If the bandit Nicolas Vidal is the protagonist of The Judges Wife, whowould be the antagonist? ...

• When the plot begins to concern itself with the trap that Judge Hidalgo sets for Vidal, we might become ready to assume that the Judge is Vidals antagonist; it is easy to focus on the struggle that ensues between the two men. This emphasis is reinforced when Vidal decides to take vengeance on Hidalgo for his own shame over his mothers suicide.

However, it is important never to forget the storys title and opening lines: Nicolas Vidal always knew he would lose his head over a woman. So it was foretold on the day of his birth. The story is, in actuality, about Vidals true antagonistthe Judges wife, Casilda. As events ultimately unfold, we are led to see what has been there for the reader to embrace from the very beginning: that she is the true center of the story. It is she who, faced with her husbands sudden death and the imminent danger to her children, thinks swiftly and acts decisively to save them, at whatever cost to her own body or morality. Her final triumph leaves the two principal male charactersespecially Nicolas Vidallooking rigid, short-sighted, and doomed. It could be argued that, in the end, these two prideful men are shaped much more by Casilda and their own defects than by any larger destiny.