The Byronic Hero: Not a Misnomer

The Byronic Hero: Not a Misnomer

  • Submitted By: jfgabrie
  • Date Submitted: 04/06/2013 1:11 PM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 1598
  • Page: 7
  • Views: 1

The term Byronic Hero and its use to describe the anti-hero is a misnomer, but when studying the life and writings of George Gordon, otherwise known as Lord Byron, it becomes an accurate description.
A hero, by its very definition, is a figure distinguished by noble ideals, courage under fire and exceptional strength of character and willpower, ready to save someone or something at great risk to oneself. Then there is the reluctant hero, or anti-hero, the one who shoulders the responsibility of what must be done even though he or she ultimately does not want to. With flaws, doubts and an inner conflict that keeps them brooding, always not good enough, yet still be able to find it within to do the right thing and be the hero anyway. Though the Byronic Hero shares many of the characteristics of the anti-hero, Byron is the first author to set the literary precedence for the modern concept of anti-heroism. His anti-heroes are more sophisticated, more cynical and arrogant, witty and egotistical, cunning, while struggling with their integrity. “This figure, infusing the archrebel in a nonpolitical form with a strong erotic interest, was imitated in life as well as in art…” (Greenblatt 613). So like the anti-heroes he writes, Byron considers himself somewhat of a rebel walking to the beat of his own drum.
Written between what is known as the Romantic Period and the Gothic Period during the early nineteenth century, Byron’s heroes contain aspects of the old-fashioned eighteenth century models, which represent an important tradition in the literature of the time. However, it would not be a foregone conclusion based on the characters he created that Byron did not relate to the traditional hero, being too perfect and infallible. Byron’s chief claim as an arch-Romantic is not consistent with his deconstruction of the Romantic Hero, which he does by instilling his hero with several darker characteristics, traits that eventually became synonymous with the Gothic period...

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