Romantic Literature involving the "tragic hero"

[A Flickering]

I'm especially interested in those figures which really epitomise the tragic heroes of the period. Any examples you could give would be very helpful to my studies - thank you very much in advance.

[bazarov]

I'm especially interested in those figures which really epitomise the tragic heroes of the period. Any examples you could give would be very helpful to my studies - thank you very much in advance.

Pechorin from Hero of our times, Eugene Onegin, Werther from Sorrows of Young Werther.

[manolia]

I am not very good at categorising things so i don't know if the books i am about to propose belong in the romantic literature genre..but i'll give it a try anyway:

-"The count of Monte Cristo" By Dumas. I am recently reading this book and it fascinates me. It's main character is surelly a "tragic hero" and is already one of my best heroes ever.

-"Wuthering heights" by Bronte. Heathcliff is both romantic and a "tragic hero".

-"Great Expectations" by Dickens. Pip-the main character- looks tragic enough to me.

-"Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte. Mr Rochester is another tragic hero.

Hope that helps:)

[JBI]

Mr. Rochester I wouldn't put as a tragic hero, but you are entitled to your own opinions.

Farmer Oak from Far from the Madding Crowd by Hardy is another good one.
As is the ultimate tragic hero, Orpheus. (look for any variation on this myth, he is the ultimate.)

Also if you really want a fine understanding, look to classic literature, and Shakespeare. Romeo could be put down as a tragic hero, as could Hamlet, not to mention Sophocles' Oedipus trilogy, Herakles, Euripides' The Bacchae, Chaucer's Roilus and Criseyde.

Start with those :p

[A Flickering]

Thanks, I appreciate it!

[bouquin]

Jay Gatsby

[manolia]

Orpheus. (look for any variation on this myth, he is the ultimate.)

not to mention Sophocles' Oedipus trilogy, Herakles, Euripides' The Bacchae,

Start with those :p

I wonder what Orpheas, Sophokles, Herakles and Oidipus have to do with romantic literature...then again i could be mistaken about this thread's topic.

[cvanackeren]

Ethan Frome in the book by the same name.

[JBI]

I wonder what Orpheas, Sophokles, Herakles and Oidipus have to do with romantic literature...then again i could be mistaken about this thread's topic.

The myth of Orpheus is an early example of the tragic romantic hero. His quest through Hades to bring back Eurydice is an early example of a romantic story written about a Tragic Hero. Herakles as well (not talking about his tasks, but the play) deals with Herakles and his tragic murder of his family. Sophocles's tragedies have in addition somewhat of a romance theme, I.E. Oedipus with his mother.

The tragic hero wasn't invented 300 years ago.

[manolia]

The myth of Orpheus is an early example of the tragic romantic hero. His quest through Hades to bring back Eurydice is an early example of a romantic story written about a Tragic Hero. Herakles as well (not talking about his tasks, but the play) deals with Herakles and his tragic murder of his family. Sophocles's tragedies have in addition somewhat of a romance theme, I.E. Oedipus with his mother..

You really don't have to tell me all these. These are Greek Tragedies. The thread's topic is the tragic hero in Romantic Literature. With the term Romantic Literature we mean something completely different. Please do not mix a tragedy with romantic literature. Surelly all the heroes you mentioned (Herakles, Orfeas) are very tragic heroes but they are heroes in tragedies and not victorian novels.



The tragic hero wasn't invented 300 years ago.
Of course. Who said that he was???

[bazarov]

I wonder what Orpheas, Sophokles, Herakles and Oidipus have to do with romantic literature...then again i could be mistaken about this thread's topic.
I agree. Romantic Literature is literature from end of 17th century and 18th century; realism is next after. Probably that's not a topic...

[A Flickering]

In fairness to JBI, I think you're being a bit nitpicky. He recommended some tragic heroes from the Romantic period as well as explicitly pointing out some earlier (and no doubt influential) examples - he didn't present early Greek tragic heroes as if they were from the Romantic period. I appreciate his input. And everybody else's. :)

[*Classic*Charm*]

John Proctor!!!! from Miller's The Crucible

There's a whole list from Shakespeare as well...

[byquist]

Rostand's "Cyrano de Bergerac" about as tragic as it gets.

[B-Mental]

The closest I can think of is Dantes in 'The Count of Monte Cristo'. Such waste revenge.

[Katie-Lou]

I would have thought Hamlet to be an obvious contendor for a tragic hero.

[McGrain]

I would have thought Hamlet to be an obvious contendor for a tragic hero.

Truly. Or King Lear. Or Romeo. But Romeo's always whining, it's quite hard to take.

[Katie-Lou]

I am studying Hamlet at the moment and i find him so fasinating to the point where i read his monologues twice.

[Lioness_Heart]

In many ways, Victor Frankenstein in 'Frankenstein'. He is an ambiguous character, with a mixture of the heroic and antiheroic. Would be interesting to analyse...

[Lioness_Heart]

Ooooooh, Hamlet too. But still not entirely within the 'tragic hero' stereotype - Shakespeare is too subtle for that. But for the Romantic period, still Frankenstein. The creature too shows some of the traits of the hero (note his empathy with Lucifer when reading Paradise Lost.) Actually, Lucifer in Paradise Lost would be a really good one to investigate

[Katie-Lou]

As well as Hamlet i am studying Frankenstein. There are some romantic qualities in him but these are only brought forward by the help of Henry. The creation is more of a romantic hero because he apprciates nature right away. Yes he does all those awful things but the prelimiary chapters of his narration have a lot of eveidence of the romantic peirod.

[Lioness_Heart]

Although there is a lot of Romantic imagery used for Victor too, like his perpetual trips to the mountains to rejuvenate himself.

[*Classic*Charm*]

Truly. Or King Lear. Or Romeo. But Romeo's always whining, it's quite hard to take.

Aww give him a break! He was young and hormonal!!

[Janine]

Hamlet, Romeo, Juliet, Lear, Ophelia, Desdemonia - from Othello. Mayor of Casterbridge - Michael Henchard, Jude, Giles in Woodlanders, many, many of other Thomas Hardy charcters, Gerald in "Women in Love". Many opera figures such as Madame Butterfly, Tosca and her lover Mario, too many to name.

[Quark]

You're question has completely stumped me. I don't think there are many Romantic-period tragic heroes, because there wasn't much classical drama or anything resembling it at the time. This was the period of lyric poetry, pastorals, and political revolution. Perhaps there were fewer examples of tragic heroes because people believed that the individual had power and significance. Tragic heroes often overestimate their own abilities and importance while overlooking their fatal flaw. In the Romantic period, no one thought you could overestimate your own importance and power. That doesn't mean the Romantic period was a time of unlimited optimism. Many stories do end unhappily, but I wouldn't consider them to have tragic heroes.

If I can just name any tragic hero, then I would say Ahab from Moby Dick. He is the superlative exemplar of the tragic hero. Ahab has the nobility, impossible task, tragic flaw, and downfall of the tragic hero. As Ishmael says Ahab is, "a mighty pageant creature, formed for noble tragedies".

[cuppajoe_9]

Byron's Prometheus, Shelley's Manfred (or possibly the other way around) and Coleridge's Ancient Mariner and Kubla Kahn (or whoever it is that drowns in that poem).

I hate to be picky, but Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, The Oedipus Trilogy, The Bacche, Roilus and Criseyde, The Great Gatsby, Ethan Frome, The Crucible, King Lear, Othello and Women in Love were all written pretty far outside the Romantic period.

[Quark]

Byron's Prometheus, Shelley's Manfred (or possibly the other way around) and Coleridge's Ancient Mariner and Kubla Kahn (or whoever it is that drowns in that poem).

You might be able to make an argument for Byron's Manfred, but Shelley's Prometheus is hard to view as a tragic hero. The tragic hero undergoes a transformation in which the character realizes their own flaws and repents. For example, in Euripides The Bachae, Pentheus rejects the passions and desires that Dionysus represent and only listens to reason and logic. Through the actions of the play, however, he learns to accept Dionysus as a god. Unlike Pentheus, though, Shelley's Prometheus only becomes further entrenched in his resistance to Jupiter. The biggest reason why Shelley Prometheus isn't a tragic hero is that Prometheus Unbound isn't a tragedy. It ends with the liberation of both Prometheus and the Earth from Jupiter's tyranny. As for the two shorter Coleridge poems, I don't think they have tragic heroes because I don't think they even have heroes. The Ancient Mariner, for example, hardly acts at all in the story. He shoots the albatross--but only randomly. He isn't trying to attack nature.

[GothMan]

I agree. Romantic Literature is literature from end of 17th century and 18th century; realism is next after. Probably that's not a topic...

You mean the end of 18th century and the early 19th century, don't you? ;)

By the way some German romantic "tragic heroes": Friedrich von Schlegel's Julius (Lucinde), Kleist's Michael Kohlhaas, Fouqué's Knight Huldebrand (Undine), Hoffmann's Medardus (The Devil's Elixirs)

[Aiculík]

Goethe's Werther from The Sorrows of young Werther.

The book was great success, made Goethe celebrity immediately. It started the "Werther Fever": young men throughout Europe began to dress in the clothing described for Werther in the novel. But not only that; more than 2000 readers committed copycat suicide. (So much about effects of good books. :D )

[Mrs. Dalloway]

Is The Ancient Mariner (by Coleridge) considered as a tragic hero? I think it could be. And also Manfred (Byron).

[Adras]

Some of these will not fall within the stipulations of the time period but Rome, Juliet, Edmon Dantes a.k.a. The Count of Monte Cristo, (possiby) Raskolnikov from Crime and Punishment, (possibly) The Three Musketeers from Man in the Iron Mask also by Alexandre Dumas.