Antagonist

Character Role Analysis

Capricorn

How is Capricorn an antagonist? Let us count the ways. Actually let's not, that'd take a really long time. We'll give a basic list instead:

• He intimidates and even murders people to get what he wants.
• He forces a bunch of women to work for him as servants.
• He threatens the local policemen so that he can get away with evil.
• He blackmails Mo into doing what he wants by threatening Meggie.
• He lies to Dustfinger about being able to send him home just to get Dustfinger to help him fetch Mo and Inkheart
• He orders Elinor's library burnt.

And let's not forget that his very presence in Meggie's world is because of the fact that he displaced her mother, exiling her to the world of Inkheart for many years. So we're not big Capricorn fans over here.

Basta

Basta is a mean dude with a knife. That's basically what it comes down to. He follows Capricorn's every order, and luckily for them both, Basta doesn't mind carrying out the atrocities (murder, arson, theft, etc.) that Capricorn orders him to do. In fact, we think he kinda likes it. Basta threatens Meggie, Mo, Elinor, and Dustfinger at every opportunity, and so we don't really think of Basta as one of the good guys in this story.