Northrop Frye’s Scheme of the Ironic Hero

Northrop Frye categorized fictional works into 5 different categorizes which he refers to as the hero’s power of action. These categorizes include; myth, romance, high mimetic mode, low mimetic mode, and the ironic mode. The hero’s power of action refers to the amount of superiority or to the amount of inferiority of the character in comparison to our self. The myth mode labels a hero superior to man kind, such as a God, whereas the ironic mode labels an inadequate hero, less superior, to the average man.
Northrop Frye's "Fictional Modes" from The Anatomy of Criticism (Princeton: Princeton UP, 1957, 1971): 33-52.
Northrop Frye defines the ironic hero as “a protagonist who is inferior in power or intelligence to ourselves, so that we have the sense of looking down on a scene of bondage, frustration, or absurdity, in a situation judged by the norms of a greater freedom.” http://engfac.byu.edu/faculty/JorgensenB/eng359/Frye.htm
The ironic hero's power of action or ability t...