Byronic Hero Influence

Lord Byron’s creation of the Byronic hero has been greatly used during the course of his life to ours. The influence this type of Romantic hero has had upon the world’s culture of literature, arts, and many other aspects of life has been so big that we may see a Byronic hero character and not even notice it as what it is. The Byronic hero has been a very popular and liked type of hero due to the fact that a Byronic hero is such an intriguing, dark, mysterious character. The hero type that Byron made has been seen in many different poems from him and other poets, some of which trace back to Milton and other poets from the Romantic time period to ours. In order to understand the Byronic hero and how it has influenced the world we must know the hero's characteristics, traits, and qualities that make him up. Here's the list of the qualities a Byronic hero shows, they are......

• Rebelling
• Romantic melancholy
• Guilt for secret sin
• Pride
• Alienation
• Defiance
• Revenge
• Remorse
• Restlessness
• Noble virtues such as….
• Honor
• Altruism
• Courage
• Pure love for a gentle woman
• Distaste for society and social instruments
• Arrogant
• Cynical
• Mysterious
• High level of intelligence and perception
• An outcast, an exile, or an outlaw
• Cunning and ability to adapt
• Expressing a lack of respect for rank and privilege
• Having great talent
• Power of seduction and attraction
• Social and sexual dominance
• Self-destructive behavior
• Sophisticated and well-educated
• Struggles with integrity
• Troubled past
• Unsuccessful in love, the beloved is usually dead
• Emotionally conflicted, bipolar tendencies, or moodiness

The qualities gotten were specifically from these websites> http://www.theinfidels.org/zunb-lordbyron.htm

http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/lesson_images/lesson1148/ByronicTraits.pdf  http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/lord-byron

A Byronic hero may possess some of these qualities, but not every character that possesses these qualities is a Byronic hero. With troubled pasts, scandalous lives, Romantic melancholy, being disliked, but popular at the same time the Byronic hero is in many ways just like Lord Byron himself. The first Byronic hero, Harold, appeared in Lord Byron's poem Childe Harold's Pilgrimage where Lord Byron begins to blend narration and digression to produce the type of descriptive-meditative poetry. Lord Byron uses this type of blend to write Don Juan, where another Byronic hero is introduced to the world of poetry. The Byronic hero is used in many poems by Byron including The Giaour, The Bride of Abydos, The Corsair, Lara, and even Lord Byron's closet play Manfred.
The influence of the Byronic hero has also been seen in the work of many poets and artist of the Romantic time period and Gothic writers of the 19^th century. These poets and artist greatly admired the Byronic hero and the influence of this type of hero has spread like wild fire throughout the centuries. 
After some research I have found some Byronic heroes in our time that we may have never guessed would be. Some of the Byronic heroes of our time include the newspaper comic character Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes. I would have never guessed that Calvin would be a character that has been influenced by the Byronic hero, but he has. The Byronic hero has also influenced music, comic books, films, plays, literature, television shows, and the arts. One of the most popular type of characters in today's culture, vampires, are a perfect example of Byronic heroes because of their troubled past, their love for a specific person, their moodiness, and a few other trait that help them fit in to the category of Byronic hero influenced. All in all our world has been influenced by the Byronic hero in many ways. Our society and culture have embraced the Byronic heroes influence in so many aspects of our life that we do not know of, but the influence of the Byronic hero is there nonetheless.