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Byronic hero and his evolution within the Victorian literature

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Byronic hero and his evolution within the Victorian literature
“Byronic hero“ and his evolution within the Victorian literature Lord Byron is one of the most famous and influential writers of the Romantic period and literature overall, which is largely due to his evermore interesting type of hero. Inspired by Milton 's Satan, Byron took over the figure of heroic character and perfected it in his poem Childe Harold into a figure which has thereafter become known as the “Byronic hero“. Many critics agree that Byron 's inspiration for this character lies largely in Byron himself and that Childe Harold is his semi-autobiography. However, whether this hero is a fiction produced by Byron and public, or it was created by Byron 's reflections on himself, it remained one of the most important, influential types of character as well as an inexhaustible source of inspiration that continued throughout the 19th century to this day.
Therefore, in this paper I am going to analyse the evolution of the Byronic hero that appeared in Childe Harold, into that variations noticeable in the Victorian literature, more precisely those in Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre written by the Brontë sisters. His dark characteristics are what make the original Byron 's hero different from the traditional idea of a hero, even though he retains his heroic virtues. However, the original idea has slightly changed over time. Therefore, in the Victorian literature, this type of hero often either loses his Byronic features or becomes almost a villain. Hence, I am going to deal with those analyses that I find relevant in relation to one of the most interesting phenomena in literature and modern culture that still keeps holding peoples’ attention.
Within the next passages, I 'm going to deal closely with the mentioned various ideas of the Byronic hero in terms of analysing them, as well as determining the reasons for their change. As mentioned previously, Byron introduced the original prototype of Byronic hero in Canto I. of Childe Harold where he might be



Cited: Byron, Lord. Childe Harold 's Pilgrimage. Chicago: W.B. Conkey Company, 1900. Web. 24 May 2012. (http://discoverarchive.vanderbilt.edu/jspui/bitstream/1803/1792/1/Childe%20Harolds%20Pilgrimage,%20Byron.pdf) Stein, Atara. The Byronic Hero in Film, Fiction, and Television. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2004. Web. 20 May 2013 (http://www.scribd.com/doc/115213806/Atara-Stein-the-Byronic-Hero-in-Film-Fiction-And-Television-2004) Thorslev, Peter. The Byronic hero: types and prototypes. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1965. Web. 21 May 2013. (http://bookos.org/book/1328268/17c796) Hsu, Eric. “A Loss Unbearable: Byronic Heroes in Victorian Fiction.” 19 Jan. 2011. Web. 20 May 2103. (http://english.fju.edu.tw/lctd/word/ByronicHeroesinVictorianFiction_proofread.pdf) Ceron, Cristina. “Emily and Charlotte Brontë’s Re-reading of the Byronic hero.” Revue LISA/LISA e-journal, 09 March 2010: 1-14. Web. 24 May 2013. (http://lisa.revues.org/3504)

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