TheRomantic hero is aliterary archetype referring to a character that rejects established norms and conventions, has been rejected by society, and has themselves at the center of their own existence.[1] The Romantic hero is often theprotagonist in a literary work, and the primary focus is on the character's thoughts rather than their actions.
Literary criticNorthrop Frye noted that the Romantic hero is often "placed outside the structure of civilization and therefore represents the force of physical nature, amoral or ruthless, yet with a sense of power, and often leadership, that society has impoverished itself by rejecting".[2] Other characteristics of the Romantic hero includeintrospection, the triumph of the individual over the "restraints of theological and social conventions",[1]wanderlust,melancholy,misanthropy, alienation, and isolation.[3] However, another common trait of the Romantic hero is regret for their actions, andself-criticism, often leading tophilanthropy, which stops the character from ending romantically.[citation needed]
Usually estranged from his more grounded, realist biological family and leading a rural, solitary life, the Romantic hero may nevertheless have a long-suffering love interest, him or herself victimised by the hero's rebellious tendencies, with their fates intertwined for decades, sometimes from their youths to their deaths. (SeeTatyana Larina,Elizabeth Bennet,Eugenie Grandet, et al.)
Romantic heroes and similar characters were popularly used inGothic fiction inBritain and elsewhere.[4]
The Romantic hero first began appearing in literature during theRomantic period, in works by such authors asByron,Keats,Goethe, andPushkin, and is seen in part as a response to theFrench Revolution. AsNapoleon, the "living model of a hero",[5] became a disappointment to many, the typical notion of the hero as upholding social order began to be challenged.
^abWilson, James D. (Winter 1972). "Tirso, hat, and Byron: The emergence of Don Juan as romantic hero".The South Central Bulletin.32 (4). The Johns Hopkins University Press on behalf of The South Central Modern Language Association:246–248.doi:10.2307/3186981.ISSN0038-321X.JSTORi359767.
^Frye, Northrop (1968).A Study of English Romanticism.Random House. p. 41.
^Knapp, Bettina L. (April 1986). "Review: The Romantic hero and his heirs in French literature".The French Review.59 (5). American Association of Teachers of French:787–788.ISSN0016-111X.JSTORi216560.
^The Longman Anthology of British Literature: Volume 2A: The Romantics and Their Contemporaries. United States:Pearson Education, Inc. 2006. pp. 659, 695.ISBN0-321-33394-2.
^Furst, Lilian R. (Spring 1976). "The romantic hero, or is he an anti-hero?".Studies in the Literary Imagination.9 (1):53–67.
^"Lord Byron".Gale Contextual Encyclopedia of World Literature. Gale. 2009. Retrieved6 January 2019.
^Blanch Serrat, Francesca (10 March 2016)."Romantic readings: Childe Harold, by Lord Byron". Dove Cottage & the Wordsworth Museum. Retrieved6 January 2019.It was the year 1809 and Byron had already defined the myth that was to survive him to become one of the most reproduced tropes in our culture: the Romantic hero. Through the Romantic hero that Childe Harold embodies, Byron will attempt to recover from the sufferings of exile.
^Salstad, Louise."Juan Anguera, alias Flanagan: Ironic Hard-boiled Hero".The Looking Glass : New Perspectives on Children's Literature. Retrieved6 January 2019.Both Marlowe and Flanagan are knightly heroes in their way. The emblematic image of the knight--romantic hero if there ever was one--appears on page one of Chandler's first novel about Marlowe, The Big Sleep. The author refers to him in "The Simple Art of Murder" in a famous passage that evokes the image of a modern knight errant: "[D]own these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. . . . The story is his adventure in search of a hidden truth, and it would be no adventure if it did not happen to a man fit for adventure" (Chandler, Later 992).
^Gerwin, Elisabeth."François-René, Vicomte de Chateaubriand: René".The Literary Encyclopedia. Retrieved1 January 2019.Indeed,René has been identified as the text that created and popularised the superior but melancholic romantic hero suffering from profound disillusionment.
^"Johann Wolfgang von Goethe". Poetry in Translation. Retrieved1 January 2019.In 1774 he published his first major work, the self-revelatory novelThe Sorrows of Young Werther, in which he created the prototype of the Romantic hero, and instigated a European fashion.
