DEFINING THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE BYRONIC HERO IN THE CONTEXT OF ROMANTICISM

Abstract

The paper seeks to account for the characteristics of the Byronic hero in the theoretical context of romanticism. Lord Byron was an English poet of the Romantic school. With his contemporaries like Coleridge, Wordsworth, Southey, Shelley and many others, they have addressed the major problems of their epoch through their heroes. But, Lord Byron has refused to provide his heroes with classical romantic visions and concepts. He needed to work on heroes which should qualitatively be different from the traditional romantic ones. Another objective of the study is to provide some significant definitions of the Byronic hero, his major characteristics, his spirits and flaws. As a result, the study found that Lord Byron has created a new type of romantic hero which later would be called the ‘Byronic hero’. It also revealed how far the Byronic hero was ready to risk his life, his estate, his pedigree to rescue others with the major concern to provide them with freedom and justice. Key words : : Byronic hero, characteristics, definitions, Literature, romanticism