Meaning of antiheroine | Babel Free

Definitions

A female protagonist who proceeds in an unheroic manner, such as by criminal means, via cowardly actions, or for mercenary goals; a female antihero.

Equivalents

Examples

“Since she sprang from the imagination of the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen in 1890, this coldhearted antiheroine has maintained a tight grip on the attention of audiences across the globe, outstripping all the many other complicated women in Ibsen’s oeuvre, even the door-slamming Nora of “A Doll’s House”.”

“Fictional male antiheroes like⟳ television’s crime patriarchs Tony Soprano and Walter White have⟳ reigned for some time, but the antiheroine has only more recently had the opportunity to rise⟳ up – and become⟳ the cause of her own⟳ downfall. And while a “bad woman” may once have⟳ meant a period-piece protagonist who prioritized herself over finding a husband, today’s antiheroines are more complex, as the Netflix dark comedy “I Care a Lot” illustrates.”

CEFR level