List of fictional anti-heroes

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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:

• imperfections that separate them from typically "heroic" characters (selfishness, ignorance, bigotry, etc.);
• lack of positive qualities such as "courage, physical prowess, and fortitude," and "generally feel helpless in a world over which they have no control";^[1]
• qualities normally belonging to villains (amorality, greed, violent tendencies, etc.) that may be tempered with more human, identifiable traits (confusion, self-hatred, etc.);
• noble motives pursued by bending or breaking the law in the belief that "the ends justify the means."

Each of these examples has been identified by a critic as an anti-hero, although the classification is somewhat subjective. Some of the entries may be disputed by other sources and some may contradict all established definitions of anti-hero.

Contents 1 Literature 2 Film 3 Television 4 Comic books 5 Video games 6 References

[edit] Literature

• Alex, the narrator of Anthony Burgess' A Clockwork Orange.^[2]
• Redmond Barry from William Makepeace Thackeray's The Luck of Barry Lyndon.^[3]
• Patrick Bateman from Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho.^[4][5]
• Leopold Bloom from James Joyce's Ulysses.^[6]
• Pinkie Brown from Graham Greene's Brighton Rock.^[7]
• Holden Caulfield from J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye.^[8]
• Conan from the stories by Robert E. Howard, the archetypal "amoral swordsman" of the Sword and Sorcery genre.^[9][10]

• Stephen Dedalus from James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ^[11]
• Arthur Dent from Douglas Adams' Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series ^[12]
• Roland Deschain from Stephen King's The Dark Tower series ^[13]
• Raoul Duke from Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ^[14]
• Tyler Durden and the Narrator of Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club ^{[15] [16]}
• Randall Flagg from Stephen King's The Stand, Eyes of the Dragon and The Dark Tower.^[17]
• Artemis Fowl II from the Artemis Fowl series.^[18]
• Gully Foyle from Alfred Bester's The Stars My Destination ^[19]
• Victor Frankenstein from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein ^[20]
• Jay Gatsby from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby ^[21]
• Gollum from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.^[22]
• Grendel from John Gardner's novel of the same name.^[23]
• Hamlet from William Shakespeare's play of the same name ^[24]
• Humbert Humbert from Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita ^[25]
• Iago from William Shakespeare's Othello.^[26][27][28]
• Hannibal Lecter from a series of novels by Thomas Harris ^{[29] [30]}
• Lestat de Lioncourt from Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles universe ^[31]
• Lucifer/Satan from John Milton's Paradise Lost ^{[32] [33] [34]}
• Macbeth from William Shakespeare's play of the same name.^[35]
• Randle McMurphy from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.^[36]
• Philip Marlowe from Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep, Farewell, My Lovely, The High Window, The Lady in the Lake, Playback, The Little Sister, and Poodle Springs ^[37]
• Mephistopheles from Goethe's Faust and Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus.^[38]
• Dexter Morgan from the novels Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Dearly Devoted Dexter, and Dexter in the Dark, later adapted into a TV series.^[39][40]
• Scarlett O'Hara from Gone with the Wind ^[41]
• Parker from a series of novels by Donald E. Westlake ^{[42] [43]}
• Alexander Portnoy from Philip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint ^[44]
• Raskolnikov from Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment ^[45]
• Rincewind from Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels ^[46][47]
• Mark Renton from Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting ^[48]
• Tom Ripley from Patricia Highsmith's "Ripliad" series ^[49]
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern from Tom Stoppard's play Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead ^[50]
• Becky Sharp from Vanity Fair ^[51]
• Shylock from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice ^[52]
• Tyrone Slothrop from Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow^[53]
• Severus Snape from J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter ^[54]
• Sam Spade from Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon ^[55]
• Steerpike from Gormenghast Series by Mervyn Peake ^[56]
• "The Underground Man", narrator of Dostoevsky's Notes from Underground ^[57]
• Wei Xiaobao from Jinyong's The Deer and the Cauldron ^[58]
• Yossarian from Joseph Heller's Catch-22 ^[59][60]
• Harry Flashman from the Flashman series of books written by George MacDonald Fraser ^[61]

[edit] Film

• Danny Archer from Blood Diamond ^[62]
• Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver ^[63]
• Brodie Bruce from Mallrats ^[64]
• Edmond Burke from Edmond ^[65]
• Lester Burnham from American Beauty ^[66]
• Harry Callahan from the Dirty Harry series ^[67]
• Jack Carter from Get Carter ^[68]
• Chev Chelios from Crank ^[69]
• Chucky from the Child's Play series ^[70]
• Michael Corleone from The Godfather trilogy ^[71]
• John Creasy from Man on Fire ^[72]
• The Dude from The Big Lebowski ^{[73] [74]}
• Gordon Gekko from Wall Street ^[75]
• Dante Hicks, Randal Graves, and Jay & Silent Bob from Kevin Smith's "View Askewniverse" films ^[76]
• Napoleon Dynamite from the movie of the same name ^[77]
• Scottie Ferguson from Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo^[78]
• The Firefly family from House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects; Captain Spaulding, Otis B. Driftwood, Baby, etc.^[79][80]
• Jigsaw from the Saw film series.^[81][82][83]
• Johnny from Naked ^[84]
• Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean ^[85]
• Charles Foster Kane from Citizen Kane ^[86]
• Beatrix Kiddo from Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill films ^[87]
• Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street.^[88]
• Mickey and Mallory Knox from Natural Born Killers ^[89][90]
• Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.^{[91][92][93][94]}
• Léon from Léon or The Professional ^[95]
• Juno MacGuff from Juno. ^[96]
• "The Man with No Name," a stock character in westerns popularized by Clint Eastwood in films such as For a Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly ^{[97] [98]}
• Nick Naylor from the film Thank You for Smoking ^[99]
• Tony Montana from Brian De Palma's Scarface^[100]
• Snake Plissken from Escape from New York and Escape From L.A. ^{[101] [102]}
• Richard B. Riddick from Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick ^[103]
• Lisa Rowe from Girl, Interrupted^[104]
• Max Rockatansky from the Mad Max series ^[105]
• Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader from the Star Wars films ^[106]
• Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean ^[107]
• Ben Wade from the 2007 version of 3:10 to Yuma ^[108]
• Napoleon Wilson from John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 ^{[109][110][111][112]}
• Dawn Weiner of Welcome to the Dollhouse ^[113]
• John Wydell from The Devil's Rejects ^[114]
• Yojimbo's nameless protagonist.^[115]

[edit] Television

• Kerr Avon in Blake's 7 ^[116]
• Theodore "T-Bag" Bagwell from Prison Break.^[117]
• Edmund Blackadder from BBC's Blackadder series ^[118]
• David Brent from The Office ^[119]
• Archie Bunker from All in the Family ^[120]
• Eric Cartman from South Park ^[121]
• J.R. Chandler from All My Children ^[122]
• George Costanza from Seinfeld ^[123]
• Larry David from Curb Your Enthusiasm ^[124]
• The Doctor from Doctor Who ^[125]
• Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald from Cracker ^[126]
• James "Sawyer" Ford from Lost^[127]
• Tommy Gavin from Rescue Me ^[128]
• Jack Harkness from Doctor Who and Torchwood^[129]
• Gregory House from House ^[130]
• Alex Krycek from The X-Files ^[131]
• Ben Linus from Lost ^[132]
• Vic Mackey from The Shield ^[133]
• Todd Manning from One Life To Live ^[134]
• Ally McBeal from the eponymous series ^[135]
• Jimmy McNulty from The Wire ^[136]
• Malcolm Reynolds from Firefly and Serenity ^[137]
• Bender Bending Rodríguez from Futurama ^[138]
• Julian Sark from Alias ^[139]
• Michael Scofield from Prison Break.^[140]
• Michael Scott from The Office ^[141]
• Homer Simpson from The Simpsons ^[142]
• Bart Simpson from The Simpsons ^[143]
• Zach Slater from All My Children ^[144]
• Tony Soprano from The Sopranos ^[145][146]
• Luke Spencer from General Hospital ^[147]
• Samantha McCall from General Hospital^[148]
• Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel ^[149]
• Al Swearengen from Deadwood ^[150]

[edit] Comic books

• Batman ^[151]
• Johnny C from Johnny the Homicidal Maniac ^[152]
• Catwoman ^[153]
• John Constantine from Hellblazer ^[154]
• Jesse Custer from the Preacher series ^[155]
• Deadpool ^[156]
• Grendel ^[157]
• Spider Jerusalem from Transmetropolitan ^[158]
• Magneto from the X-Men series. ^[159]
• Marv and Dwight from Frank Miller's Sin City ^[160]
• Eric O'Grady ^[161]
• The Punisher ^[162]
• Rorschach from Watchmen ^[163]
• The Shadow ^[164]
• Spawn ^[165]
• Sub-Mariner ^[166]
• "V" from V for Vendetta ^[167]
• Venom ^[168]
• Wolverine ^[169]

[edit] Video games

• Agent 47 from the Hitman series ^[170]
• Altaïr from Assassin's Creed ^[171]
• Niko Bellic from Grand Theft Auto IV^[172][173]
• Jack Carver in Far Cry and Far Cry: Instincts ^[174]
• Caleb from Blood and Blood II: The Chosen^[175]
• Conker the Squirrel from Conker's Bad Fur Day and Conker: Live & Reloaded ^[176]
• Dante from the Devil May Cry series ^[177]
• Marcus Fenix from Gears of War ^[178]
• Carl "CJ" Johnson from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas ^[179]
• Kain and Raziel from the Legacy of Kain series ^[180]
• Kane and Lynch from Kane & Lynch: Dead Men ^[181]
• Kratos from the God of War series. ^[182]
• Arthas Menethil from Warcraft III ^[183]
• Duke Nukem from the Duke Nukem series^[184]
• Max Payne from Max Payne and Max Payne 2 ^[185]
• The Prince from Prince of Persia: Warrior Within ^[186][187]
• Captain Qwark from the Ratchet & Clank series ^[188]
• Rayne from Blood Rayne and Blood Rayne 2 ^[189]
• Shadow the Hedgehog from the Sonic the Hedgehog series ^[190]
• Solid Snake from the Metal Gear series ^[191]
• Illidan Stormrage from Warcraft III ^[192]
• Officer Tanner from Driver, Driver 2 and DRIV3R ^[193]
• Tommy Vercetti from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City ^[194]
• Travis Touchdown from No More Heroes ^[195]
• Wario in the Wario series^[196]
• Roger Wilco from the Space Quest series ^[197]

[edit] References