Antagonist

Character Role Analysis

Lunar Authority

If Mannie is the protagonist, then to discover the antagonist, we need simply ask ourselves with whom or what is he in conflict. Mort the Wart? For a spell, sure, but Morty boy dies about a third of the way through the novel, so he can't be its main antagonist. He is more like Mort the Minion really.

The Chairman? He definitely has some antagonistic qualities, but like Mort, he only is in direct conflict with Mannie for a brief moment. After all, it isn't the Chairman piloting the warships at the novel's end, so he's not the one playing galactic-sized Battleship with the protagonist.

No, rather than any one character, it is the Lunar Authority that is the antagonist of Harsh Mistress. Mannie's individualist ideology stands in direct conflict with the ideology of the Authority, so the revolution is as much a battle of ideals as it is a battle between people. Individualism versus government, free market versus social services, Mannie versus the Authority—let the battle begin.