Antagonist

Character Role Analysis

José Ybarra-Jaegar

There are several characters we could assign the "antagonist" role to, but we feel José is one of the most significant because of what he offers Holly and what he then takes away from her. When José proposes to Holly, who is pregnant with his child, he promises her a life of stability and security after Fred's death. But he doesn't love her enough to stick by her after she gets arrested, and he tells her so by writing a letter (he doesn't even have the guts to tell her face-to-face). José even thinks that Holly is still pregnant when he heads to Brazil without her, so he leaves his fiancée and what he thinks is their child to fend for themselves. José's departure robs Holly of the settled life she desires, and we think this makes him especially villainous. He tries to justify his decision to her and he humbly asks for her forgiveness, but that doesn't make him any more likable in our eyes. In the end he's still a guy who abandons the mother of his child.The narrator