Protagonist

Character Role Analysis

Julien Sorel

We don't know it from the very first page, but Julien Sorel is our main man in this book's plot. From the moment he appears, the book centers on his struggles and his dreams.

On top of that, Stendhal spends an awful lot of pages delving into this guy's mind and giving us long, vivid descriptions of Julien's motives for doing what he does. In short, we're supposed to root for the guy, even though he might sometimes do stuff that we don't approve of. You know, the kind of stuff that gets a person beheaded.