I know it's a poetry site but anyway: Heathcliff is often described as a Byronic Hero, and Wuthering Heights as a very Romantic novel. Are these labels justifiable? Please argue your answer to this question with detailed reference to the text of the novel.

egreta wrote:

> I know it's a poetry site but anyway: Heathcliff is often
> described as a Byronic Hero, and Wuthering Heights as a very
> Romantic novel. Are these labels justifiable? Please argue your
> answer to this question with detailed reference to the text of
> the novel.

I'm going to assume that you really don't want us to do your assignment for you.

The definition of 'Byronic' is as follows:
Byronic
(a.) Pertaining to, or in the style of, Lord Byron.

It might help you to know that Byron was, in his day, a sex symbol- tall, dark, handsome, athletic, sexy, and so forth. Does this sound like Heathcliff?

As for the Romantic literature, try this link-[virtual.park.uga.edu]. "The restrained balance valued in 18th-century culture was abandoned in favour of emotional intensity, often taken to extremes of raptures, nostalgia (for childhood or the past), horror, melancholy, or sentimentality. ... almost all showed a new interest in the irrational realms of dream and delirium or of folk superstition and legend."

I think that yes, these labels are justifiable- but you'll have to do the proving.

pam