The Byronic Hero
Discussion Questions:
695:
-
What are the defining characteristics of the Byronic Hero?
-
What is Romantic Satanism?
696:
-
What are some more modern examples of the Byronic Hero?
Byron, “from the Giaour” (1813)
696:
-
Explain the scorpion analogy.
Byron, “from The Corsair” (1814)
697:
-
Explain the implied metaphor of the snake.
Byron, “Prometheus” (1816)
698-99:
-
How does Prometheus in this poem compare to the main characters of the
previous Byron poems?
699:
-
Explain: “Like thee, Man is in part divine, / A troubled stream from
a pure source” (47-48).
Byron, “from Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto 3” (1816)
699-701:
-
How does Napoleon compare to the earlier Byronic heroes?
-
How is paradox employed in this excerpt?
700:
Coleridge, “from The Statesman's Manual” (1816)
701:
-
According to Coleridge, what exactly do “Satanic pride and rebellious
self-idolatry” involve?
-
Does Coleridge respect Milton's Satan? Explain.
702:
-
Explain: “All system so far is power; and a systematic
criminal, self-consistent and entire in wickedness, . . . has removed a
world of obstacles by the mere decision, that he will have no obstacles,
but those of force and brute matter” (702).
Mary Shelley, “from Frankenstein” (1816)
704-5:
-
How do Victor and his Creature compare with the earlier Byronic heroes?
-
What are Victor's motivations in creating the Creature?
-
What is a “resistless, and almost frantic impulse” (704-5)?
705:
-
Where does Victor create the Creature?
-
According to the Creature, how does he compare to Adam and Satan in
Paradise Lost?