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In fiction
Fiction

Fiction is an imaginative form of narrative, one of the four basic rhetorical modes. Although the word fiction is derived from the Latin fingo, fingere, finxi, fictum, "to form, create", works of fiction need not be entirely imaginary and may include real people, places, and events....
, an antihero is a protagonist
Protagonist

A protagonist is the main Character of a drama or Narrative. The word "protagonist" derives from the Greek language p??ta????st?? , "one who plays the first part, chief actor." In the theatre of Ancient Greece, three actors played all of the main dramatic roles in a tragedy; the leading role was played by the protagonist, while the othe...
 whose character or goals are antithetical to traditional heroism
Hero

A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, the offspring of a mortal and a deity,their Greek hero cult being one of the most distinctive features of Religion in ancient Greece....
. The term dates to 1714, although literary criticism identifies the trope in earlier literature.

e is no definitive moment when the antihero came into existence as a literary trope
Trope (literature)

A literary trope is a common pattern, theme , motif in literature, or a figure of speech in which words are used in a sense different from their literal meaning....
. The antihero has evolved over time, changing as society's conceptions of the hero changed, from the Elizabethan
Elizabethan literature

The term Elizabethan literature refers to the English literature produced during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I .The Elizabethan era saw a great flourishing of literature, especially in the field of drama....
 times of Faust
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus is a play by Christopher Marlowe, based on the Faust story, in which a man sells his soul to the devil for power and knowledge....
 and William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English people poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist....
's Falstaff
Falstaff

Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare as a companion to Prince Hal, the future King Henry V of England....
, to the darker-themed Victorian literature
Victorian literature

Victorian literature is the literature produced during the reign of Victoria of the United Kingdom and corresponds to the Victorian era. It forms a link and transition between the writers of the Romanticism period and the very different literature of the 20th century....
 of the 19th century, such as John Gay
John Gay

John Gay was an English people poet and dramatist. He is best remembered for The Beggar's Opera , set to music by Johann Christoph Pepusch....
's The Beggar's Opera
The Beggar's Opera

The Beggar's Opera is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today....
 or as a timid, passive, indecisive man that contrasts sharply with other Greek heroes to Philip Meadows Taylor
Philip Meadows Taylor

Philip Meadows Taylor , an Anglo-Indian administrator and novelist, was born in Liverpool, England.At the age of fifteen he was sent out to India to become a clerk to a Bombay merchant....
's Confessions of a Thug
Confessions of a Thug (novel)

Confessions of a Thug is an English novel written by Philip Meadows Taylor in 1839 in literature based on the Thuggee cult in British India....
.






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In fiction
Fiction

Fiction is an imaginative form of narrative, one of the four basic rhetorical modes. Although the word fiction is derived from the Latin fingo, fingere, finxi, fictum, "to form, create", works of fiction need not be entirely imaginary and may include real people, places, and events....
, an antihero is a protagonist
Protagonist

A protagonist is the main Character of a drama or Narrative. The word "protagonist" derives from the Greek language p??ta????st?? , "one who plays the first part, chief actor." In the theatre of Ancient Greece, three actors played all of the main dramatic roles in a tragedy; the leading role was played by the protagonist, while the othe...
 whose character or goals are antithetical to traditional heroism
Hero

A hero , in Greek mythology and folklore, was originally a demigod, the offspring of a mortal and a deity,their Greek hero cult being one of the most distinctive features of Religion in ancient Greece....
. The term dates to 1714, although literary criticism identifies the trope in earlier literature.

History

There is no definitive moment when the antihero came into existence as a literary trope
Trope (literature)

A literary trope is a common pattern, theme , motif in literature, or a figure of speech in which words are used in a sense different from their literal meaning....
. The antihero has evolved over time, changing as society's conceptions of the hero changed, from the Elizabethan
Elizabethan literature

The term Elizabethan literature refers to the English literature produced during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I .The Elizabethan era saw a great flourishing of literature, especially in the field of drama....
 times of Faust
The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus is a play by Christopher Marlowe, based on the Faust story, in which a man sells his soul to the devil for power and knowledge....
 and William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English people poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's preeminent dramatist....
's Falstaff
Falstaff

Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare as a companion to Prince Hal, the future King Henry V of England....
, to the darker-themed Victorian literature
Victorian literature

Victorian literature is the literature produced during the reign of Victoria of the United Kingdom and corresponds to the Victorian era. It forms a link and transition between the writers of the Romanticism period and the very different literature of the 20th century....
 of the 19th century, such as John Gay
John Gay

John Gay was an English people poet and dramatist. He is best remembered for The Beggar's Opera , set to music by Johann Christoph Pepusch....
's The Beggar's Opera
The Beggar's Opera

The Beggar's Opera is a ballad opera in three acts written in 1728 by John Gay. It is one of the watershed plays in Augustan drama and is the only example of the once thriving genre of satirical ballad opera to remain popular today....
 or as a timid, passive, indecisive man that contrasts sharply with other Greek heroes to Philip Meadows Taylor
Philip Meadows Taylor

Philip Meadows Taylor , an Anglo-Indian administrator and novelist, was born in Liverpool, England.At the age of fifteen he was sent out to India to become a clerk to a Bombay merchant....
's Confessions of a Thug
Confessions of a Thug (novel)

Confessions of a Thug is an English novel written by Philip Meadows Taylor in 1839 in literature based on the Thuggee cult in British India....
. The Byronic hero
Byronic hero

The Byronic hero is an idealised but flawed fictional character exemplified in the life and writings of George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, characterised by his ex-lover Lady Caroline Lamb as being "mad, bad and dangerous to know"....
 also sets a literary precedent for the modern concept of antiheroism.

Distinction from Byronic and tragic heros

The Byronic hero
Byronic hero

The Byronic hero is an idealised but flawed fictional character exemplified in the life and writings of George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, characterised by his ex-lover Lady Caroline Lamb as being "mad, bad and dangerous to know"....
 is a rebellious antihero who is sympathetic despite his rejection of virtue.

Antiheros differ from Tragic hero
Tragic hero

A tragic hero is the main Character in a tragedy who makes an Hamartia in his or her actions that leads to his or her downfall. Tragic heroes appear in the dramatic works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Seneca, Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, John Webster, John Marston, Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, Goethe, Friedrich Schiller,...
s because a tragic hero is still primarily heroic (but with a major, tragic flaw), while an antihero's flaw are more prominent than their (possibly non-existent) heroic qualities.

Contemporary literature

In modern times, heroes have enjoyed an increased moral complexity. Mid-20th century playwrights such as Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett

Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish people writer, dramatist and poet. Beckett's work offers a bleak outlook on human culture and both formally and philosophically became increasingly minimalism....
 and Tom Stoppard
Tom Stoppard

Sir Tom Stoppard Order of Merit , Order of the British Empire, FRSL is a British screenwriter and playwright. He has written plays such as The Coast of Utopia, Arcadia , Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, and Rock 'n' Roll ....
 showcased anti-heroic protagonist
Protagonist

A protagonist is the main Character of a drama or Narrative. The word "protagonist" derives from the Greek language p??ta????st?? , "one who plays the first part, chief actor." In the theatre of Ancient Greece, three actors played all of the main dramatic roles in a tragedy; the leading role was played by the protagonist, while the othe...
s recognizable by their lack of identity and determination. Pulp fiction
Pulp magazine

Pulp magazines were inexpensive fiction magazines. They were widely published from the 1920s through the 1950s. The term pulp fiction can also refer to mass market paperbacks since the 1950s....
 and noir detective stories
Hardboiled

Hardboiled crime fiction is a literary style distinguished by an unsentimental portrayal of crime, violence, and sex.Pioneered by Carroll John Daly in the mid-1920s, popularized by Dashiell Hammett over the course of the decade, and refined by Raymond Chandler beginning in the late 1930s, hardboiled fiction is most commonly associated wit...
 of the mid-20th century saw characters such as Sam Spade
Sam Spade

Sam Spade is a fictional character who is the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's novel The Maltese Falcon and the various films and adaptations based on it, as well as in three lesser known short stories written by Hammett....
, who lacked the glorious appeal of previous heroic figures, become popular. Influenced by the pulps, early comic book
Comic book

A comic book is a magazine or book of narrative artwork and dialog and descriptive prose. The style was introduced in 1934. Despite the term, comic books do not necessarily feature humorous subject-matter; in fact, it is often serious and action-oriented....
s featured anti-heroic characters such as Batman
Batman

Batman is a Character , a comic book superhero co-created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger , appearing in publications by DC Comics. The character first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939....
 (whose shadowy nature contrasted with their openly "heroic" peers like Superman
Superman

Superman is a Character , a comic book superhero widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, Ohio, and sold to DC Comics in 1938, the character first appeared in Action Comics Action Comics 1 and subseque...
) and Sub-Mariner (who would just as soon conquer humanity
Humanity

Humanity is the whole human species, human nature , and the human condition . It is also the study of one branch of the humanities, academic disciplines which study the human condition using analytic, critical, or speculative methods....
 as try to save it). Marvel's most prolific anti-hero is perhaps The Punisher, who is more than willing to kill those who he views as deserving of death. Sergio Leone
Sergio Leone

Sergio Leone was an Italy film director, Film producer and screenwriter most famous for his spaghetti westerns....
's "spaghetti westerns" showcased a wandering vigilante
Vigilante

A vigilante is a person who violates the law in order to exact what they believe to be justice from criminals, because they think that the criminal will not be caught or will not be sufficiently punished by the legal system....
 (the "Man with No Name
Man with No Name

The Man with No Name is a stock character in American Old West films, but the term usually applies specifically to the character played by United States actor Clint Eastwood in what is often called Dollars Trilogy directed by Sergio Leone....
" played by Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood

Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American actor, film director, film producer and composer. He is known for his tough guy, anti-hero acting roles in Action films and western films, particularly in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s....
) whose gruff demeanor clashed with other heroic characteristics.

Many modern antiheroes possess, or even encapsulate, the postmodern rejection of traditional values symptomatic of Modernist literature
Modernist literature

Modernist literature is the literary expression of the tendencies of Modernism, especially High modernism.Modernism as a literary movement reached its height in Europe between 1900 and the middle 1920s....
 in general, as well as the disillusion felt after World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
 and the Nuclear Age
Nuclear proliferation

Nuclear proliferation is a term now used to describe the spread of nuclear weapons, fissile material, and weapons-applicable nuclear technology and information, to nations which are not recognized as "nuclear weapon States" by the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, also known as the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty or NPT....
. It has been argued that the continuing popularity of the antihero in modern literature and popular culture may be based on the recognition that a person is fraught with human frailties, unlike the archetypes of the white-hatted cowboy and the noble warrior, and is therefore more accessible to readers and viewers. This popularity may also be symptomatic of the rejection by the avant-garde
Avant-garde

Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English, to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
 of traditional values after the counter-culture revolution of the 1960s.

In the postmodern era, traditionally defined heroic qualities, akin to the classic "knight in shining armor" type, have given way to the "gritty truth" of life, and authority in general is being questioned. The brooding vigilante
Vigilante

A vigilante is a person who violates the law in order to exact what they believe to be justice from criminals, because they think that the criminal will not be caught or will not be sufficiently punished by the legal system....
 or "noble criminal" archetype, seen in characters like Batman, is slowly becoming part of the popular conception of heroic valor rather than being characteristics that are deemed un-heroic.

See also

  • Antagonist
    Antagonist

    An antagonist is a character or group of characters, or, always an institution of a happening who represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend....
  • Byronic hero
    Byronic hero

    The Byronic hero is an idealised but flawed fictional character exemplified in the life and writings of George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, characterised by his ex-lover Lady Caroline Lamb as being "mad, bad and dangerous to know"....
  • Tragic flaw
    Hamartia

    Hamartia is a term developed by Aristotle in his work Poetics . The term can simply be seen as a character?s flaw or error. The word hamartia is rooted in the notion of missing the mark and covers a broad spectrum that includes accident and mistake, as well as wrongdoing, error, or sin.....
  • List of fictional anti-heroes
    List of fictional anti-heroes

    This list is for characters in fictional works who exemplify the qualities of an anti-hero. Characteristics in protagonists that merit such a label can include, but are not limited to:...
  • Tragic hero
    Tragic hero

    A tragic hero is the main Character in a tragedy who makes an Hamartia in his or her actions that leads to his or her downfall. Tragic heroes appear in the dramatic works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Seneca, Christopher Marlowe, William Shakespeare, John Webster, John Marston, Pierre Corneille, Jean Racine, Goethe, Friedrich Schiller,...
  • Tweener, a similar type of character in professional wrestling
  • Vigilante
    Vigilante

    A vigilante is a person who violates the law in order to exact what they believe to be justice from criminals, because they think that the criminal will not be caught or will not be sufficiently punished by the legal system....


External links