Romantic and Byronic Heroes Romantic Hero An individual

Romantic and Byronic Heroes

Romantic Hero • An individual, not one of a crowd • At odds with his society and perhaps an outcast • His code is based on natural law rather than manmade and corrupt law • A leader, but may be on the wrong side of the law • Introspective, even brooding about his sense of purpose • Fights for what he believes in but is misunderstood • Goes in quest of his higher goal and thus wanders the earth.

Byronic Hero • Characteristics: arrogant, an exile or wanderer, broods over misdeeds, charismatic, self-destructive, a misunderstood outcast from society • “Mad, bad, and dangerous to know. ” • Examples: Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, Rochester in Jane Eyre

Byronic Hero (variant of Romantic hero) • “Lone wanderer usually endowed with an electric appeal, somber good looks, and charm” • Alienated from society and searches for truth • Broods over “some unnamed misdeed” or secret sin • “Conceals a guilty-sad past beneath lingering melancholy” • “Hints of dissipation in the past and of unspecified infractions against society” • “Self-destructive outcast cursed with an instinct for violence”

The Noble Outlaw (variant of Byronic hero) • Peter Thorslev, The Byronic Hero: “the Byronic hero resembled the Gothic villain, the noble outlaw, the child of nature, Satan, and Prometheus” (122) • “The Noble Outlaw is invariably fiery, passionate, and heroic; he is in the true sense bigger than the life around him” (68). • “In all of his appearances the Noble Outlaw personified the Romantic nostalgia for the days of personal heroism when it was still possible for a leader to dominate his group of followers by sheer physical courage, strength of will, and personal magnetism” (69). Thorslev, Peter. The Byronic Hero: Types and Prototypes. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1962

Noble Outlaw • “The Noble Outlaw is also largely a sympathetic character. He is figured as having been wronged. . . by society in general, and his rebellion is thus always given a plausible motive. ” • “What particularly distinguishes the fully-developed Romantic Noble Outlaw. . . is his cloak of mystery and his air of the sublime” (69) • “In American literature the Byronic outsider merged with the adventuresome western hero. . . capable of defiance of the social code and of performing noble and courageous acts, often anonymously. ”

Byronic Heroes?

Byronic Heroes • Whom would you nominate?