In the shadow of their language : Byron, Shelley, and the romantic hero in Victorian fiction

In the aftermath of great social and political upheaval, people look for and believe in heroes. During the Victorian era, from 1830 to the end of the century, the British public experienced the aftereffects of the French and American Revolutions. The writers of the period looked to the Romantic Age for rebels and men of vision and presented these men to their readers as heroes. Indeed, five of the major novelists, George Eliot, Charlotte and Emily Bronte, Benjamin Disraeli, and Charles Dickens, created portraits of the Romantic poet-hero in their fictional protagonists. Within ten years of their deaths, George Gordon, Lord Byron, and Percy Shelley became figures of renown not only for their poetry and drama, but for their contrasting personalities and diverse philosophical positions.

Though Byron achieved phenomenal fame during his lifetime, the Victorians interpreted the man and the poet in counterpoint to Shelley. In fact, the friendship between the two men provided a catalyst for Victorian reevaluation of the younger, less popular poet. Chapter I of the thesis looks closely at the friendship between Byron and Shelley and the ways in which, through their lifelong dialectic and dialogue, both artists came to be seen by the later writers. Chapter II examines the fictional Victorian heroes and protagonists modeled on Byron and Shelley, and how these char acters reveal the dimensions of the two distinctive versions of the Romantic Hero.