How does Edward Scissorhands qualify as an anti-hero?

You can consider Edward Scissorhands as an antihero in the
sense that he is an untraditional hero. Some concepts of “antihero” invoke the
antithesis of hero. I don’t think this applies because I don’t see how Edward is
oppositional to heroism. But the idea of antihero is broad. Antihero can mean a
character who is similar but peculiarly unlike a traditional hero. So, we could consider
him the hero of this story. Aside from the daughter, I don’t know who else would even
qualify as heroic.

Edward is passive, intensely shy and
socially backward. Archetypal heroes have tended to be active, outgoing and socially
commanding. But Edward does have nothing but good intentions and does his best to act on
those intentions. He is at the mercy of a world that doesn’t understand him. So, acting
on those intentions in an adversarial world makes him heroic. He is comparable to
Frankenstein’s Monster, whom I would also consider an
anti-hero.

The concept of anti-hero has really broadened
over the years. Sometimes, even the antagonist can be considered an antihero. Two other
examples that come to mind, for slightly different reasons, are Satan in Milton’s
Paradise Lost and Othello.