What is the Antihero?

The antihero is a character that lacks the traditional qualities that typical hero has such as courage, determination, kindness etc, however they are still the protagonist of the story that we learn to love over time. We think of these anti hero type characters as having flaws unlike a typical superhero which normally wouldn’t. These flaws make them human like us, allowing us to relate to them on a personal and deep level which makes us love them or hate to love them despite their flaws. 

Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsby

• Gatsby wants to see himself as the hero, even renames himself Gatsby early in life. He represents the hope of the American Dream yet he has achieved it through means of corruption and illusion. Gatsby is a criminal 
• Gatsby has qualities that an antihero may have such as his dreams of rising above the situation that he was born into due to greed
• Although Gatsby does many questionable things in the Great Gatsby novel, the audience sympathizes with him as people tend to do so with anti heroes as he tries so hard to make everyone like him that he ends up creating an illusion of his entire life 
• Gatsby has more morals than the vast majority of characters in the book, however, he too has plenty of flaws 
• His desire for a better life is centred around ideas such as materialism, he only wants Daisy because of the idea of her etc. Yet he does the honorable thing and sacrifices himself for Daisy, his American Dream. 
• Qualities such as self centered-ness, nothing is never enough until he achieves his dream, will sacrifice everything to achieve his American Dream 
• He has a close-minded outlook on life which is typical of the anti-hero

Micheal Scott from The Office

Micheal is mainly loved for his narcissistic comments and ignorance. Viewers of the show both love him as a character but also love to hate him

He is often told by those that work beneath him such as Dwight Schrute what to do and how to do things. Micheal being an antihero lacks the qualities of courage and kindness to stand up for himself and put people back into their place where they belong.