Ø rebels against convention or society

Ø has a low tolerance for societal norms and social institutions

Ø is isolated or has chosen isolation from society

Ø is not impressed with rank and/or privilege

Ø has larger-than-life abilities and larger-than-life pride

Ø suspected of committing a crime or has been cursed

Ø suffers from grandiose passions

Ø has a tendency to be self-destructive

Byron created characters that have these characteristics. His two most famous, Manfred and Harold, are classic examples. Both had a low tolerance for social institutions and were isolated wanderers by choice: Manfred wandered the mountaintops – physically isolated – while his Childe Harold exiled himself to Europe and while still in society, wasn’t part of it. Both were not easily impressed, considered themselves cursed and tended to be self-destructive.

In Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto I, we find the first descriptions of the hero. Harold is descr

and his reasons for wandering can be found in lines 46-55. He was “sore sick at heart” but pride “the sullen tear… congeal’d” so he chose to wander (“from his native land resolv’d to go…”) He is described as a man who spent his youth carousing and was born of a long lineage – perhaps of noble birth. He evidently either rebelled against societal norms or committed an unknown crime against societal norms and it is this guilt that drives him to leave his native land. He is passionate about one woman whom he cannot allow himself to have but he loves her with a pure love.

ibed as a wanderer “Yet there I’ve wander’d by thy vaunted rill; Yes! sigh’d o’er Delphi’s long-deserted shrine…”

Manfred was Byron’s first dramatic work. It is the story of a man who was hounded by remorse and guilt. In some ways it is an autobiography of Byron himself. Byron was suspected of having incestuous relations with his sister; it is hinted that Manfred suffered from the guilt associated with incestuous love. Byron lost his sister to marriage and his exile while it is hinted that Manfred’s sister committed suicide.

Byron seems to have taken the classic Renaissance Man and added to him. The Renaissance Man is confident, suave, good looking and intelligent. He is capable of doing many things and with such ease as to make even the most difficult thing look simple. He is a man women desire and men respect (and envy). The Byronic heroes share this but are also rebels, self-destructive and chose to be alone. They have also either committed or are suspected of committing a serious crime against societal norms. Byronic heroes are not happy until they are near death and then, while reviewing their life, realize they have atoned for whatever great sin they believed they had. They are complex characters worth getting to know if one has the desire to read deeper than just the words on the page.

In current fiction o

Some topics in this essay:
Byron Byron, Clive Cussler, Pilgrimage Canto, Byronic Hero, Legendary Journeys, Batman Nightwing, Bruce Wayne, Manfred Harold, Childe Harold, Dark Angel, byronic hero, societal norms, easily impressed, low tolerance, crime societal norms, self-imposed exile, act 1, dirk pitt, society Ø, byronic heroes, comic books batman, byronic hero characteristics, native land,