Antagonist

Character Role Analysis

Time

Okay, so not only are we going to tell you that a freaking concept is the antagonist in this story, but to explain why, we're going to start with a riddle. Fun! Here goes (and yes, it's from the Hobbit):

This thing all things devours;
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats mountain down.

Know what the answer is? We'll give you a minute to think on it…

… Ready? It's time. Time consumes everything—it's why everything runs its course. You know, like Aschenbach, and artistic ideals, and even (someday) Tadzio's beauty. While the antagonist is usually a character who gets in the protagonists way, because Aschenbach stands in for the old artistic ideals, we think it's fair to cite time as enemy number on in this book. It's the reason for everything's end.