A byronic hero is a term commonly used in literature to describe a character similar to Will Ladislaw in Middlemarch, or a variation of a romantic hero. Characters who are associated with the term byronic hero usually have internal conflicts with romance, go against the grain, may be damaged in some way from the past or exemplify traits of arrogance, intelligence and mysteriousness. The term was initially used by an English romantic poet by the name of Lord Byron in his poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” which was published between 1812-1818. Interestingly enough he drew lots of inspiration from himself when creating characters for his poems as they oftentimes matched his persona according to Wikipedia. It’s incredible that authors decades later are still using this term to create intriguing characters.
After reading how a byronic hero is portrayed, a couple characters may come to mind from our reading of Middlemarch. Initially I had thought of Dorothea because she had a damaged past being an orphan and she had faced internal conflicts with romance between Casabuan and Will Ladislaw. However, this was a pretty common plot back in the day and looking further into the traits of a byronic hero it became obvious that Ladislaw exemplified them all.
My reasoning behind choosing Will Ladislaw is because of the traits mentioned above, he has always gone against the grain. An example of this is him moving to Italy in order to pursue his studies, he also moved back to Middlemarch in pursuit of love, and ends up working at “The Pioneer” which gives him zero social rank (social rank was everything at this time). He obviously has internal conflicts with love when it comes to Casaubon and Dorothea and is arrogant and disrespectful in a sense when it comes to Edward Casabaun and keeping his distance; not interfering. Will is also a really bright kid, intelligent and mysterious as well which are all traits portrayed in a byronic hero.
