The Judge's List

Jeri might be described as a “contagonist”—meaning that she is not an antagonist herself; she introduces conflict to the story but not by setting herself directly against the protagonist. Jeri introduces Bannick into Lacy’s life and provokes him into targeting Lacy directly.

Unlike Lacy, Jeri is an active character. She chooses to take action to take down the man who murdered her father. The motives of an active character can be virtuous but are often based on satisfying a personal emotional need. Jeri’s hunger for justice and revenge mirrors that of the judge. He too is seeking a form of justice and revenge, albeit with much less justification.

Justice and revenge as motives can be mingled and confused. Revenge, in particular, can lead to a character making moral or ethical compromises as Jeri does when she taunts Judge Bannick, thus putting herself and Lacy in danger. For someone who claims to want Lacy for a friend, that is a highly manipulative act.

Bannick is the antagonist of the story. His actions set the story in motion by triggering Jeri’s obsession, which eventually draws Lacy into the story. He is a relatively simple antagonist in that his motives can be described as pure evil. Whatever the childhood triggers might have been, his motive now is revenge and the thrill he receives from the suffering of his victims.

Bannick likely possesses an Antisocial Personality Disorder, characterized by limited capacity for empathy, guilt, or remorse. He is easily angered, prone to manipulating other people, and willing to harm others for personal gain.

Bannick illustrates each of the traits of a sociopath. He selects his victims on the basis of relatively minor slights and perceived insults that enrage him far beyond reason. He has no close friends, only acquaintances and a few female companions whom he cultivates for appearances’ sake, using them to obscure his disinterest in intimacy. Although he has some slight misgivings for having killed Verno’s boss, his feelings cannot be described as anything as strong as remorse.

The simplicity and directness of his motivation makes him a relatively flat character, more a symbol representing evil than a nuanced individual.

Gunther is a foil for Lacy. His dominant qualities—ambition, energy and hunger for novelty—are the ones Lacy lacks and needs if she is going to pull herself out of her rut. In turn, Lacy possesses the conscientiousness that Gunther lacks and needs to stabilize himself. Gunther wants more of Lacy in his life, possibly hungering for the stability he sees in her, but he also sees her life as stultifying and wants to make her more like him. He has a point in that Lacy does need more of his energy, but he fails to recognize how much he needs her.

Gunther has a knack for putting his finger exactly on the parts of Lacy’s life that are stultifying and pushing her to do something about them. He recognizes that her relationship with Allie is stalled and urges her to move on to someone more like himself. He pressures her to quit her job, which is feeling like a dead end to her, and come to work with him. None of those choices are right for her, but Gunther is correct that Lacy needs to get out of her rut.

Lacy has a relationship with her brother that vacillates between love and exasperation. He frustrates her with his energy and recklessness, but she loves him, and when it comes down to the wire, Lacy can always count on Gunther to have her back.