ASK A LITERARY CONSULTANT
Sympathy for the devil
Make your antagonist complex and layered to create a really compelling story, advises Cornerstone’s Monica Chakraverty
Although an antagonist is often assessed in terms of their effect on the protagonist or plot, there can be so much interest in a complex villain. Occasionally the devil has the best lines and it’s all one can do to stop gunning for the bad guy over the hero. One example of this was the 1991 film adaptation of Robin Hood, where the actor Alan Rickman went full throttle on a self-aware, flamboyant Sheriff of Nottingham and stole the show. In the book world, Rebecca de Winter, in Daphne Du Maurier’s novel Rebecca, might not be the main antagonist but she’s the complex centre around which everything else revolves.