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?