Antagonist

Character Role Analysis

Stepmother

Listen close, Shmoopsters—don't believe anything Briony says about Stepmother. She is not the kind, loving, strong, nurturing, selfless woman Briony believes she is—not at all. In fact, she is the enemy, and she uses her role as stepmother to hurt, manipulate, use, and almost destroy two motherless girls and their kindhearted father. Briony may be hard to root for at times, but Stepmother has set our main girl up to fail on pretty much every level.