Why Do We Love Antiheroes?

We've been living in the age of the antihero for a long time. 

Since the end of the 90s, when Tony Soprano first graced our television screens, the antihero has dominated popular culture for a long time. Of course, in literature, antiheroes have been around for even longer, going all the way back to the time of Shakespeare. The Bard's complex creations like Shylock, Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello, and Richard III gave us portraits of people, who, on the stage, seemed almost like real people, constantly struggling with the mess that is the human condition. Of course in novels, characters like Holden Caulfield, Victor Frankenstein, and Jay Gatsby have been dividing and delighting readers for decades.

However, antiheroes seem to be everywhere now. They've become so commonplace that we, as consumers of popular culture, expect their presence in our literature, our films, and especially on our TV screens. Long gone are the fully noble heroes and purely evil villains. The question is why, and why do we as readers and viewers love these characters so much?

Before we proceed, let's try to define what an antihero is. It's a hard thing to discern fully since, like beauty, we only know it when we see it. However, after much thought, I've narrowed down my definition to one of two things. An antihero is either:

A) A fundamentally good person, who has pronounced negative qualities and takes selfish actions for justifiable reasons.

B) A fundamentally bad person, who has pronounced positive qualities and takes selfless actions, often for selfish reasons.

Of course, I'm sure there are other ways to define what an antihero is. I merely enumerate these two groups simply through my own observations. That said, I believe that we, as the contemporary audience, find ourselves sympathizing and enjoying each of these types of antiheroes for different reasons, and that gets me back to my central question: why do we love antiheroes?

Our love for antiheroes, in my view, comes down to two reasons:

1) We find them more relatable now than binary good/evil characters because they more closely reflect the hot mess that is the human condition, with which we all live.

2) We take vicarious pleasure in their darker moments and actions because, outside the realm of fiction, we could never take such action without facing consequences.

Let's proceed in order.

As human society has evolved, humanity has come to understand just how flawed our nature can be. We all know that no one is perfect. As much as we may wish to achieve some kind of platonic ideal of perfection, we know that we never will. While, simultaneously, most of us endeavor to live good lives, we're also fully aware that we have our darker sides. 

In some cases, such as with a person like Mr. Rogers, that dark side is rather subdued. Conversely, in the case of someone like Ted Bundy, that dark side is all too apparent. What truly makes us good or evil in the eyes of the world (and of course, in our own eyes), are the choices we make and the actions we take. 

It's for that myriad of hard-fought insights that we find ourselves enjoying the first type of antihero I've defined. 

Most of us think of ourselves as decent people. We make an effort to do good, not just because we're afraid of the law or of some supernatural comeuppance. We do it for ourselves. However, we also struggle to make that choice (and it is a choice to be good) from time to time. Thus, a fundamentally good person who struggles with the darkness within themselves--"The Human Heart in Conflict with Itself," to quote Faulkner--is something with which we can all relate. 

For a moment, let's look closely at one such character: Jimmy McNulty from HBO's The Wire. 

Deep down, although at times it's hard to see, Jimmy McNulty is a fundamentally good person. His chief interest is in, to quote one of the constant refrains of the show, "Good Police." He wants to do his job, and his job in his mind is to catch criminals and remove them from society. It's really a noble desire.

However, Jimmy McNulty is also--and if you've seen the show and how he acts, you know I'm right--a prick. He sleeps around, and he clearly drinks too damn much. This, when he's trying to build healthy adult relationships, is his recourse when things don't go his way. He frequently defies the authority of his bosses, even going so far as to take the law in his own hands at times. And, like any classic man-child, he has a difficult time taking responsibility for his actions or accepting that certain things might be his fault. (See his constant refrain, "The fuck did I do?" for evidence of this.)

So while McNulty is a decent person at heart, he's also a frustrating person. At times, he's downright difficult to like, and frequently, we can't help but go, "Oh, for fuck's sake, Jimmy," when this man with lofty goals does something that's clearly a step in the wrong direction. That push-pull is something we all deal with within ourselves, which is why we can relate so closely to someone as equally interesting and infuriating as McNulty.

Now, with all that said, we also know that there are some people who, no matter how long they live, will never do the right thing. They always make the bad decision, always choose to take the short cuts, and always choose to try to either game the system rather than work within it. Now, in real-life, these people normally either end up dead, in jail, or free and completely without close friends because everyone knows you can trust them (and anyone who does is an idiot). In fiction though, these are, arguably the characters we love the most.

These lovable baddies, as one might call them, are the antiheros in whose action we take vicarious pleasure. This is the person who can walk into a room, with a gun, just because someone pissed them off, and (wait for it), get away with it. We know in real life nobody would be able to get away with such action for long. Sooner or later the law would show up on them, or they'd catch a bullet. So, for at least the length of their stories, we reveal in watching and reading about the actions these characters take that we know we simply cannot not without facing the consequences. 

Concurrently, we're also able to see that there's something else underneath that devilish exterior. We see a decency under darkness, and its that decency that enables us to, unconsciously, forgive these characters their more overt flaws because we can see that's not the whole story.

Let's return to The Wire and look at that show's ideal example of this antihero: Omar Little.

On the surface, Omar Little is a terrible person. He's a criminal, who steals from other criminals. He has no qualms about taking revenge on those who've personally wronged him in the darkest of ways: murder. He firmly believes in the maxim of not getting mad, but instead, getting even. He revels in the mystique surrounding him, the fear that his reputation as a bad motherfucker instills in people. All he has to do is whistle "Farmer in the Dell," and everyone in the vicinity runs, yelling, "Omar Comin', Man."

And it's fun to watch. 

Rewatch any of those scenes where Omar walks up on a corner, watch the people in the neighborhood scramble for the nearest door, and I guarantee you'll be smiling by the end of the scene.

Yet, we as viewers know that isn't all Omar. That's part of Omar, but it isn't all Omar.

We know that he's a tender, loving person, which we see when he interacts with the people he loves and considers family. We also know that he never keeps all the stuff he steals off other criminals. Instead, he freely gives away what he takes to anyone who asks for a handout. He doesn't live lavishly, but humbly, giving him a Robin Hood-esque persona to those who know him best. And we know he's smart. You don't last nearly five seasons in a world like The Wire portrays without a sharp mind.

Most of all, although it may not conform with greater society's standard of morality, Omar has a code of ethics. He has rules by which he lives and functions, the rules of the street. And, he will not break those rules. "A man got to have a code," as he says to Detective Bunk. 

(By the way, if you want to see even deeper dives into these two characters, check out the YouTube channel The Take. They're insights are incredible.)

No matter which type of Antihero we're dealing with, our joy in experiencing their stories comes down to two things. We get to take the ride with them as they go through their lives, with all its up and downs, reveling in their highs and feeling heartbreaks at their lows. However, we also sympathize with them more closely than perfectly good or perfectly evil people because they're mirrors, distorted mirrors in which we see some semblance of ourselves.