Byronic hero

English

Pronunciation

Noun

Byronic hero (plural Byronic heroes or Byronic heros)

  1. (literature) A character type originating in the works of Lord Byron, typically characterized by introspection, arrogance, cynicism, emotional depth, and moral ambiguity; often alienated from society and at odds with conventional morality.
    Synonym: Romantic hero
    Antonym: classical hero
    Childe Harold exemplifies the Byronic hero.
    • 1814, Lord Byron, The Corsair, volume I, VIII, XI:
      That man of loneliness and mystery,
      Scarce seen to smile, and seldom heard to sigh;
      [...]
      He knew himself a villain—but he deem'd
      The rest no better than the thing he seem'd;
      And scorned the best as hypocrites who hid
      Those deeds the bolder spirit plainly did.
      He knew himself detested, but he knew
      The hearts that loath'd him, crouch'd and dreaded too.
      Lone, wild, and strange, he stood alike exempt
      From all affection and from all contempt:
      1951, Albert Camus, The Rebel, page 46:
      The Byronic hero, incapable of love, or capable only of an impossible love, suffers endlessly. He is solitary, languid, his condition exhausts him. If he wants to feel alive, it must be in the terrible exaltation of a brief and destructive action.
      1962, Peter L. Thorslev, Jr., The Byronic Hero: Types and Prototypes, page 8:
      The Byronic Hero, on the other hand, is invariably courteous toward women, often loves music or poetry, has a strong sense of honor, and carries about with him like the brand of Cain a deep sense of guilt.
  2. (literary trope, by extension) An archetype of a moody, brooding, rebellious, and self-destructive antihero found across later fiction and media, marked by intelligence, passion, and alienation from social norms.
    Synonym: antihero
    Antonym: ideal hero
    Heathcliff, Edward Rochester, and Batman are often described as Byronic heroes.
    • 2020 October 30, Maya Phillips, “Review: ‘Touch of the Poet’ Is a Powerful Study in Toxic Pride”, in The New York Times‎[1]:
      The Byronic hero: temperamental, hedonistic and romantic. [...] After all, when Con first appears, dressed in dusty shades of purple like a retired royal, we already know he’s our Byronic hero.
    • 2019 September 18, Evan McGarvey, “The Cardiganed Terrorist Next Door”, in Slate‎[2]:
      Yes, the film argues that racist thinking warps your life and will ruin it, but it also presents Norton’s Derek Vinyard as a kind of Byronic hero.

Hypernyms

Coordinate terms

See also

References

Further reading

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.