I have always been genuinely interested in other people, how vastly different they are to me, why they’re acting a way, why are they going to a certain place, and what their occupation and purpose in life is, more importantly I want to know their story. Everyone has a different story, all-different; starting in different places at different times for different reasons, no two stories are the same, that’s what so fascinating about storytelling. It allows you to explore the reason why and it allows others to understand, be educated, be inspired and entertained by others. But every story, every narrative needs a protagonist and the protagonist is typically one single character. However a story could be driven by a duo. The protagonist by no means needs to be human, take bugs bunny for example a talking animal; but literally anything that has a free will and the capacity to desire, take action and suffer the consequences can be a protagonist, a good example of this one of my childhood favourites the Brave Little Toaster (1987) and the protagonist is a talking toaster, that’s right a household appliance that can talk is the protagonist; but seriously if you haven’t seen this film do it, you’ll appreciate your home appliances a lot more.
A protagonist usually in a story has a desire, which will make the story interesting and give it a purpose. The protagonists desire is a need or goal, and object of desire. The desire may be external: to find the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders of the Lost Ark, or internal: moving on from the loss of his wife in Inception. Some of the most memorable and fascinating characters tend to not only have a conscious desire but also an unconscious one. The complication of their character is they are unaware of their subconscious needs yet the audience will understand the characters inner conflicts.
The audience loose interest quickly for a protagonist who lacks the skill to recognise and achieve his desires. The audience are generally impatient therefore the protagonist at least needs to have the smallest chance fulfilling his desires.
A story is usually made interesting in a final action or the climax where the audience cannot necessarily envisage an ending like it. What questions are answered? What questions are pondered or left open for audience interpretation? Are the characters resolved? Is the story resolved? Is there an ending to the audience’s involvement in the narrative? Is there the possibility for a sequel? These are questions, which are presented by the creator/director. The protagonist then takes a traditional role in pushing him or herself to the limit and somehow proves him or herself or completes some sort of a transformation or change. The empathy of the audience is one of the hardest emotions to hone into but if the director and the performance of the actors links with a successful story then an audience bond is formed and the audience become involved with the protagonist. In the case of the protagonist being human the audience identify that the character has a conscious, commonalities and if the audience can find grounds of similarities to their lives they can be empathetic towards the protagonist.
Therefore in Robert McKee’s article ‘The substance of story’, the protagonist plays a crucial role in audience interest in a story and it allows the audience to show empathy towards the protagonist. This is because over an hour is dedicated of screen time is typically dedicated to following one characters story, and as the audience we naturally, almost subconsciously become involved with the protagonist, even if we don’t want to.
