Antagonist

Character Role Analysis

Clifford Chatterley

Clifford Chatterley is the anti-est of antagonists. Everything that Connie wants to do—have sex, go to Europe, be nice to the help—he sneers at, discourages, and just generally pooh-poohs, like the nasty British aristocrat that he is. He's not just Connie's antagonist but an antagonist of the whole world, insisting that "people must be more or less at his level, or below it" (1.167-68) and trying to keep Wragby's forest "inviolate, shut off from the world" (5.7). Let's mix a couple of metaphors: Connie wants to reach out and touch someone, and Clifford wants to bite the hand that feeds him.