The confidant ( or ; feminine: confidante, same pronunciation) is a character in a
story whom a
protagonist confides in and trusts. Confidants may be other principal characters, characters who command trust by virtue of their position such as
doctors or other authority figures, or anonymous confidants with no separate role in the narrative.
Role
The confidant is a type of secondary character in the story, often a friend or authority figure, whose role is to listen to the protagonist's secrets, examine their character, and advise them on their actions. Rather than simply acting as a passive listener for the protagonist's
monologues, the confidant may themselves act to move the story forward, or serve to guide and represent the reactions of the audience.
History
The presence of the confidant in
Western literature may be traced back to
Greek drama and the work of
Euripides
Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian of classical Athens. Along with Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is one of the three ancient Greek tragedians for whom any plays have survived in full. Some ancient scholars ...
. The characters of Agamemnon in ''
Hecuba'' and Pylades in ''
Orestes'' serve as confidants, acting as both counsellors for the protagonists and expositors of their character. The role of the confidant assumed particular significance in 17th-century French drama, however, coming to prominence in the plays of
Jean Racine
Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditi ...
and
Pierre Corneille. In Racine and Corneille, the confidant became a more complex and partial character—though the
abbé d'Aubignac complained that Corneille's use of the confidant was "without grace".
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
scholar Francis Schoff argued that in ''
Hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play, with 29,551 words. Set in Denmark, the play depicts ...
'',
Horatio
Horatio is an English male given name, an Italianized form of the ancient Roman Latin '' nomen'' (name) '' Horatius'', from the Roman ''gens'' (clan) '' Horatia''. The modern Italian form is '' Orazio'', the modern Spanish form '' Horacio''. It ap ...
serves "even more than the Racinian confidant
sa mere reporter of events and auditor for the protagonist".
Interpreters such as
Georg Lukács have remarked that the role of the confidant has diminished in modern literature, pointing to "the significant absence of the confidant(e) in the isolated situations in which the protagonists of the new drama find themselves", and the eclipse of the relationship of trust that exists between a hero and a confidant by a characteristically modern sense of dislocation and absence.
References
Sources
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Counterparts to the protagonist
Interpersonal relationships