Antiheroes: Why They Suck

In a lot of modern as well as in older works, one frequent theme is that of the antihero. An antihero is a character who really is a pretty crappy person, yet you can't help feeling sorry for because of their situation. They usually try to save the day but really don't accomplish much and the story has some kind of tragic ending to make you feel even sorrier for the antihero with the crap personality. I personally think the idea of an antihero is absolutely preposterous and quite frankly, most stories, books, movies, whatever with an antihero as the main character really bother me. (There are definitely some exceptions though, i.e House!)

In The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, the main character, Ichabod Crane is portrayed as the antihero. He's kind of a creepy dude, a school teacher that takes turns living in his students' houses, hitting on their moms a bit. Then he decides he wants to marry this woman named Katrina because she's got lot's of money. I mean, this doesn't sound like a terribly great guy to me. Then of course he goes out at night on a crappy old horse like the idiot he is (Don't people ever learn not to go out at night after exchanging scary stories?) and disappears. Woohoo, another tragic ending for our poor poor antihero.

While I was reading this, I couldn't help but compare Ichabod to the historically famous antihero, Winston Smith. Now we should all remember him from our sophomore English class, in George Orwell's 1984. If you haven't noticed, Ichabod isn't one of my favorite literary characters of all time, so it shouldn't come as a surprise when I express my equal disdain for Winston. He was kind of a good for nothing bump on a log. Both of these guys wanted a woman that they obviously didn't deserve, both went on stupid little adventures that got them into trouble, and both had a tragic ending. I know you're supposed to find some kind of emotional connection to these characters and whatnot, but I just would rather not. Honestly, I don't care if the guy with a crappy life that he created for himself dies or disappears at the end of the story. Does that make me insensitive? Maybe, but oh well. Antiheroes are just some losers that are famous for being the main character of a work. They don't deserve any praise for that.