...
K, the protagonist, is arrested out of nowhere and made to go through a bewildering process where neither the cause of his arrest, nor the nature of the judicial proceedings are made clear to him. This sort of scenario is considered so characteristic of Kafka's work
Video examples
Sarah Lewis: Embrace the...
and he felt the protagonist was the painter himself. Franz Kafka saw incompletion when others would find only works to praise, so much so that he wanted all of his diaries, manuscripts, letters and even sketches burned upon his death.
Video examples
Why should you read...
where books are banned from all areas of life - and possessing, let alone reading them, is forbidden. The protagonist, Montag, is a fireman responsible for destroying what remains. But as his pleasure gives way to doubt,
Video examples
Sisonke Msimang: If a...
But you didn't. You haven't done anything. Listening is an important but insufficient step towards social action. Secondly, I think often we are drawn towards characters and protagonists who are likable and human.
Video examples
Tales of passion -...
love the protagonists of my books are strong and passionate women like rose map endo I don't make them up there's no need for that I look around and I see them everywhere I have worked with women
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
Frances McDormand
American Actress
I became interested in educating people in the variety of ways in which women can express their emotion. Which is much easier to do in a large role than in a supporting role to a male protagonist. In general, the women in a supporting role to a male protagonist - cry a lot.
Quote examples
Jordan Peele
American Actor
Thelma and Louise' was a pretty important film for me and still is. It's a social film about many things - gender, freedom - and it puts someone like me into the place of these protagonists. Watching that movie, you are living through the eyes of these women.
Quote examples
Juliet Marillier
New Zealander Writer
Each of my novels features a protagonist undertaking a difficult personal journey. On the way, each of these characters - mostly female - discovers something about herself and at the same time makes an impact on other people's lives.
Quote examples
Nancy Kress
American Writer
The reader is going to imprint on the characters he sees first. He is going to expect to see these people often, to have them figure largely into the story, possibly to care about them. Usually, this will be the protagonist.
Quote examples
Hunter S. Thompson
American Journalist
The writer must be a participant in the scene... like a film director who writes his own scripts, does his own camera work, and somehow manages to film himself in action, as the protagonist or at least the main character.
Quote examples
James Spader
American Actor
The protagonists that I've played tend to be people who make trouble. Or even if they don't make it, they certainly disrupt things. It's fun to do that in life as well. But I don't think I ever played myself.
Quote examples
Julian Nagelsmann
German Coach
As as a coach you shouldn't take yourself too seriously and never forget that the main protagonists are the players. Your own influence is sometimes less than one believes or hopes for.
Quote examples
Jessica Stockholder
American Artist
Things have character. So I'm interested in how the character of the thing might function as a protagonist in what isn't a narrative.
Quote examples
Laura Dern
American Actress
I'm interested in flawed protagonists. I was raised on them.
Quote examples
Lulu Wang
Chinese Writer
Protagonists traditionally are active characters.
Quote examples
Frances McDormand
American Actress
I became interested in educating people in the variety of ways in which women can express their emotion. Which is much easier to do in a large role than in a supporting role to a male protagonist. In general, the women in a supporting role to a male protagonist - cry a lot.
Quote examples
Jordan Peele
American Actor
Thelma and Louise' was a pretty important film for me and still is. It's a social film about many things - gender, freedom - and it puts someone like me into the place of these protagonists. Watching that movie, you are living through the eyes of these women.
Quote examples
Juliet Marillier
New Zealander Writer
Each of my novels features a protagonist undertaking a difficult personal journey. On the way, each of these characters - mostly female - discovers something about herself and at the same time makes an impact on other people's lives.
Quote examples
Nancy Kress
American Writer
The reader is going to imprint on the characters he sees first. He is going to expect to see these people often, to have them figure largely into the story, possibly to care about them. Usually, this will be the protagonist.
Quote examples
Hunter S. Thompson
American Journalist
The writer must be a participant in the scene... like a film director who writes his own scripts, does his own camera work, and somehow manages to film himself in action, as the protagonist or at least the main character.
Quote examples
James Spader
American Actor
The protagonists that I've played tend to be people who make trouble. Or even if they don't make it, they certainly disrupt things. It's fun to do that in life as well. But I don't think I ever played myself.
Quote examples
Julian Nagelsmann
German Coach
As as a coach you shouldn't take yourself too seriously and never forget that the main protagonists are the players. Your own influence is sometimes less than one believes or hopes for.
Quote examples
Jessica Stockholder
American Artist
Things have character. So I'm interested in how the character of the thing might function as a protagonist in what isn't a narrative.
Quote examples
Laura Dern
American Actress
I'm interested in flawed protagonists. I was raised on them.
Quote examples
Lulu Wang
Chinese Writer
Protagonists traditionally are active characters.
Example 1 of 10
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