Hero Notes

Hero

 characters (fictional or historical) that, in the face of danger and adversity or from a position of weakness, display courage and the will for self sacrifice

 – that is, heroism – for some greater good , originally of courage or excellence but extended to more general moral excellence.

 Not flawless

 Hero’s journey is universal

 Have qualities that separate them from ordinary people

 Heroes in myth often had close but conflicted relationships with the gods . Thus Heracles's name means "the glory of Hera", even though he was tormented all his life by Hera, the Queen of the Gods.

 The classic hero often came made up of some two dozen common traditions that ignored the line between historical fact and mythology For example, the

circumstances of the hero's conception are unusual; an attempt is made by a powerful male at his birth to kill him; he is spirited away; reared by foster-parents in a far country. Routinely the hero meets a mysterious death, often at the top of a hill; his body is not buried; he leaves no successors.

 In modern movies, the hero is often simply an ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances, who, despite the odds being stacked against him or her, typically prevails in the end.

Epic hero

 An epic hero is an important figure from a history or legend, usually favored by or even partially descended from deities , but aligned more closely with mortal figures in popular portrayals.

 The hero participates in a cyclical journey or quest, faces adversaries that try to defeat him in his journey, gathers allies along his journey, and returns home significantly transformed by his journey.

 The epic hero illustrates traits, performs deeds, and exemplifies certain morals that are valued by the society from which the epic originates.

 Many epic heroes are recurring characters in the legends of their native culture. Epic heroes have no superpowers but they're smart, brave, & have fears but overcome them to protect their friends, families, and countries.

 An epic hero can also be a warrior of some sort who performs extraordinary tasks that most find difficult. This hero is loyal, smart, and brave.

Hero-as-self

 It has been suggested that the hero or more generally protagonist is first and foremost a symbolic representation of the person who is experiencing the story while reading, listening or watching; thus the relevance of the hero to the individual relies a great deal on how much similarity there is between the two.

 The idea of "identifying" with the hero takes on a very real meaning, in that the hero/protagonist becomes our only key to becoming part of the story rather than remaining merely an observer.

 If the hero is one with which the observer can't identify very well, the story can seem inaccessible, distant or even insincere.

 Conversely, insomuch as the reader or viewer relates to and is therefore capable of becoming the hero, they can feel pangs of remorse at the hero's defeats, and relish in his or her triumphs.

 The most compelling reason for the hero-as-self interpretation of stories and myths is the human inability to view the world from any perspective but a personal one.

 The almost universal notion of the hero or protagonist and its resulting hero identification allows us to experience stories in the only way we know how: as ourselves.

Tragic hero

A tragic hero is the main character in a tragedy who makes an error in his or her actions that leads to his or her downfall.

Some common traits characteristic of a tragic protagonist:

 The hero discovers his fate by his own actions, not by things happening to him.

 The hero sees and understands his doom, and that his fate was revealed by his own actions.

 The hero's downfall arouses pity and fear.

 The hero is physically or spiritually wounded by his experiences, often resulting in his death.

 A tragic hero is often of noble birth, or rises to noble standing

 The hero learns something from his/her mistake.

 The hero is faced with a serious decision.

 The suffering of the hero is meaningful.

 There may sometimes be supernatural involvement (in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, Caesar is warned of his death via Calpurnia's vision and Brutus is warned of his impending death by the ghost of Caesar).

 The Shakespearean tragic hero dies at some point in the story, for example

Macbeth. Shakespeare's characters illustrate that tragic heroes are neither fully good nor fully evil. Through the development of the plot a hero's mistakes, rather than his quintessential goodness or evil, lead to his tragic downfall.

 The hero of classical tragedies is almost universally male.

Famous tragic heroes

 Macbeth

 Othello

 King Lear

 Oedipus

 Hamlet

 Caesar

 Brutus

 Antigone

 Romeo Montague

 Juliet Capulet

 Heracles

Modern tragic heroes

 In the modernist era a new kind of tragic hero was synthesized as a reaction to the English Renaissance, the Age of Enlightenment, and Romanticism.

 The modern hero, rather than falling from a high position, begins the story appearing to be an ordinary, average person;

 The modern hero may die without an epiphany of his destiny and he may suffer without the ability to change events that are happening to him.

 The story may end without closure and even without the death of the hero. This new hero of modernism is the antihero and may not be considered by all to even be a tragic hero.

Byronic hero

The Byronic hero is an idealized but flawed character exemplified in the life and writings of Lord Byron, characterized by his ex-lover Lady Caroline Lamb as being "mad, bad and dangerous to know".

The Byronic hero first appears in Byron's semi-autobiographical epic narrative poem

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (1812-18).

Characteristics

The Byronic hero typically exhibits the following characteristics:

 high level of intelligence and perception

 cunning and able to adapt

 sophisticated and educated

 self-critical and introspective

 mysterious, magnetic and charismatic

 struggling with integrity

 power of seduction and sexual attraction

 social and sexual dominance

 emotional conflicts, bipolar tendencies , or moodiness

 a distaste for social institutions and norms

 being an exile , an outcast , or an outlaw

 "dark" attributes not normally associated with a hero

 disrespect of rank and privilege

 a troubled past

 cynicism

 arrogance

 self-destructive behavior

History

Rochester from Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (1847),

Erik, the 'Phantom' from Gaston Leroux's Phantom of the Opera,

Claude Frollo from Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame are other later nineteenth century examples of Byronic heroes.

The Byronic hero is also featured in many different contemporary novels, and it is clear that Lord Byron's work continues to influence modern literature as the precursor of a commonly encountered type of anti-hero.

Lestat de Lioncourt from Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles embodies the spirit of the Byronic hero.