Antagonist

Character Role Analysis

Antiochus

King Antiochus is the first antagonist Pericles encounters in the play. Pericles wants to marry the dude's daughter, but Antiochus doesn't want that to happen... since he himself has been having an incestuous affair with her and wants to keep her with him. When Pericles guesses what's going on, Antiochus puts a hit out on Pericles that sends our boy on a huge adventure. Sounds pretty antagonistic, don't you think?

Neptune (God of the Sea)

You probably noticed that Pericles is always running into lousy weather while he's sailing across the ocean. That's because Neptune is pretty fickle and can whip up storms out of nowhere to change the course of Pericles's life.

You want examples? Okay. Pericles is the sole survivor of a shipwreck caused by a tempest (2.1), and his wife goes into labor during a terrible storm, after which she appears to die (3.1).

Sometimes, of course, Neptune can seem like a huge lifesaver. When winds blow Pericles to the shores of Meteline (5.Prologue), he gets reunited with his daughter, Marina. We're not sure if Neptune had anything to do with that, but we can say that most of the time, Neptune is not Pericles's very best friend.