A protagonist (from Ancient Greek πρωταγωνιστής prōtagōnistḗs 'one who plays the first part, chief actor') is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot , primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a story contains a subplot , or is a narrative made up of several stories, then each subplot may have its own protagonist.
47-468: Allan Quatermain is the protagonist of H. Rider Haggard 's 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines , its one sequel Allan Quatermain (1887), twelve prequel novels and four prequel short stories, totalling eighteen works. An English professional big game hunter and adventurer, in film and television he has been portrayed by Richard Chamberlain , Sean Connery , Cedric Hardwicke , Patrick Swayze and Stewart Granger among others. The character Quatermain
94-407: A gulag camp. Leo Tolstoy 's War and Peace depicts fifteen major characters involved in or affected by a war. Though many people equate protagonists with the term hero and possessing heroic qualities, it is not necessary, as even villainous characters can be protagonists. For example Michael Corleone from The Godfather (1972–1990) film series (1978–1983). In some cases, the protagonist
141-422: A hero (masculine) or heroine (feminine) protagonist is typically admired for their achievements and noble qualities. Heroes are lauded for their strength, courage, virtuousness, and honor, and are considered to be the "good guys" of the narrative. Examples include DC Comics' Superman (hero) and Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games (heroine). An antihero (sometimes spelled as anti-hero) or antiheroine
188-530: A beautiful African girl who causes great turmoil in the Zulu kingdom. It is the sixth novel, and the tenth story overall, in the Quatermain series. The novel is the second in a trilogy by Haggard involving the collapse of the Zulu kingdom and featuring the dwarf Zikali. The first book is Marie , and the third, Finished . The story takes place against the real life struggle between Cetshwayo and Umbelazi,
235-426: A crossover between his two most popular series, uniting Quatermain with Ayesha , the central character of his hugely successful She novels, and bringing in several other key characters from each series— Hans , Umslopogaas , and Zikali from the Quatermain series, and Billali , Ayesha's faithful minister. This book formed the third part of the "She" trilogy, although in chronological terms, it necessarily served as
282-423: A gripping battle between Umslopogaas and the demon Rezu, as well as philosophical discussions between Allan and Ayesha, and a journey made by Allan and Umslopogaas to the land of the dead. Haggard wrote one more Ayesha book, Wisdom's Daughter: The Life and Love Story of She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed (1923), but it did not feature Quatermain. Heu-Heu; or, The Monster (1924) In Heu-Heu , Allan and Hans encounter
329-490: A grotesque cave-painting in southern Africa depicting a fiendish gorilla-monster called Heu-Heu. Zikali then sends the pair to Heuheualand, the home of Heu-Heu, to obtain a powerful drug he claims to be even stronger than Taduki , and to rescue the daughter of a lost race's chief from being sacrificed to Heu-Heu. The Treasure of the Lake (1926) In this posthumously published Quatermain adventure, Allan and Hans travel with
376-561: A huge gorilla-god. The Ivory Child (1916) In the sequel to The Holy Flower , Allan Quatermain meets Lord George Ragnall and his beautiful fiancée , Luna Holmes, but the latter is kidnapped by the wizard Harût while in Egypt. Quatermain, Hans, Ragnall and his servant Savage reach the lost world of Kendahland, Harût's homeland, to rescue Lady Ragnall. The two Kendah tribes are at war, as one faction worships "the Child," an idol representing
423-578: A life of ease, and his return to Africa following the death of his son Harry. The Holy Flower (1915) paved the way for a trilogy of Quatermain books involving the Taduki drug, which induces clairvoyance and visions: The Ivory Child (1916), The Ancient Allan (1920), and Allan and the Ice-Gods (1927). The latter two books involve Quatermain experiencing his past lives through the use of Taduki . With She and Allan (1921), Haggard engineered
470-600: A memorable encounter with a buffalo he once had on a South African hunting expedition. The short story features Sir Henry Curtis and Captain John Good as minor characters. It also includes a character called the Hottentot Hans, but this is not the same Hottentot Hans who appeared in Marie (1912) and its sequels. " Long Odds " (1886) Quatermain describes how a lion mauled his leg on a hunting expedition. This event
517-423: A poet named Thespis introduced the idea of one actor stepping out and engaging in a dialogue with the chorus. This was the invention of tragedy, and occurred about 536 B.C. Then the poet Aeschylus , in his plays, introduced a second actor, inventing the idea of dialogue between two characters. Sophocles then wrote plays that included a third actor. A description of the protagonist's origin cited that during
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#1732783737196564-540: A prequel to the first two "She" books, since Allan Quatermain's meeting with Ayesha in She and Allan is implied to be before the discovery of Kôr by Ludwig Horace Holly and Leo Vincey as narrated in She , the first Ayesha book. King Solomon's Mines (1885) A sixty-year-old Allan Quatermain travels with two fellow Englishmen ( Sir Henry Curtis and Captain John Good) through a remote region of southern Africa with
611-469: A reference to his nocturnal habits and keen instincts. In later-written novels, Macumazahn is said to be a short form of Macumazana , meaning "One who stands out." Quatermain is frequently accompanied by his native servant, the Hottentot Hans , a wise and caring family retainer from his youth. His sarcastic comments offer a sharp critique of European conventions. In his final adventures, Quatermain
658-562: A stand-alone Quatermain novel. However, during or after its composition, Haggard decided to make Child of Storm the second part of a trilogy of new Quatermain books, beginning with Marie , published in 1912. Marie was the first new Quatermain story for twenty-three years. It was followed by a short story, "Magepa the Buck" (1912), and then by Child of Storm (1913), published four years after its composition in mid-1909. Haggard continued to write more Quatermain stories until his death in 1925;
705-739: A strange sorcerer called Kaneke to Mone-land. This strange lost world is located in the crater of a volcano and is inhabited by the Dabanda people (the nation to whom Kaneke himself belongs), who have attained to high mystical powers and who worship a goddess living on an island in Lake Mone. Allan and Hans meet an Englishman called John Taurus Arkle, who becomes the Chieftain of the Dabanda. While they are in Mone-land they experience many strange and frightening displays of occult powers. Allan and
752-567: A supporting protagonist appears, the story is told from the perspective of a character who appears to be minor. This character may be more peripheral from the events of the story and are not as involved within the "main action" of the plot. The supporting protagonist may be telling the story while viewing another character as the main influence of the plot. One example is Nick in The Great Gatsby . Euripides ' play Hippolytus may be considered to have two protagonists, though one at
799-432: A time. Phaedra is the protagonist of the first half, who dies partway through the play. Her stepson, the titular Hippolytus, assumes the dominant role in the second half of the play. In Henrik Ibsen 's play The Master Builder , the protagonist is the architect Halvard Solness. The young woman, Hilda Wangel, whose actions lead to the death of Solness, is the antagonist. In Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet , Romeo
846-593: Is a main character in a story who lacks conventional heroic qualities and attributes such as idealism, courage, and morality. Examples include Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye , Scarlett O'Hara from Gone With the Wind , Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby , and Walter White from Breaking Bad . A tragic hero is the protagonist of a tragedy. Examples include Oedipus from Oedipus Rex and Prince Hamlet from Shakespeare's Hamlet . The protagonist
893-520: Is an English-born professional big game hunter and occasional trader living in South Africa . An outdoorsman who finds English cities and climate unbearable, he prefers to spend most of his life in Africa, where he grew up under the care of his widower father, a Christian missionary . In the earliest-written novels, native Africans refer to Quatermain as Macumazahn , meaning "Watcher-by-Night,"
940-453: Is his marksmanship, where he has no equal. Quatermain is aware that as a professional hunter, he has helped to destroy his beloved wild free places of Africa. In old age he hunts without pleasure, having no other means of making a living. About Quatermain's family, little is written. He lives at Durban , in Natal , South Africa . He marries twice, but is quickly widowed both times. He entrusts
987-496: Is his own antagonist). Sometimes, a work will have a false protagonist , who may seem to be the protagonist, but then may disappear unexpectedly. The character Marion in Alfred Hitchcock 's film Psycho (1960) is an example. A novel may contain a number of narratives, each with its own protagonist. Alexander Solzhenitsyn 's The First Circle , for example, depicts a variety of characters imprisoned and living in
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#17327837371961034-483: Is joined by two British companions, Sir Henry Curtis and Captain John Good of the Royal Navy , and by his Zulu friend Umslopogaas . The series spans 50 years of Quatermain's life, from 18 to 68; at the start of the foundation novel King Solomon's Mines he has just turned 55, giving him a birthdate of 1830. Physically, he is small, wiry, and unattractive, with a beard and short hair that sticks up. His one skill
1081-582: Is not a human: in Richard Adams ' novel Watership Down , a group of anthropomorphised rabbits, led by the protagonist Hazel, escape their warren after seeing a vision of its destruction, starting a perilous journey to find a new home. Child of Storm Child of Storm is a 1913 novel by H. Rider Haggard featuring Allan Quatermain . The plot is set in 1854-56 and concerns Quatermain hunting in Zululand and getting involved with Mameena,
1128-484: Is not always conventionally good. Contrasting the hero protagonist, a villain protagonist is a protagonist who is a villain , driving the story forward regardless of the evil qualities the main character has. These traits can include being cruel, malicious, and wicked. Examples include Humbert Humbert in Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita and Richard III in the eponymous play by William Shakespeare . When
1175-520: Is referenced in King Solomon's Mines and other stories several times. Allan Quatermain: An Account of His Further Adventures and Discoveries in Company with Sir Henry Curtis, Bart., Commander John Good, R.N., and One Umslopogaas (1887) Three years after the events of King Solomon's Mines , Quatermain, Curtis and Good return to Africa to locate a "great white race" hidden in the heart of
1222-464: Is the character whose fate is most closely followed by the reader or audience, and who is opposed by the antagonist . The antagonist provides obstacles and complications and creates conflicts that test the protagonist, revealing the strengths and weaknesses of the protagonist's character, and having the protagonist develop as a result. The term protagonist comes from Ancient Greek πρωταγωνιστής ( prōtagōnistḗs ) 'actor who plays
1269-419: Is the protagonist. He is actively in pursuit of his relationship with Juliet, and the audience is invested in that story. Tybalt, as an antagonist, opposes Romeo and attempts to thwart the relationship. In Shakespeare's play Hamlet , Prince Hamlet, who seeks revenge for the murder of his father, is the protagonist. The antagonist is the character who most opposes Hamlet, Claudius (though, in many ways, Hamlet
1316-476: The Dark Continent. They travel with Umslopogaas , the mighty Zulu warrior, and find the lost world of Zu-Vendis, inhabited by a race of sun-worshippers possibly descended from ancient Persians or Phoenicians . Chronologically this is the last of the Quatermain stories, although it was published early on; Haggard did not write the stories in chronological order. " A Tale of Three Lions " (1887) In
1363-643: The Egyptian god Horus , and the other faction sacrifices to Jana, a giant prehistoric elephant or god who Harût says is the same entity as the Egyptian Set and the Abrahamic Satan . The Ivory Child is the first book in the series to involve the Taduki drug, a mystical herb which induces clairvoyant visions. ( Robert E. Howard , who admired Haggard's work, later referenced this drug in one of his own early fragments.) Finished (1917) In
1410-520: The Ice-Gods: A Tale of Beginnings (1927) In this sequel to The Ancient Allan , Quatermain again takes the Taduki drug, and witnesses his life in the last great Ice Age, when he was a chieftain called Wi. Allan and the Ice-Gods is the last Quatermain story, and Haggard's friend Rudyard Kipling helped him with the plot. It is set shortly before the events of Allan Quatermain . The Ayesha Series (1887 – 1923) Protagonist The protagonist
1457-562: The Lake (1926). " Magepa the Buck " (1912) In the final short story, Quatermain recounts the bravery of the titular Zulu character, who undertook an admirable feat of endurance to save the life of a child. "Magepa the Buck" was collected in the 1921 Haggard book Smith and the Pharaohs . Child of Storm (1913) In this book, the sequel to Marie and second volume in the Zulu Trilogy, Allan Quatermain becomes involved in
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1504-642: The Zulu character Indaba-zimbi and the evil baboon-woman Hendrika. Hendrika is conjectured to have influenced Rudyard Kipling 's Mowgli and Edgar Rice Burroughs ' Tarzan . While this is speculation, Kipling acknowledged that Haggard's Nada the Lily (1892) was vital in his creation of Mowgli. Marie: An Episode in the Life of the Late Allan Quatermain (1912) After a twenty-three-year hiatus during which no new Quatermain stories were published,
1551-603: The aim of locating Curtis' missing brother and the lost diamond mines of King Solomon . They cross plains, deserts and mountain ranges on their quest. Quatermain, Curtis and Good reach the lost kingdom of Kukuanaland, inhabited by a warlike race related to the Zulus, and find themselves involved in a bloody struggle for the Kukuana throne. " Hunter Quatermain's Story " (1885) At a dinner-party in Yorkshire, Quatermain recounts
1598-455: The apparent date of Harry's birth and age at death. Haggard wrote fourteen novels and four short stories featuring Quatermain, beginning with King Solomon's Mines (1885). From 1885 to 1889 he wrote four of the novels and three of the short stories, including King Solomon's Mines and its sequel Allan Quatermain (1887). Haggard wrote this sequel in the summer of 1885, immediately after producing King Solomon's Mines , but Allan Quatermain
1645-564: The chief or first part', combined of πρῶτος ( prôtos , 'first') and ἀγωνιστής ( agōnistḗs , 'actor, competitor'), which stems from ἀγών ( agṓn , 'contest') via ἀγωνίζομαι ( agōnízomai , 'I contend for a prize'). The earliest known examples of a protagonist are found in Ancient Greece . At first, dramatic performances involved merely dancing and recitation by the chorus. Then in Poetics , Aristotle describes how
1692-466: The early period of Greek drama, the protagonist served as the author, the director, and the actor and that these roles were only separated and allocated to different individuals later. There is also a claim that the poet did not assign or create the protagonist as well as other terms for actors such as deuteragonist and tritagonist primarily because he only gave actors their appropriate part. However, these actors were assigned their specific areas at
1739-459: The final part of the Zulu Trilogy, Zikali wreaks revenge on the royal Zulu house. The book is during the Zulu War of 1879, and includes Allan Quatermain as a fighter at Isandhlwana . The Ancient Allan (1920) In the sequel to The Ivory Child , Allan Quatermain and Lady Luna Ragnall take the Taduki drug and witness previous incarnations of themselves as well as of other characters from
1786-517: The final two books in the series, The Treasure of the Lake (1926) and Allan and the Ice-Gods (1927), were published posthumously. Although some of Haggard's Quatermain novels stand alone, there are a few important sub-series. In the Zulu trilogy, Marie (1912), Child of Storm (1913), and Finished (1917), Quatermain becomes ensnared in the vengeance of Zikali , the dwarf wizard known as "the-thing-that-should-never-have-been-born" and "Opener-of-Roads." Zikali plots and finally achieves
1833-528: The hunter returned in Marie , which describes his love for Marie Marais, a Boer woman, as well as his involvement in events in Zulu history. Marie was the first book in the Zulu Trilogy and introduced the Hottentot Hans , who was Quatermain's companion in five further books: The Holy Flower (1915), The Ivory Child (1916), She and Allan (1921), Heu-Heu; or, The Monster (1924), and The Treasure of
1880-429: The overthrow of the Zulu royal House of Senzangakona , founded by Chaka and ending under Cetewayo (Cetshwayo kaMpande) (Haggard's spelling of Zulu names is used in the first instance, with the currently used versions in brackets). These novels are prequels to the foundation pair, King Solomon's Mines (1885) and Allan Quatermain (1887), which describe Quatermain's discovery of vast wealth, his discontent with
1927-520: The political rivalries between the Zulu princes. The book introduced Zikali, the Zulu dwarf-wizard first mentioned in Marie . The Holy Flower (1915) Quatermain and Hans travel with the Zulu Mavovo and the young British collector Stephen Somers in quest of a giant orchid worshipped by a lost race called the Pongo. The book involves battles with Arab slave-traders, cannibalism, occultism, and
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1974-429: The printing of memoirs in the series to his son Harry, whose death he mourns in the opening of the novel Allan Quatermain. Harry Quatermain is a medical student who dies of smallpox while working in a hospital. Haggard did not write the Quatermain novels in chronological order, and made errors with some details. Quatermain's birth, age at the time of his marriages, and age at the time of his death cannot be reconciled to
2021-609: The series (the Hottentot Hans, Lord Ragnall, Harût and Jana) in Egypt under Achaemenid Persian rule . Along with its sequel Allan and the Ice-Gods , this is the only book in the Allan Quatermain series not to be set in nineteenth century Africa. She and Allan (1921) Quatermain, Hans, Umslopogaas and a Scotsman by the name of Robertson travel to Kôr, where they meet Ayesha from Haggard's She (1887) and its sequel Ayesha: The Return of She (1905). The book features
2068-419: The stage with the protagonist always entering from the middle door or that the dwelling of the deuteragonist (second most important character) should be on the right hand, and the tritagonist (third most important character), the left. In Ancient Greece, the protagonist is distinguished from the term "hero", which was used to refer to a human who became a semi-divine being in the narrative. In literary terms,
2115-648: The third of the four Allan Quatermain short stories, Quatermain and his son Harry prospect for gold and seek revenge for their faithful servant Jim-Jim after he is killed by a lion. Maiwa's Revenge; or, The War of the Little Hand (1888) Quatermain aids the African queen Maiwa in a war of vengeance after her infant son is murdered. Allan's Wife (1889) This novella tells the story of Allan Quatermain's youth in Africa, and of his marriage to Stella Carson. The story involves Quatermain's father, as well as
2162-556: The two sons of the Zulu king Mpande (called "Panda" in the novel). The events culminate in the Battle of Ndondakusuka (here called the "Battle of the Tugela") in 1856. Real life people such as Panda, Cetshwayo, and John Robert Dunn appear as characters. This article about a 1910s fantasy novel is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . See guidelines for writing about novels . Further suggestions might be found on
2209-537: Was only published two years later in 1887. The other Quatermain stories from this period are "Hunter Quatermain's Story" (1885), "Long Odds" (1886), "A Tale of Three Lions" (1887), Maiwa's Revenge (1888), and Allan's Wife and Other Tales (1889). The latter book collected the previous short stories as well as a new novelette. After the publication of Allan's Wife , Haggard abandoned the Quatermain series for two decades. Then, from around April to August 1909, Haggard wrote Child of Storm , originally intending it to be
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