{"id":18442,"date":"2019-06-13T12:12:26","date_gmt":"2019-06-13T11:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/?p=18442"},"modified":"2021-05-05T15:13:19","modified_gmt":"2021-05-05T14:13:19","slug":"5-protagonist-we-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/5-protagonist-we-love\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Protagonists and Why We Love Them"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\n
\n\t\t\"Famous\n\t<\/div>\n\n<\/div><\/div>
\n
\n\t

Protagonist<\/strong>, or our lead character or, \u2018the most prominent figure in a situation\u2019 if the Dictionary has anything to say about it. Good or bad (or both), love them or hate them, they can be romantic, deadly, or just plain misunderstood. But what makes a great protagonist? And why do we love them?<\/p>\n

City Academy Head of Writing Jon Barton explores his favourite protagonists across fiction, film, and TV...<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>

\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tBROWSE WRITING CLASSES \u00bb\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>
\n
\n\t
\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>
\n
\n\t

Our Best Loved Protagonists<\/h2>\n

Eleanor Oliphant<\/strong> from Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine<\/em> by Gail Honeyman<\/p>\n

Rude, solitary, overcautious. Eleanor is many things in Gail Honeymoon\u2019s debut novel about one woman\u2019s unravelling loneliness. Narrated (unreliably) in the first person, we follow Eleanor throughout, attempting to convince us that yes: she is indeed fine. We know better of course, and when Eleanor finally submits, we cry for her and applaud her courage. A great example of an unlikeable protagonist; Eleanor is defined by her flaws. \u00a0We don\u2019t have to like a hero, as long as we understand them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>

\n
\n\t

Clarice Starling<\/strong> from The\u00a0Silence of The Lambs<\/em> by Thomas Harris<\/p>\n

You\u2019d think Hannibal Lecter would be on this list, but for me, Agent Starling is far more interesting. The perfect surrogate for us in this chilling thriller, she\u2019s a rookie and an idealist \u2013 as we all are when entering a new world. \u00a0What makes Clarice memorable? She\u2019s one of those protagonists defined by emotion until eventually, she wields it like a gun. That empowerment creates a fascinating relationship with Lecter based on truth and mutual respect. Clarice is who we hope to be: facing a demon and she grapples her own.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>

\n
\n\t

Ove<\/strong> from A Man Called Ove<\/em> by Frederick Bachman<\/p>\n

The grumpiest man you\u2019ll ever meet, Ove will judge you by the car you drive and the work you do. In what is perhaps a perfect example of prose, Frederick Bachman spends his entire book unstitching Ove\u2019s past and present, so we can prospect for Ove\u2019s future. His old-fashioned ways and clarity of belief provides a subtle tale of tolerance, exploring the age gap of a generation and the legacy we\u2019ll leave behind.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>

\n\n
\n\t\t\"Clarice\n\t<\/div>\n\n

Clarice Starling played by Jodie Foster in the 1991 film <\/h3><\/div><\/div>
\n
\n\t

Tony Soprano<\/strong> from The Sopranos<\/em> created by David Chase<\/p>\n

A landmark series in which mafioso Tony Soprano, \u2018a fat crook from New Jersey\u2019 (his words) grapples mob life, family, and panic attacks. He\u2019s a toxic, self-sabotaging thug, so why do we like him? Perhaps it\u2019s wish fulfilment: Tony\u2019s life is instant gratification. Perhaps it\u2019s because Tony knows he\u2019s the problem, and spends his life trying to atone. His contradictions fascinate and frustrate. Unlike prose, TV must show<\/em> us the story, and in one scene, Tony turns his wedding ring around before beating a man to a pulp. Tony is defined by his actions, as all protagonists should be.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>

\n
\n\t

Michael Corleone<\/strong> from The Godfather<\/em> by Mario Puzo<\/p>\n

Memorable protagonists surprise us. Maybe they subvert expectations. Maybe it goes deeper than that, as is the case here. Michael\u2019s whole life is a subversion of the Rebirth narrative popularised by folklore and fairy tale: a character falls under a dark power, and languishes in this state, but is redeemed by the life-giving power of love. Yet, Michael resists the darkness for so long, in the end he\u2019s drawn to it like a moth to a flame. His story is rebirth reversed, a tragedy in its purest form. We love to hate him!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

\n
\n\t

Thanks to our Head of Writing\u00a0Jon Barton<\/a> for this article.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>

\n
\n\t
\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>

If you'd like to bring your characters to life, why not join City Academy's vibrant writing community in London! Try courses in Novel Writing<\/a>, Sitcom Writing<\/a>, Writing for Film<\/a>, and more:<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>

\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tBROWSE WRITING CLASSES \u00bb\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>
\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tJOIN OUR WRITING CLUB \u00bb\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Protagonist, or our lead character or, \u2018the most prominent figure in a situation\u2019 if the Dictionary has anything to say…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":18472,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[2052,2035,1297,727,45,1416,353,2050,2051,192,79,648,715],"yoast_head":"\n5 Protagonists & Why We Love Them | City Academy Guides<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What makes a great protagonist, and why do we love them? Our Head of Writing Jon Barton explores his favourite protagonists across fiction, film, and TV...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/5-protagonist-we-love\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5 Protagonists & Why We Love Them | City Academy Guides\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What makes a great protagonist, and why do we love them? Our Head of Writing Jon Barton explores his favourite protagonists across fiction, film, and TV...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/5-protagonist-we-love\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City Academy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-06-13T11:12:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-05T14:13:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/cq5dam.web_.1200.6752.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"996\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"info\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"info\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/5-protagonist-we-love\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/5-protagonist-we-love\/\",\"name\":\"5 Protagonists & Why We Love Them | City Academy Guides\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/5-protagonist-we-love\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/5-protagonist-we-love\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/cq5dam.web_.1200.6752.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-06-13T11:12:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-05T14:13:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/be5aea2f879bf4c923e86ffc1ae95dae\"},\"description\":\"What makes a great protagonist, and why do we love them? Our Head of Writing Jon Barton explores his favourite protagonists across fiction, film, and TV...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/5-protagonist-we-love\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/5-protagonist-we-love\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/5-protagonist-we-love\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/cq5dam.web_.1200.6752.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/cq5dam.web_.1200.6752.jpg\",\"width\":996,\"height\":675},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/5-protagonist-we-love\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"5 Protagonists and Why We Love Them\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/\",\"name\":\"City Academy\",\"description\":\"News, Blog and Features\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/be5aea2f879bf4c923e86ffc1ae95dae\",\"name\":\"info\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"5 Protagonists & Why We Love Them | City Academy Guides","description":"What makes a great protagonist, and why do we love them? Our Head of Writing Jon Barton explores his favourite protagonists across fiction, film, and TV...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/5-protagonist-we-love\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"5 Protagonists & Why We Love Them | City Academy Guides","og_description":"What makes a great protagonist, and why do we love them? Our Head of Writing Jon Barton explores his favourite protagonists across fiction, film, and TV...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/5-protagonist-we-love\/","og_site_name":"City Academy","article_published_time":"2019-06-13T11:12:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-05-05T14:13:19+00:00","og_image":[{"width":996,"height":675,"url":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/cq5dam.web_.1200.6752.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"info","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"info","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/5-protagonist-we-love\/","url":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/5-protagonist-we-love\/","name":"5 Protagonists & Why We Love Them | City Academy Guides","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/5-protagonist-we-love\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/5-protagonist-we-love\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/cq5dam.web_.1200.6752.jpg","datePublished":"2019-06-13T11:12:26+00:00","dateModified":"2021-05-05T14:13:19+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/be5aea2f879bf4c923e86ffc1ae95dae"},"description":"What makes a great protagonist, and why do we love them? Our Head of Writing Jon Barton explores his favourite protagonists across fiction, film, and TV...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/5-protagonist-we-love\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/5-protagonist-we-love\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/5-protagonist-we-love\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/cq5dam.web_.1200.6752.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/cq5dam.web_.1200.6752.jpg","width":996,"height":675},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/5-protagonist-we-love\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"5 Protagonists and Why We Love Them"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/","name":"City Academy","description":"News, Blog and Features","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/be5aea2f879bf4c923e86ffc1ae95dae","name":"info"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18442"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.city-academy.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}