I now don't remember what was on my mind when I asked "Is 'Hero' just a role or can it be a class?" Two possibilities:
(1) A class (or "class") can consider itself heroic. E.g., freaks in the '60s didn't just tell a hero story about themselves as individuals, but about themselves as a class. Punks in the '70s. Alternative and indie kids from the '80s on. Or a "vanguard" hero class can lead the "proletariat" (another hero class, working-class with class consciousness).
(2) (i) Hero as role = performer stands up and acts different and daring
(ii) Hero as category = someone is the sort of person who stands up and acts different and daring
(iii) Hero as class? = whole professions and avocations and categories (musicians, private detectives, dirt-bike racers, proletarians, freaks) are considered the sort of people who should act different and daring, even if many individuals within these professions and avocations and categories often fail to be daring and different (this is why we tell hero stories about musicians but not about phone repairmen) - so the hero class would be the aggregate of the heroic categories
(iv) Hero as class = once you do something daring and different you are now marked as belonging to a breed apart (in this sense, "hero" can be a class in the way that "celebrity" can be a class)(that is, if we're willing to consider "celebrity" a cast)
Hero as class?
(1) A class (or "class") can consider itself heroic. E.g., freaks in the '60s didn't just tell a hero story about themselves as individuals, but about themselves as a class. Punks in the '70s. Alternative and indie kids from the '80s on. Or a "vanguard" hero class can lead the "proletariat" (another hero class, working-class with class consciousness).
(2) (i) Hero as role = performer stands up and acts different and daring
(ii) Hero as category = someone is the sort of person who stands up and acts different and daring
(iii) Hero as class? = whole professions and avocations and categories (musicians, private detectives, dirt-bike racers, proletarians, freaks) are considered the sort of people who should act different and daring, even if many individuals within these professions and avocations and categories often fail to be daring and different (this is why we tell hero stories about musicians but not about phone repairmen) - so the hero class would be the aggregate of the heroic categories
(iv) Hero as class = once you do something daring and different you are now marked as belonging to a breed apart (in this sense, "hero" can be a class in the way that "celebrity" can be a class)(that is, if we're willing to consider "celebrity" a cast)