Protagonist

Character Role Analysis

Travis Bickle

Travis is really the only possible candidate for protagonist. He totally dominates the movie, and everyone else obviously takes a secondary role compared to him. The degeneration of Travis' mind, from that of a naïve and somewhat weird guy looking for love to that of a cold-blooded killer, provides the structure for the whole movie.

Travis is the one who drives all the action: He's the one who finds work as a taxi driver, who asks Betsy out, who inadvertently torpedoes the relationship on a first date, who goes crazy and buys a lot of guns, who thinks about assassinating Palantine, who tries to liberate Iris by murdering Sport. Even though he's a victim of circumstance, he's in the driver's seat, as far as controlling the story goes.