Antagonist

Character Role Analysis

Lorenzo

Our antagonist is straightforwardly antagonistic. First of all, he constantly antagonizes our protagonist, which is a good clue. He kills our protagonist's son (who looked like he was going to be the protagonist until he died), and then spends the rest of the play killing people to cover up his original crime. He also stymies our protagonist's every attempt to report the murder to the King, which is easy because he's the King's nephew.

Lorenzo also has a really creepy relationship with his sister. For one thing, he's way too invested in her love life. He kills his sister's lover just to set her up with another big creep in the play, Balthazar. And while Balthazar is perhaps just as bad, he's not so active in driving the plot of the play, which makes him a worse pick for the antagonist. Don't get us wrong, he's antagonistic, but when it comes to picking one antagonist in a story, look for the person whose negative actions move the plot forward.