Antagonist & Contagonist
By Therese Walsh | July 22, 2008 |
Last week, Ray Rhamey blogged about creating good bad guys–antagonists we can empathize with or relate to, who are the heroes of their own stories. Consider Dolores Umbridge from the Harry Potter series, who was so worthy of our hate. But didn’t you get that she believed in her cause wholeheartedly, that she felt she was doing the right thing even as Harry bled and scarred himself through her punishment?
“The character is quite heightened and big, and yet you want her to be true,” said David Yates, film director for Order of the Phoenix. “Imelda (Staunton, the actress who played Umbridge) can square that circle. She can give you a vibrant, vital character and someone who’s real as well.”
Square that circle is a great way to conceptualize a well-written antagonist. Their edges can make them feel as real as a jagged cut to the skin.
While there are definitely shades of grey to be explored with any fabu villain, there’s one in particular that I find the most interesting: the contagonist.
So what is a contagonist? First off, it’s a term coined by Dramatica, a program you can purchase to assist you with story building. I’ve never tried Dramatica, and I’m not advocating it; in fact, some have said it can be confusing to use. But regardless of any of that, the dynamic pairs concept Dramatica explores interests me. The idea is simple: create pairs of characters whose roles are to counter one another for built-in tension and conflict. There is, of course, the protagonist-antagonist pairing, but there may be other pairings as well: reason and emotion; sidekick and skeptic; and finally, guardian and contagonist. I’m going to focus in on just the contagonist, but you can read more about dynamic pairs HERE and HERE.
According to Dramatica Theory, the contagonist is one of eight archetypal characters:
This character works to place obstacles in the path of the Protagonist, and to lure it away from success. Because this character works to hinder the progress of the Protagonist, we coined the name “Contagonist”.
If you’re sitting there wondering how a contagonist differs from a regular old antagonist, here’s what Dramatica says about that:
Because the Contagonist and Antagonist both have a negative effect on the Protagonist, they can easily be confused with one another. They are, however, two completely different characters because they have two completely different functions in the Story Mind. Whereas the Antagonist works to stop the Protagonist, the Contagonist acts to deflect the Protagonist. The Antagonist wants to prevent the Protagonist from making further progress, the Contagonist wants to delay or divert the Protagonist for a time.
…Often, Contagonists are cast as the Antagonist’s henchman or second-in-command. However, Contagonists are sometimes attached to the Protagonist, where they function as a thorn in the side and bad influence.
The job of the contagonist, they say, is to sway the protagonist away from his or her goal, to hinder him or her for at least a little while. The antagonist isn’t concerned with “a little while,” rather they’re interested in stopping the protagonist, period.
So if the contagonist is an archetypal character, we must be able to see it in action in plenty of well-known books and flicks, right?
Consider Darth Vader, who wants to lure Luke to the dark side. And what about the Wizard from the Wizard of Oz, whose duplicitous stunts prevent Dorothy from completing her quest. Boromir wants the ring, sure, and he’ll try every trick in the book to get it, but he isn’t really a bad guy. Hannibal Lecter is full of puzzles, but he wants Clarice to succeed in the end, doesn’t he? Especially if it leads to a delicious lunch. And speaking of delicious, isn’t Snape arguably the best contagonist ever written? Who is the contagonist in Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence–Ellen or May? Hmm. And in The Thorn Birds, are Ralph and Meggie contagonists each to the other?
Who are your favorite contagonists? Is there a contagonist in your wip?
Write on, all!
Therese Walsh (she/her) co-founded Writer Unboxed in 2006 and is the site’s editorial director. She was the editor of WU’s only book, Author in Progress, and runs the Writer Unboxed UnConference.
Her second novel, The Moon Sisters, received starred reviews and was named one of the best books of the year by Library Journal and Book Riot.
Learn more about Therese on her website, and sign up for her newsletter to be among the first to hear about any new projects.
Wow, great post and analysis, Ter. I’m going to check out Dramatica more thoroughly soon, it sounds like it can start some good brainstorms.
I liked the contagonist in Juliet’s new Wildwood Dancing (fabu book, Juliet!). Gogu the frog acts as the protagonist’s conscience throughout most of the book. It was a clever device, Juliet, and I thought it worked wonderfully.
But Snape is numero uno in my book for best contagoinist.
Thanks for a terrific post, it really got me thinking about the novel that I’m currently revising and how I could use this ‘contagonist’ concept to heighten tension.
Very nice expansion of the protagonist/antagonist discussion. Seems to me that clear motivation is key to having a successful contagonist.
Contagonist sounds a lot like a potential Trickster, as outlined in Vogler’s stuff. They don’t even have to be intentional tricksters, and I’ve found a lot of TV shows use them. You know that one character that drags everyone else down because they have so many problems and can’t seem to “get it together?”
Seems to me, in terms of TV shows, a contagonist could be that character that you love to hate, the one who is bad, but you know there is a deeper backstory that makes you feel sympathy, makes you like them just a little. My guilty TV pleasure is Gossip Girl, a show that has a couple of these characters – Chuck and Blair. Both bad, both manipulative, but also damaged young people who are hurting and so they hurt others. Blair to keep her social position, which is all she really has, and Chuck just because he enjoys toying with others. Often I find that characters like this tend to be my favorites, just because they can be more interesting and layered than the typical hero or heroine.
Thanks for that. The Contagonist (which I first read as ContagIonist ;-)) is a little-known yet oft-used character archetype… one, in fact, which appears in my own manuscript! And I didn’t even realize it until I read your post!
Now all I want defined is the Contagionist… ^^
Great post Therese:
I’m already using Scrivener, but I’m thinking of switching over to DramaticaPro, as I see it has a lot of potential.
I haven’t purchased it yet, but I’m still reviewing their entire theory book on storytelling. It’s on their website for free.
It deals with everything from 4-dimensional character development all the way down to advanced story weaving.
They even have sections where they analyze movies, like “300” for instance, and point out where the screenplay missed a character development opportunity that could have taken the movie from being just really good to being great.
I’m surprised more novelists aren’t using DramaticaPro. Could it be that many novelists already are, but are just not saying so?
Question: How did Steinbeck and Dickens write novels with twists and turns, subplots, conflicts, etc., and keep up with all of their characters without a computer? Can you imagine writing War and Peace without a PC?
Or Is the craft of novel writing as old as the sun itself?
I’ve been playing with Dramatica for about 20 years and I love it. I have found, however, that the original software without the book they used to sell it with can be confusing. The newer stuff is so pricey, it’s out of my range, but the 14-day trial was a revelation for a play I’m writing!
I do appreciate your breakdown of the differences between contagonist and antagonist…and I absolutely agree that the contagonist is often one of the most interesting characters in a story. What I’m struggling with is a main character who is actually the antagonist (Rumplestiltskin). There is no way this guy is the “good guy”, but he is the main character in the play. So what I can’t figure out is this–wouldn’t the contagonist still be pitted against him as the main character? I’m using all fairy tale characters, so in this case, my contagonist is The Wolf. I feel as though he is the guy who leads Rum down the bad path from the beginning–the one who is constantly getting him into trouble, but then putting the blame off on others, particularly the protagonist.