Who is the protagonist and the antagonist of "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky"?

The protagonist in a drama is always the character who
initiates the conflict. In "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky," it would have to be
"Scratchy Wilson" who is the protagonist, since there was is no conflict, in fact utter
boredom, before he appears on the scene. He has had a long-standing feud with the town
marshall of Yellow Sky, Jack Potter. Therefore, Jack is the antagonist. The most recent
episode in their ongoing conflict has been delayed because Jack was getting married in
San Antonio, but Scratchy goes to his house looking for him, terrorizing everybody else
on his way there, including the dog.

The reader is led to
expect a violent confrontation between the two men if and when they run into each
other.

Potter
was about to raise a finger to point the first appearance of the new home when, as they
circled the corner, they came face to face with a man in a maroon-colored shirt who was
feverishly pushing cartridges into a large
revolver.

Scratchy is
appalled when he finally comprehends that Jack is not wearing a gun and that he is
bringing his new bride home with him.

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"Well, said Wilson at last, slowly. "I s'pose
it's all off now."

"It's all off if you say so, Scratchy.
You know I didn't make the
trouble."

Jack statement that
he did not start their feud is further evidence that Scratchy is the protagonist,
because he was the man who initiated the conflict a long time ago. A protagonist
typically has a strong motivation which carries the plot forward to a conclusion.
Scratchy does not have a strong motivation. He just gets ornery when he gets drunk.
There is no strong motivation because there is no "MacGuffin," no bone of contention,
nothing tangible for the two men to be fighting about. The fact that Scratchy's
motivation is weak explains why the conflict evaporates so abruptly.

Scratchy will be a better citizen now that his ongoing
conflict with the town marshall has been resolved. This illustrates the main theme of
Stephen Crane's story, which is that it was the arrival of women and children that tamed
the Wild West.