Romantic+Hero

The Romantic Hero

I. Romantic individualism (and nationalism) writ large: “While Enlightenment writers studied the social animal, the romantics explored the depths of their own souls” (Fiero 30). These Romantic heroes are commanding figures, with strong wills and personalities, who challenge accepted norms of behavior and evoke what John Keats called the “egotistical sublime.” · Napoleon as an historical example of the Romantic hero and its contradictions --a Corsican peasant who crowns himself emperor --a champion of the “revolutionary ideals of liberty, fraternity, and equality” (Fiero 30) who yet went on to wage an imperial war against nations of Europe (see Map 28:1) --a brilliant military tactician who over-reached himself in the Russian campaign (lost 500, 000 men!)—see Pushkin’s “Napoleon” (36-37) --an individual with petty habits and towering egotism (32)

II. Antithetically mixt: some characteristics and types of the Romantic hero

There sunk the greatest, nor the worst of men, Whose spirit, antithetically mixt, One moment of the mightiest, and again On little objects with like firmness fixt; Extreme in all things! hadst thou been betwixt, Thy throne had still been thine, or never been; For daring made thy rise as fall: thou seek'st Even now to re-assume the imperial mien, And shake again the world, the Thunderer of the scene!

. . . quiet to quick bosoms is a hell, And //there// hath been thy bane; there is a fire And motion of the soul which will not dwell In its own narrow being, but aspire Beyond the fitting medium of desire; And, but once kindled, quenchless evermore, Preys upon high adventure, nor can tire Of aught but rest; a fever at the core, Fatal to him who bears, to all who ever bore. Byron on Napoleon, from //Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage//, Canto III

1. gifted with intellect and imagination, the hero is at odds with the “common herd” of mankind. //Faust// 348-368

2. the hero’s desires are insatiable; his is a will not satisfied with ordinary things. //Faust// 510-525.

3. the Promethean hero: an over-reacher who unsettles traditional moral categories. Some types: · The Faustian hero: Goethe’s unique treatment of the Faust myth (the fact that he never finds satisfaction on earth is what ultimately redeems him: 454-460) ; Victor Frankenstein: the “Modern Prometheus” who usurps role of God (33-34) · The abolitionist: see Frederick Douglass’ defense of stealing from his slave-masters: “The morality of free society can have no application to slave society”(38). · The Byronic hero: aristocratic, darkly handsome, manly, brooding, brilliant, erotic, melancholy, indomitable. “Prometheus” 35-54 · The Gothic villain-hero