How to Humanize Your Antagonist
A quick little writing primer.
In a novel, an antagonist is a character that works against the protagonist (or main character.) They are the foil or the negative counterpart.
There are several types of antagonists. I’m going to talk about three, but know that for each of those there are almost infinite subtypes. And there are other types I’m not mentioning.
Which is kind of the point. Antagonists are human beings (usually!) and they are varied and nuanced, just like the rest of us.
Three Types of Antagonists
Villains are cruel — they hurt people for the sake of hurting them. They get something out of the bad act itself, maybe even more than the result of it.
Examples: Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs), Darth Vader (Star Wars), Coriolanus Snow (Hunger Games), Captain Hook (Peter Pan)
Rivals are fighting the protagonist for a limited resource of some kind. They are willing to cause harm for the sake of getting what they want or need. It’s the result of the bad act they are after, not the bad act itself.
Examples: Edmund Pevensie (The Chronicles of Narnia), Draco Malfoy (Harry Potter and the Sorcerers’s Stone), the Wicked Witch of the West (The Wizard of Oz)
