Antihero

In drama and narrative fiction, an antihero is a protagonist who does not have the qualities normally associated with a heroic central character. For instance, a typical heroic protagonist may exhibit qualities such as bravery, integrity, and moral uprightness. An antihero may cower in the face of danger, be deceptive or dishonest, or exhibit immoral, selfish, or otherwise unconventional values. Authors often use antiheroes to create a heightened sense of realism in a work or to help make readers and audiences connect more readily with a protagonist on a human level. Literary theorists note that antiheroes are full of flaws and contradictions, which make them much more like real people than the daring, righteous, and larger-than-life heroic protagonists inspired by Western mythology and folklore.

Alternately, antiheroes may be defined as foils to traditional heroes. In literature, a foil is a character drawn in sharp contrast to the work's protagonist, usually as a means of highlighting the protagonist's flaws and shortcomings. In the absence of a traditional hero, the antihero can be viewed as a foil to the reader's default expectations of the qualities normally displayed by a heroic protagonist.

Background

The rise of modern antiheroes can be traced back to the drama and mythology of ancient Greece. In ancient Greek literature, protagonists are typically presented as strong and courageous with powers that elevate them beyond the level of normal human beings. Examples include figures such as Achilles, Hercules, Orpheus, and Theseus.

However, some central characters in ancient Greek literature exhibit qualities that move away from the standard conventions of heroism. Odysseus, the main character in Homer's epic The Odyssey,is often cited as an example. Odysseus has many positive and honorable qualities: he is intelligent, merciful, courageous, and religiously observant. Yet, he also is cunning and manipulative, and he steals and lies to his own family. These contrasting traits make him one of the most complex and contradictory major characters in the ancient Greek tradition. Odysseus helped lay the literary groundwork for the subsequent evolution of multifaceted and morally ambiguous central characters.

Literary theorists and historians note that antiheroes typically become increasingly prominent and popular as distinct literary traditions and medium- or genre-specific developmental cycles enter more advanced phases of maturity. For instance, characters such as King Arthur and Beowulf both conform to the traditional expectations of a hero, and both were developed during the Middle Ages (c. 600–c. 1400), when English literature was in its foundational phases. Yet, as the English literary tradition matured, its treatment and presentation of principal characters also grew and evolved to challenge conventions and expectations. One early example is Sir Thopas, a skittish knight from one of the stories in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.

By William Shakespeare's time in the late sixteenth to early seventeenth centuries, complex and immoral protagonists with dark psychologies and objectives, such as Hamlet and Macbeth, occupied central roles. This approach went on to inform two of the most prominent antihero archetypes, or models, in English literature: the Miltonic and Byronic antiheroes. Appearing in the works of John Milton and Lord Byron, these antiheroes are defined by their rejection of authority and defiance of orthodox values and moral virtues. Notably, Milton and Byron romanticize these characters, using their unconventional attributes to make readers view them more favorably. The figure of Satan, as presented in Milton's Paradise Lost, is a classic example.

Overview

As a specific literary term, antihero first came into widespread use during the eighteenth century—a time when the novel had just evolved into an influential new narrative form. One of the earliest appearances of an antihero in a novel is the idealistic but senile Alonso Quixano from Don Quixote, published in the early seventeenth century. Another example is the roguish orphan Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, which was published in 1847. By the twentieth century, literary antiheroes had become very common. They appeared in works such as Ulysses (1922), The Great Gatsby (1925), and The Catcher in the Rye (1951). The principal characters in these works exhibit a wide range of nontraditional attributes: Leopold Bloom from Ulysses is ineffectual; Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsbyhides a shadowy criminal past; and Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Ryeis a confused, fragile, and vulnerable adolescent.

Many of the best-known antiheroes in popular culture come from film and television. Cinematic antiheroes first became popular in the film noir subgenre during the 1940s. Film noir stories typically feature lead characters who are undone by their own shocking behaviors and immoral decisions. Classic examples include Walter Neff from Double Indemnity (1944) and Joe Gillis from Sunset Boulevard(1950). By the 1960s and 1970s, antiheroes had become icons of critically acclaimed and commercially successful films such as A Fistful of Dollars (1964), Dirty Harry (1971), The Godfather (1972) and its sequels, and Taxi Driver(1976). These characters reflect growing audience demand for less predictable and more complex personalities in leading roles and filmmakers' desire to give their work a heightened sense of psychological realism and a more penetrating and nuanced brand of social and cultural commentary. In many cases, the dramatic events these characters experience force them into defining choices that lead to an alignment with either the good or evil sides of their conflicted personalities.

With antiheroes firmly entrenched in novels, literary drama, and cinema, television also came to embrace such characters. Television antiheroes emerged from a developmental path similar to that of cinema. Over time, changing tastes and evolving conventions resulted in innovations that saw leading characters move beyond the embodiment of simple and noble moral virtues into darker, more morally challenging territory. Tony Soprano, the criminal main character from The Sopranos, an influential TV series that debuted in 1999, is often cited as a groundbreaking example. Other television antiheroes followed in high-profile and popular shows, including the murderous but principled Dexter Morgan from Dexter, which debuted in 2006, and the initially sympathetic but increasingly ruthless Walter White from Breaking Bad, which enjoyed an acclaimed five-season run from 2008 to 2013.

Bibliography

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