The Romantic hero is a type of character in literature who does not follow the rules or traditions that others believe in. This character is often not accepted by society and focuses heavily on their own thoughts and feelings. In stories, the Romantic hero is usually the main character, and the story pays more attention to what the character thinks than to what they do.

Characteristics

Literary critic Northrop Frye observed that the Romantic hero is often "placed outside the structure of civilization and therefore represents the force of physical nature, without a strong sense of right and wrong or showing no mercy, yet with a sense of power, and often leadership, that society has impoverished itself by rejecting." Other traits of the Romantic hero include thinking deeply about themselves, the triumph of the individual over the "rules set by religion and society," a desire to travel, sadness, dislike of people, feeling disconnected from others, and loneliness. However, another common trait is regret for their actions and self-criticism, which often leads to helping others, preventing the character from having a tragic ending.

Usually separated from their more practical, realistic biological family and living a rural, solitary life, the Romantic hero may still have a love interest who suffers because of the hero's rebellious behavior. Their lives are connected for many years, sometimes from childhood until death. (See Tatyana Larina, Elizabeth Bennet, Eugenie Grandet, et al.)

Romantic heroes and similar characters were frequently used in Gothic fiction in Britain and other places.

History

The Romantic hero first started showing up in books during the Romantic period, in works by writers like Byron, Keats, Goethe, and Pushkin. This character type partly developed as a reaction to the French Revolution. When Napoleon, who was seen as a real-life example of a hero, failed to meet people's expectations, the common idea of a hero as someone who supports social order began to change.

Examples

Classic examples of the Romantic hero in literature include:

• Captain Ahab from Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick
• The main character in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
• Andrei Bolkonsky from Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace
• Ponyboy Curtis from S.E. Hinton's novel The Outsiders
• Edmond Dantès from Alexandre Dumas (père)'s adventure novel The Count of Monte Cristo
• Mr. Darcy from Jane Austen's novel Pride and Prejudice
• Victor Frankenstein from Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein
• The main characters in Lord Byron's narrative poems Don Juan and Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
• Gwynplaine from Victor Hugo's novel The Man Who Laughs
• "Hawkeye" (Natty Bumppo) from James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales, a series of five historical novels
• Philip Marlowe from Raymond Chandler's seven novels about a Los Angeles detective
• The main character in Pushkin's novel in verse Eugene Onegin
• Hester Prynne from Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter
• The main character in François-René Chateaubriand's novella René
• Werther from Goethe's epistolary, loosely autobiographical novel The Sorrows of Young Werther
• Faust from Goethe's Faust