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Natalia Virella Velázquez

Prof. Nandita Batra
INGL4030 - 096
29 November 2018
Assignment VIII

Byronic Heroine: The Development of the Female Character

The feminine archetype of the persecuted maiden or the damsel in distress has slowly

changed throughout literature. However, ambiguity lies in the means of how it has shifted. As

some may be aware, a perception of the female character existed since the beginning when

she depended on the male symbol to obtain certain privileges, such as a domestic lifestyle.

The male character adopted the role of the puppeteer, and the females assumed the

part of the puppet. Still, I believe some authors possess a different perception of what the

world’s social roles or norms are about the female archetype. Writers such as George Gordon

Byron, The Brontë sisters, and J. K. Rowling were part of an evolution that transformed this

concept. They created their representation, known as the Byronic Hero and Heroine. This

paper will compare the Byronic Heroine, as an effect of the male hero, with how it’s

developed in the current period.

In addition, the dissertation will focus on the description of the Byronic Hero, reading

through Byron’s epic poems, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Don Juan, and Manfred. The

purpose is to understand how it represents characters such as Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë,

Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, Hermione, and Severus Snape from Harry Potter.

To reach this goal the thesis is divided into two sections; the first section will expand

on the historical context of the Byronic hero. Some background information to understand the

framework of the proposal by observing six literary artworks where the concepts are

presented. The second section will emphasize the second archetype of the paper, the Byronic

Heroine where it will be divided into three subsections. It constitutes in breaking down the

two literary works, Jane Eyre, and Harry Potter, where the archetype can be perceived, as
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well as providing evidence to those points. The study will also observe two examples where

female writers such as Emily Brontë and J. K. Rowling created their Byronic hero to

modernize the aspect of the prototype.

As centuries passed, authors kept incorporating different techniques in which both the

male and female characters were presented as having less interest in society's standards.

Without losing qualities such as intelligence, education, perception, and creativity. The

Byronic Hero was a type of character recreated by the English poet Lord Byron as an attempt

to portray his personality and life experiences.

One of the descriptions while developing the Byronic archetype was “Byron’s refusal

to play by the rules of the developing domestic order” (Jones 60) and the idea of disliking

society, the government, and social institutions became more relevant as time passed.

Byron’s constant escape from social norms brought authors such as the Brontës to rewrite

some of his concepts into their compositions.

The description of the hero transcended before the eighteenth century, but it created

an impact as an anti-hero in the nineteenth century until the present day, and the character

type influenced many female writers in a matter of a short time. Since authors such as the

Brontë Sisters were born in the same century as Byron, his literary artwork attracted their

minds, providing them with an alternative perspective from the domestic lifestyle.

Nevertheless, some are aware that Byron’s archetype was not the first developed, for

there were other hero characters created way before his time. Critiques have been studying

different types of heroes created until the present, but what motivated Lord Byron to recreate

his version of the hero lies in classical times. Buffamanti, suggest that classical heroes

undergo some struggles, some “against tyranny” or against “becoming a model of self-

preservation for those who otherwise may meekly submit.” (Buffamanti 162)
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The difference with the Byronic hero—besides the time—is that the struggles may be

more against himself, his means of existence, and how he reflects upon them. Byron’s period

was of much more influence since it was interested in rebellion against the norms that formed

society, as discussed previously. The Romantic hero archetype was more compelled to reflect

upon life in the sense that they “not return humanity to a prelapsarian idyll, but they do make

life east of Eden more endurable.” (Buffamanti 165) Byron based his compositions on a

character not accepted by society, such as Milton’s Satan from Paradise Lost. Suggesting

how Milton presents Satan as a “compelling character, in part because the real heroes lack

drama, made authors such as Byron and the ones who preceded him recreate such characters

that were dark but also compelling and attractive to the reader’s eye.” (Buffamanti 165)

Following the development of Don Juan and Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, the Brontë

sisters felt the motivation to recreate their own idea of an anti-hero or Byronic hero. As the

sisters followed Byron’s approach, they wrote in a similar manner that involved the rejection

of the mainstream society they lived in. The technique not only rejected the social norms but

also promoted a variety of characteristics that were like the Byronic hero but as an alternative

in terms of gender.

To discuss a little bit further on the archetype, there are a couple of characteristics that

embody the hero, such as the struggle with integrity, being educated, possessing talent and

egocentricity, sophistication, and mysteriousness. It also presents a high level of intelligence

and can adapt to different lifestyles. Another attribute was the “alienation” from civilization;

Joanna Mink points out that in the romantic period, the poet is found constantly advocating

isolation from society for the hero (Mink 54).

As some may know, Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage epic poem introduces the archetype

of the Byronic Hero through the protagonist. Mink indicates that “Byron created himself, put

himself before the public as a hero” (Mink 58). This suggests that through Byron’s poems, he
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presented a fragment of his life encounters and his behavior towards the different situations.

Furthermore, the author invokes Spencer’s use of a large quest, as the poem begins with the

famous “Spenserian stanza.” Harold’s character escapes a compromising situation and

undertakes a journey:

Oh, thou! in Hellas deem’d of heavenly birth,

Muse! form’d or fabled at the minstrel's will!

Since shamed full oft by later lyres on earth,

Mine dares not call thee from thy sacred hill:

Yet there I've wander’d by thy vaunted rill;

Yes! sigh’d o'er Delphi's long-deserted shrine

Where, save that feeble fountain, all is still;

Nor mote my shell awake the weary Nine

To grace so plain a tale--this lowly lay of mine. (Byron 620)

Being Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Byron's first step into this type of hero, the

character developed sadness throughout the life it had while also demonstrating strength.

Byron proved to himself and the world that suffering could be tolerated if the character

continued into a new journey or an adventure. Lord Byron already knew what he desired but

not what he needed; therefore, he went searching for it while making choices that were not

exactly the right ones. The author wanted to make the reader identify with him, presenting his

dark but courageous ways as his characters developed.

Harold’s description is perceived as an enigmatic character who brags about his sinful

life; it seems that in the poem, he has committed all kinds of sins. It also suggests why

Harold’s character wanted to escape from his home, even though he was leaving his own

family behind. These kinds of aspects later made an impact in Charlotte and Emily Brontë’s

literary work, as they also made characters who suffered a backlash from society.
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Manfred, as another example of the archetype, was a very isolated one, seeking power

because of the burden he felt towards knowledge and consciousness. Constantly

demonstrating the desperate need to forget something from the past, feeling a weight because

his conscious does not let him move on. “Sorrow is knowledge: they who know the most

Must mourn the deepest o’er the fatal truth, The Tree of Knowledge is not that of Life.”

(Byron 639) However, Byron wanted to expose that those individuals who regret could also

change the course of the life they have already chosen.

Manfred’s character lives in constant exile in his castle up in the mountains. His

request to the seven spirits is the power to make him forget since he has gone through a

difficult situation. An attribute that resembles Childe Harold’s character as he goes through a

difficult situation that makes him escape and set off on an adventure, meaning it that may be

autobiographical. These two characters, by Thorslev, were not necessarily dramatic poems,

but ones that suggested he committed incest in his past time. (36)

Both of these characters endured torture because of a dark mysterious past as they

were romantically involved with someone. Suggesting that Byron might have transmitted

some of his experiences in the sense that the reader will be aware of the author as an anti-hero

or the villain protagonist. Byron’s objective may have been to make the heroes look more real

in the eyes of the readers and to look more dramatic since classical heroes were loosing that

dramatical sense because their acts were predictable. However, “Byron’s heroes combine the

eloquence of eighteenth-century types with the dynamism and rebellion of romantic types.”

(Buffamanti 174) The hero's acts of rebellion compelled readers in those particular times,

specially women because these heroes prefer to sacrifice themselves or their liberty for the

sake of the female they love, even if it meant renouncing them. It can be perceived in how

Manfred is determined in giving up his life and he“ defies the powers that be in the name of a

sin incurred with/against Astarte” (Buffamanti 174) suggesting that he is not only identified
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as someone who defies the law but also as someone who was self-critical and introspective

such as Childe Harold. However, Manfred self-criticism leads him to regret and this changes

him even though he does not have a happy ending. Harold on the other hand was identified as

someone arrogant and self-serving which means to one’s interest before someone else's.

As the third example of the Byronic Hero, the mock epic, Don Juan, this one was less

concerned with some of the characteristics that were given to the two characters discussed in

the previous paragraph and, as critics such as Thorslev may say, it was less autobiographical.

Juan was exposed to different aspects of life that he has never experienced before, especially

sexuality, making him the only character whose “innocence” is taken away by the act of sin

and not the other way around. This character was surrounded by limits, limits to what he

should do, who he should be and what he should think. These limits were based on society

standards and the idea of suffering still lingered in the character as well, since he experiences

the same heartbreaking situation that haunt the other characters where he could not be with

the one he loves. One of the contrast, however, was that it was not as tragic as to what

occured to Manfred, the situation was slightly different since Juan falls in love once again

and moves on from the feelings he had towards Julia. “And thus they form a rou that’s quite

antique, half naked, loving, natural, and Greek. The mock epic, goes against the the forms of

society by creating a satire of the hypocrisies of the upper class and how society creates this

false conditions.

The rejection of social norms accepted by the government were perceived in Don

Juan’s act of adultery with Donna Julia, since she is a married woman to Don Alfonso.

However, the love affair situation seem to be a way of revisiting what, Juan’s mother tries so

desperate to avoid, the act of sin she was a participant along with Don Alfonso. History

repeats itself suggesting that no matter how much society wants to make people believe in

righteous concepts, the reality is that not everybody has that ability. Byron’s idea to exhibit
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an unrighteous side of a human being was to deliver a reality in the mind of a poet and in

many people around world, including females, that society is not as righteous as it pretends to

be of course. Don Juan’s objective also may have been to present a sinful character or

situation in a compelling approach. These types of approaches not only compelled the minds

of writers such as The Bronte sisters, but it awoke their creativity to recreate their own

version of hero.

The female’s own version of an anti-hero, as some may know, is The Byronic

Heroine. Writers such as Charlotte Bronte recreated an aspect of Byron’s heroes owning to

the fact that she grew up with his literary works. Quertermous reaffirms that “To each of the

Brontes the Byronic hero was very real, and to each the hero came to mean something

different.” (Quertermous 334) Some of the characteristics that the Brontes and many other

female writers adopted were “victim of a loveless world” and “in search of some happy

oblivions.” (Quertermous 157) Others can be whimsical humor, pride, egocentricity and self-

will which can also be perceived in Hermione’s character of the Harry Potter books which

will be discussed later in the paper.

Even though, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre did not completely embody the Byronic

characteristics, it does present some of the aspects of the hero. Catherine Schloss believed

that Jane illustrates a sense of independence and introspective, she “reflects on her

relationships and her future” and she is also “willingly changes the form that her

independence takes to marry Rochester and take care of him as he recovers.” (Schloss 84)

This act can be identified as a Byronic feature since Jane is willing to give up her liberty

without being ordered to do so, therefore she sacrificed herself for the sake of someone else’s

happiness. “I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an

independent will.” (Bronte 483) This is a perfect example of a heroic act considering that

she would voluntarily sacrifice her happiness. This is one of the reasons why the heroine
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Byronic represents the alternative way of the anti-hero, since female characters were not

perceived as independent or capable of sustaining herself. Writers such as Charlotte

demonstrated that they did not go as far as Byron but it they did had the sense to feel free.

Mental and spiritual freedom became two of the goals of the heroic feminine, the liberty to

think for themselves surrounded the idea in that particular period.

Emily Bronte, on the other hand almost introduces all of the Byronic features

presented in Heathcliff’s Wuthering Heights suggesting that she wanted to recreate Byron’s

characteristics. Bronte’s version the Byronic Hero is regarded with the tortured anti-hero

character, with the isolation from society, lack of respect for authority or rank and rejection

of the social institutions. Heathcliff represents a Byronic character because he follows his

own moral codes and he contains a dark and mysterious past. Since he was an orphan and

came to the the lives of the other characters unexpectedly, they embodied his behavior and

his moral codes. “...but you must e’en take it as a gift of God; though it’s as dark almost as if

it came from the devil.” (Bronte 45) This foreshadows Heathcliff’s moral behavior and it

influence the other characters in the house, his impulsive and violent ways suggest he was a

self-destructive character. However, he was also identified as extremely passionate which

compensate to the fact that he was a compelling Byronic character.

The feminine archetype however, has revolutionized significantly as the centuries

passed and more ideas kept changing the perception of a woman, in the present times, it is

more than just feeling independent. For characters such as Hermione, independence was

indeed one the features that described her, but cunniness and egocentricity were also a

descriptive feature, since she brags many times about her intelligence and what she is capable

of doing. She also modern and self-willing somehow resembling to Jane Eyre, how they both

care deeply about certain situations such as family and friends. It can be perceived in how she

always in her own way of bossing them around helps her two friends, Harry and Ron, in their
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different adventures no matter how bad Ron might treat her or how dangerous the quest are.

She is always willing to demonstrate that she can outwit any situation in many of the

prohibited ideas that her friends have which also represents the subject of going against the

society’s rules. However, she does care a lot about her academic work, as shown in this

passage “Don’t you care about Gryffindor, Do you only care about yourselves, I don’t want

Slytherin to win house cup, and you’ll lose all the points I got from Professor McGonagall for

knowing about switching spells.” (Rowling 155) She is also interested in her own benefit

even if she attacks the boys by telling them their careless.

Rowling also incorporates a Byronic hero archetype, as she presents the character of

Severus Snape, a dark and cunning professor of Hogwarts who also holds a dark past that

make him the hero he is the present. His traumatic past constitute as one of the characteristics

as well since he was bullied and castout from other individuals when he was an adolescent.

“There was another flash of light, and Snape was once again hanging upside down in the air.”

(Rowling 649) He was also in love with Harry’s mother which can also represent the burden

he withhold with her death and the fact that she was married to someone else who was in fact

one of the students who mocked Snape when they attended Hogwarts in the past. Not only

that he sacrifices his life for her before she dies, when he gives his life to Dumbledore, as an

exchange for the Potter’s protection. He also later on in the last book of the saga, sacrifices

his life to save his beloved son, Harry Potter. “From the tip of his wand burst the silver doe:

She landed on the office floor, bounded once across the office, and soured out of the window.

Dumbledore watched her fly away, and as her silvery glow faded he turned back to Snape,

and his eyes were full of tears.’After all this time?’” (Rowling 687). As it can be observed in

Dumbledore’s office towards the end of the final book, Harry becomes aware that all that

time, Severus loved Lily no matter, to what he responded “Always.” This act of love is one of
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the main reasons why Snape can be identified as an anti-hero, people believed he was the

antagonist when he was really the hero in his own dark ways. (Rowling 687)

This two archetypes were one of the reasons why female and male characters are so

diverse in the present times. Byron opened a new world of full of possibilities where the

characters did not exactly had to follow society’s conditions. These characters although they

were dark and somehow self-destructive, presented the real aspect of the human beings and

how vulnerable they are. The Byronic hero gave the female character the liberty to feel

independent and capable of saving herself without the help of a male symbol. Childe Harold,

Manfred and Don helped shape the archetype that many artist feel identified with because

even though their actions are not as pure and honest as the classical heroes they maintain

some lines that cannot be crossed. Even if the characters endure the suffering and make hell

sound so compelling there are still boundaries they will not cross. That is why it compels

writers such as The Brontes and many modern writers such as Rowling, the effect of the

Byronic hero was so important that these female writers felt inspired to the same. To make an

impact in a society that gives false conditions to the human beings making them fear from the

criticism of others and not accepting them as who they are.

Word Count: 3,386

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