A Byronic hero is a literary archetype of a male figure characterized by his brooding, rebellious, and charismatic nature. He is typically haunted by guilt involving a secret from his past and is prone to melancholy. The figure was created in the 19th century by British Romantic poet Lord Byron in his autobiographical poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage (1812–18), in which the Byronic hero is the world-weary Childe Harold. Other classical Byronic heroes in literature include Heathcliff in Emily Brontë’s novel Wuthering Heights and Mr. Rochester in Charlotte Brontë’s novel Jane Eyre (both 1847).
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