Character Analysis
(Avoiding Spoilers)
Overview... a knight who’s returned to Sweden after the Crusades. Death visited him this morning. Now he’s playing a game of chess for his life, against Death himself. This challenge also presents an opportunity to have some of Antonious’s questions answered. He wants knowledge, not faith; not suppositions, but knowledge. He wants God to stretch out His hand towards him, reveal Himself and speak to him.
Personality... disillusioned, tormented, and anguished. Antonius feels his life has been a futile pursuit, a wandering, a great deal of talk without meaning. Yet he feels no bitterness or self-reproach because he considers most lives to be thus. He worries that death makes life an outrageous horror, yet he continues to play for his life.
Get to Know him in...
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When disillusioned Swedish knight Antonius Block returns home from the Crusades to find his country in the grips of the Black Death, he challenges Death to a chess match for his life. Tormented by the belief that God does not exist, Block sets off on a journey, meeting up with traveling players Jof and his wife, Mia, and becoming determined to evade Death long enough to commit one redemptive act while he still lives.
