Masculinity In The Post-Romantic Era

Chivalry is Dead:

The Influence of the Byronic Hero on Masculinity in the Post-Romantic Era

Maisey Phillips

Mr. Wheeler English 10 CP, Class 6

11 May 2015 Abstract

The character type of the Byronic hero which became highly popular during the Romantic movement reshaped the conventions of the ideal man in Western culture. It was through this that defining characteristics of the Byronic hero became integrated into the ideals and standards associated with masculinity in the Western world thereafter. This paper illustrates the changes in the expectations of masculinity and determines the causes of the Byronic hero’s integration into post-Romantic masculinity.

Romanticism, arguably the largest artistic and literary movement of

In her analysis of the origins and legacy of the Byronic hero, Heiða Pálsdótti wrote, “The Byronic hero appears again and again in contemporary culture and has been a widely popular subject ever since Byronism became popular [...]. The character has been used so often and diversely that we feel it is familiar" (18). With post-Romantic Western media being so saturated with the Byronic hero type, it is no wonder its influence has spread into our culture-specific definitions of masculinity. But to comprehend this phenomenon, one must understand which attributes are characteristic of this character type. The Byronic hero is a mysterious outlaw, who sets his own moral code. These characters are known for their independence, self-sufficiency, passion, and assertiveness. Though such characters were being created by other Romantic authors at the time, the author most known for using this type is the poet Lord Byron, after whom the type was named. His character Manfred from the dramatic poem of the same name is often hailed as the original Byronic hero, whose traits can now be seen reflected in the ideals and in innumerable popular characters of our modern culture. “From the Western hero to the science fiction hero to the action-adventure hero,

Masculinity in this paper is used in a historical context, as a constantly changing collection of meanings that are constructed in each culture through relationships with ourselves, each other, and the world (Kimmel and Aronson XXIII). This usage of the concept of masculinity cannot be separated from the social and historical contexts that shape and reshape the ever-changing cultural definitions of what it means to be a man (Williams XII). In other words, in this context masculinity does not mean "manly," as the specific set of qualities we have assigned to masculinity in our current culture, it means what was thought of as manly or masculine in the particular time and culture being