LITR 5535: American
Romanticism
Sample Student Research Project 2005
Mary Brooks
April 25, 2005
The Emergence of the Byronic Heroine
Byronic heroes have been a part of American Romanticism in literature since Byron first wrote about them “in the opening stanzas of Childe Harold’s Pilgramiage in 1812” (“The Byronic Hero” para 2). A Byronic hero is a character that is defined in literature as “isolated, darker, more complex in his history and inner conflict, and therefore more frightening and more compelling to the reader” (“The Byronic Hero” para 2). This definition has been applied mostly to men in literature, television, and cinema since the definition of Byronic heroes existed and the mediums in which they can be depicted have developed. It was not until very recently that this definition of the Byronic hero has begun the gender shift from characters that are exclusively men only to include women in literature, television, and cinema.
The shift in gender of the Byronic hero from hero to heroine was not something that happened over night, but was a process that began in fits and starts in American Romanticism with authors such as Margaret Fuller. Ms. Fuller’s real life story and writings reflect the beginnings of the gender change of a Byronic heroine. Margaret Fuller’s real life experiences certainly meet the definition of the standard Byronic heroine of a dark secret, her bastard child, and her self- imposed isolation from the society because of her past transgression. Her real life also ends as many Byronic Heroine’s lives end with a death that although tragic seems the only real possibility based on the societal customs of the time and the ridicule she would face had her being an unwed mother become public knowledge. Margaret’s behavior is not the only thing that places her firmly in Byronic heroine territory her writings also reflect an attitude that is contrary to society of the day. Fuller’s essay, The Great Lawsuit , reflects that opposition to societal norms and was described as “…one of the great neglected documents of American sexual liberation- not merely of feminism, for Fuller recognized that both men and women were imprisoned by social roles…” ( Fuller 761).
The idea that married couple should be equals and friends was contrary to all that the society of the day professed about marriage and the partnership required of a wife. Margaret Fuller describes, in The Great Lawsuit, what she calls the Spartan matron who possesses “ Self-sufficing strength and clear –sightedness were in her combined with a power of deep and calm affection. The page of her life is one of unsullied dignity” (Fuller 764). Equality for women was not something the society of Margaret’s time was ready to acknowledge. With the combination of real life and literature Margaret Fuller is truly unique among those that have held the honor of the Byronic heroine.
Atara Stein puts forth the idea that Byronic heroines are “ …seeking liberation from socially imposed constraints of gender…”(Stein para 9). While that may be the case in some of the heroines depicted as Byronic one cannot place the dynamic and complex characters whose Byronic characteristics abound in such narrow confines. The idea that the only reason a female character would fill the role of the Byronic heroine is to rage against the male world is certainly not viable to a majority of the examples of Byronic heroines today. The Byronic heroine’s of today’s world have become more complex and nuanced and can be found in great deal of the contemporary literature such as the science fiction and fantasy genres.
The development and growth of the Byronic heroine in science fiction can be seen in the futuristic cyberpunk novels of William Gibson. Science fiction lends itself easily to the characters whose decriptions fit the Byronic heroine as a character who is “…moody by nature…intellectual abilities which are superior to the average man [woman]” (Thoraslev para 5). William Gibson uses the Byronic heroine quite a lot in his romanticized and futuristic cyberpunk novels of the computer utopia. In his novel, Mona Lisa Overdrive the main character Mona Lisa is a Byronic heroine whose dark past influences all of her decisions and affects all those around her. Mona is described as “… a young girl with a murky past and an uncertain future…” (Gibson back cover). Gibson’s characters have no values or moral codes beyond what best will serve their agenda and such characters whether male of female certainly fit the Byronic heroine mold.
Mona spends the majority of the novel running from one set of unsavory characters to another in her quest to avoid being kidnapped. Mona’s intelligence and savvy are the only things that stand between her and a very unhappy ending. The darkness of her life is reflected in the darkness of the world around her hiding out from an unknown enemy in a dark world she describes as “… snug gloom…”(Gibson 215). As with many Byronic heroines she is left altered by her experience not only mentally but physically as well. The isolation from society Mona experiences is clearly described by another character Angie who describes her feelings of pity that “…Mona’s life has left no trace on the fabric of things…” (Gibson 285). The science fiction genre is hardly the only place one can find Byronic heroines as these complex and compelling characters have found their way into detective novels as well.
Sara Paretsky a writer of detective novels expertly develops her Byronic heroine V.I. Warshawski as a detective with a dark past who does her work outside the confines of today’s society and uses all means at her disposal to discover the truth. In true Byronic fashion V.I. Warshawski, is ready to make her opinions known whether or not they blend with the fabric of society she is not troubled to be the lone voice of reason or to be isolated because of what she believes. V.I. Warshawski is described as a woman who “…lives in the real world…committed, principled, and uncompromising…” (Smith para 3) such traits in a detective are necessary and such traits in a Byronic heroine are what separate her from the main stream of society.
Like all Byronic heroines her attitude toward life not only separates her from society because of “ her fierce determination to never compromise…” (Smith para 6) but it also takes a “…toll…on her emotional and social life…” leaving her often in a dark and lonely place (Smith para 6). V.I. Warshawski’s willingness to defend her opinions no matter what the consequences and to fight for what she believes in make her an excellent example of the Byronic heroine whose determination and beliefs have lead to her separation from society and that leads to loneliness. The author describes her character as “…a piece of damaged goods propelled in wrong directions as well as right…” (Smith para 8). Such a description is a marvelous way to describe today’s Byronic heroine who has not been altered that much from the Byronic hero of Byron’s poems. A character whose isolation and darkness separate them from society is still a character reader’s love to read about. Patensky’s success in writing this detective series proves that the Byronic heroine is still a draw for the readers of today. The idea that a character can voice opinions that one holds themselves but are afraid to voice will always bring readers to the Byronic heroes and heroines. Whether they are in a book, on television or in the movies the public’s fascination with these dark and complex characters will never go out of style.
The Byronic heroine has also turned up in television shows such as Dark Angel and Alias. These shows reflect the fact that dark and complex characters are not only compelling to readers but also compelling to viewers. The idea that dark characters must be males has been thankfully left by the way side. A strong and capable character need not necessarily be male and can in fact be more compelling and complex if made female. Such strong and focused females are a recent development in television where the sex appeal of the characters often out weights the story. It is a wonderful privilege to be able to view women as capable and complex dark Byronic heroines in worthy television shows.
In the television show Dark Angel the title character Max had a dark past involving DNA experimentation that made her life in the futuristically romanticized city of Seattle difficult. A heroine such as Max went against society’s rules and used her superhuman genetically enhanced abilities to become separated from society and support herself by becoming a burglar. She like all Byronic heroines and heroes lives apart from society mostly by choice and although on many occasions was involved in helping society she was for the most part separated due to her dark past and her superhuman abilities. Isolation led to the breaking of the rules of society and to a more complete isolation.
The Byronic heroine, like the heroes of the past, often solves her continued isolation from society by the only viable solution available to end the isolation or complete the task required and that is death. It is this darkness and complexity that leads viewers to romanticize the characters and the world in which they live. While the conclusion to Max’s Byronic tale is never known, do to the cancellation of the series, it is not above the realm of possibility that like many Byronic heroines and heroes of the past Max had to loose her life to accomplish the tasks set before her. Television is a wonderful medium for the exploration of the Byronic heroine and will certainly remain a fertile ground for Byronic character development in to the foreseeable future.
Another currently running television show that has a character who portrays the feminine side of the Byronic hero quite well is Alias. This is a show whose main character Sydney, at the beginning of the series, had a majority of the characteristics of the Byronic heroine but has become more superhuman than dark and Byronic as the series has continued. The mysteries of her past were revealed and the darkness of her character subsided leaving her characterization in the realm of being simply a hero who works within societies confines. This is often the effect seen in long running television shows that characters who began as Byronic heroes or heroines become more like superheroes who work within society and are a part of society. The bravery and working for the good of society begin to overshadow the Byronic aspects of their characters and they loose their dark past thus becoming just another slightly better human being than the rest of us. There is a character in Alias that thus far has kept her moniker as a Byronic heroine and that character is Sydney’s mother Irina.
Irina in the beginning of the show was simply a romanticized memory of a perfect mother who was killed in a car accident. This sounds familiar and of no consequence to the average viewer but the plot soon thickens and we learn that Irina was not what everyone thought she was she has a dark past involving associations with the CIA, KGB, and assassinations. These truths have led Irina to fake her own death and isolate herself from society. Her dark past of lies, deceit, and murder make her an intriguing and complex character and a true likeness to the Byronic heroes of literature. Irina’s isolation is self imposed and her dark past reflects itself in her actions and in her behavior as a woman to whom the truth is relative and who finds her isolation brings her limitless possibilities for her dark agenda.
Such a dark and Byronic heroine can have no other fitting end than death that comes to so many of the dark and brooding characters whose isolation from society also leads to isolation from societies moral codes and beliefs and death is an acceptable option for her. Irina walks the line, like so many dark female characters, between pure Byronic heroine and Femme Fatale all based on the situation she is up against and the actions required to remove herself from and become isolated again. This gray area in characterization of the female Byronic heroine harks back to the days of Film Noire when the only bad girl characterization was the Femme Fatale.
Cinema’s first real attempts in to creating a woman with a dark past resulted in the Femme Fatale who uses her sexuality to lure men into bad situations this version of the dark and brooding siren persisted for many years. The femme fatale was not a Byronic character although one might see her as the catalyst that eventually lead the men she seduced into becoming Byronic heroes. The femme fatale was simply a selfish and one dimensional character who was dark and outside the norms of society but whose overall agenda was simply that she wished to use those skills at her disposal to reach her selfish ends. In a time when the options for women in film were limited to boring female or femme fatal it is certainly a great boon to the industry and the public that the gender of the Byronic hero can be easily altered. Those characteristics that make the Byronic hero an interesting character were eventually applied successfully and often to women in the cinema.
Even though the alteration of the Byronic heroes gender is eventually successful it was not until the seventies that the Byronic heroine first showed her face in cinema in the form of Ellen Ripley in the movies Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien 4. Ellen Ripley’s development into a Byronic heroine was unique in that her dark past that led her to become a Byronic heroine was documented in the first film. Ellen Ripley’s transformation from a seemingly normal working woman to one with a dark and dangerous past who will not follow the orders of society can clearly be seen by the viewer. This dark transformation has been completed by the end of the movie Alien and by the time Aliens begins Ripley has become a true Byronic heroine. Ripley as she is called in all subsequent movies is a true Byronic heroine her dark past with the alien leads her to become isolated from society with her only agenda being the total annihilation of the alien beings but society has other plans. Ripley takes the horrible things that have happened to her and she uses them to give her the strength the fight another day but those experiences have separated her inexorably from the society at large.
The arc of Ripley’s story takes place in a romanticized future where people travel easily through space and land on other planets to mine for the needs of earth. As Ripley becomes less the worker and more the Byronic heroine we see that she is not only emotionally separate from society but physically as well. Ripley ends the first film the lone survivor of a mining vessel that she destroyed herself after the aliens took it over. She is isolated from society at large and from the small society that was created in the ship she was traveling on. Her only companion throughout the series will be her cat. Ripley from this point on becomes an oddity because of her dark past and her experiences she suffers daily with panic attacks and fear that she will never see the end to the darkness in her past.
It is quite ironic that the true alien in the movies is Ripley, who because of her encounter with these evil aliens becomes an alien in her own society. So isolated in her quest, in the end she must follow the path made by other Byronic heroines and complete her mission by dying. A role like Ripley's is remarkable in its ability to show not only the existence of the Byronic heroine with the dark past and the isolation but to show the developments that lead to the characters isolation. This complex character development adds another level to the Byronic heroines depiction that has been seen in the future depictions in both the Byronic hero and heroine such as the two part epic of Kill Bill.
The Byronic heroine can be seen in it full and gory glory in the two part Quentin Tarantino films Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Kill Bill Vol. 2. These follow to the letter the idea put forth by Byron so many years ago in the development of Tarantino’s character we only know as the Bride in Kill Bill Vol. 1. The Bride’s dark past as an assassin she tries to escape only to be shot and put into a coma for several years. The Bride wakes up and begins to exact her revenge. The revenge act itself although dark and bloody takes on the heroic characteristics of the common hero as each victim mounts up in the Brides attempt for revenge. Her dark past and complex history are explained in Kill Bill Vol. 2 and reveal a very dark past that includes the abuses often described in many of the definitions of the Byronic hero that easily apply to the Bride as the dark and brooding Byronic heroine.
Tarantino’s Kill Bill series certainly takes a leaf out of Cameron’s Aliens in that it shows the reasons and development of the Byronic heroine’s character. The story is crafted in such a way that through flashbacks the Brides dark past comes into view and her isolation from society is seen in its true light a choice she made and continues to make. The character’s search for revenge is bloody and through it all the audience is mesmerized by the ability the character has to accomplish her goal no matter what the odds are against her. This is a really important factor in the development of the Byronic heroine they must be accomplishing some task no matter how dark it is it must be a task the audience can get behind and understand or else they become simply the bad guy/gal of the film. It is obvious in the film that the bride is not a “good person” she was an assassin after all but the injustice that befalls her and leads to her quest to Kill Bill is certainly one that the audience can become enthralled with and cheer her accomplishments. Her strength and strategy are amazing and her ability to win in the end is often uncertain but the hope that she will prevail is always on the audience’s mind.
Kill Bill Vol. 2 continues the saga and we finally begin to get the dark background that relates the Bride to Bill. In truth, the Bride is not the only Byronic character in the movie it seems all the characters she kills off are isolated, dark and complex characters who are Byronic heroes and heroines in their own right. The Bride is a character who if she did not have this complex relationship with the other characters in the movies the result would simply be a reasonless blood bath. With the dark and complex past that slowly becomes apparent in the narrative of the movie her supernatural abilities and quest to kill Bill becomes a truly compelling saga to watch. All the time waiting for the moment when we finally get to meet Bill and find out if she actually gets to kill him and how she does so. The use of the Byronic heroine adds a layer to the drama that cannot be accomplished in any other way. It certainly could not be accomplished in the same compelling manner had they used the common feminine versions of bad women used in the past in many film noir as the femme fatale who gets others to do the job for her. This was a mission of revenge that only a dark and compelling Byronic heroine such as the Bride could complete. Revenge truly is a feat best done by those directly involved in the wrong and only a Byronic heroine could accomplish the task of the ultimate revenge that lies well outside the rules and morals of society.
These women in literature, television, and cinema are given the role as the heroine with a dark past and were not relegated to the usual role for women with dark pasts, that of the femme fatale who uses her sexuality to ruin men. In fact, the majority of the Byronic heroines in recent years have been depicted without the manipulative powers of sexuality. That is not to say that the Byronic heroines are without sexual appeal to men but that there primary source of power is not from being women but from the same places that Byronic heroes get there power from knowledge, strength, and strategy.
The Byronic heroine has much more nuance and invokes all the descriptions used in describing Byronic heroes to invoke the much more nuanced and complex role as the dark and brooding Byronic heroine without becoming manly. It can also be said that the line between Byronic heroine and superhero is quite thin in theses days of sequels, long running shows, and multiple novels. The Byronic heroine, however, has something the superhero will never have and that is some darkness that prevents them from associating with society and prevents them to some great extent from understanding and feeling empathy for others. The superhero will always be out to do good for society and although they may be isolated and might possible have a dark past never will you find a superhero that can fill the role as the Byronic heroine or hero. The isolation and darkness of the Byronic heroines often leads to death or at least to deep and complex suffering all are things that the majority of the literary superheroes do not experience.
The Byronic heroine or as it is often referred to as the outcast hero, is a character whose abilities are vast and whose associations are small. Such a character has no real gender and easily lends itself to the creation of both male and female versions of it. Many authors suggest that the Byronic Heroine must “ war against oppressive institutional authority while also actively seeking liberation from societal imposed constraints of gender” (Stein para 10). The idea that the only thing women can seek liberation from is gender and that their Byronic tendencies can have no broader agenda that the feminist agenda puts too great a restraint on the Byronic heroine. By placing the heroine in the feminist box one immediately lessens the importance and abilities held by the heroine herself. If the only thing she can be against is feminism why not simply call her a Feminist Superhero.
The Byronic heroine is not simply searching for women’s rights and so the heroine should not be pigeon holed into a status that lessens its stature against that of the Byronic hero. If given such a narrow span for the development of the Byronic heroine the ability of the heroines to rage against the injustices be they men or other things will be greatly lessened. Women if literature, film, and television should not be known simply for their gender. There must be a time when the fact that they are women at all is secondary to the Byronic characteristics that they show. The women who are Byronic heroines with dark and complex roles as heroes are characters whose gender is secondary to the role that they play. If anything the fact that they are women at all simply adds to the complexity and the compelling nature of the story they tell and their agendas are just as single minded and dark as their male counter parts such as Dirty Harry.
Each of these Byronic heroines possess the supernatural
ability to accomplish their tasks no matter what the odds are against there
completion. Their ability to win
even in the face of unbelievable odds allows the audience to gain enjoyment
through her abilities to do those things most of us only dream of.
The Byronic heroine’s motives are as varied as the Byronic heroes and
can be as shallow as revenge or as vast as societal change.
The need of some to ascribe deep meaning to the motives that Byronic
heroines possess is a need that can be met but need not be the single motivating
force ascribed to the character. The
idea that the Byronic heroine can accomplish her task just as brutally and as
intelligently as the Byronic hero is an idea that allows for Byronic characters
not to be held captive by their gender any more than they are held captive by
the society they exist in. That is
not to say that the sexuality of the Byronic heroine is not important simply
that it is secondary to the motives of the Byronic heroine.
The Byronic heroine is no different than the Byronic hero her dark past
separates her from society and her amazing abilities will enable her to
accomplish all that she sets out to do.
Works Sited
Abrams, J.J. “The Enemy Walks In.” Alias. ABC. KTRK, Houston. 29 Sept. 2002.
“The Byronic Hero.” The Byronic Hero. Norton. 2005. 15 Apr. 2005
<http://www.wnorton.com/nrl/english/neal72/Period1Romantic/
CourseSessions1/ByronicHero.html>.
Cameron, James, dir. Alien. Videocassette. Los Angeles, CA: FoxVideo Inc., 1992.
Cameron, James, dir. Aliens. Videocassette. Los Angeles, CA: FoxVideo Inc., 1992.
Cameron, James. “Pilot.” Dark Angel. FOX. KTXH, Houston. 03 Oct. 2000.
Fuller, Margret. “The
Great Lawsuit.” The Norton
Anthology of American Literature.
Gibson, William. Mona Lisa Overdrive. New York: Bantam Books, 1988.
Smith, Kevin. “V.I. Warshawski.” Thrilling Detective. 23 Apr. 2005
<http://www.thrillingdetective.com/warshawski.html>.
Stein, Atara. “The Byronic Hero in Film, Fiction, and Television.” The Byronic Hero in Film, Fiction, and Television. Southern Illinois Press. 2004. 15 Apr. 2005 <http://www.siu.edu/~siupress/titles/f04_titles/stein_byronic.htm>.
Tarantino, Quentin, dir. Kill Bill, Volume 1. DVD. Los Angeles, CA: Miramax, 2003
Tarantino, Quentin, dir. Kill Bill, Volume 2. DVD.
Los Angeles, CA: Miramax, 2004
Thorslev, Peter. “Characteristics of the Byronic Hero.” University of Michigan. 15 Apr. 2005 <http://www.umd.umich.edu/casl/hum/eng/classes/434/charweb/
CHARACTE.html>.