Byronic heroes in Harry Potter?

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

So, I've been poking around various websites and the like to gather characteristics of Byronic heroes, in the hopes of maybe writing a few into some of my own stories. One thing that several sites said which was kind of interesting was that Snape was a Byronic hero. I wasn't quite sure what to make of this; on the one hand, it does seem like he has many traits in common with the archetype, but on the other, it isn't clear to me if simply having the traits makes him a Byronic hero or if there'd need to be something more subtle involved.

So what are your thoughts on that? Could Snape qualify as a Byronic hero? Could anyone else in the series?

For futher reading, you can find the Wikipedia page on Byronic heroes here. My home dictionary, for the record, defines a Byronic hero as "a lonely, handsome, melancholy, flawed man, fatally attractive to women, as popularized by Lord Byron."

Comments

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I see Sirius Black as much more a Byronic hero than Severus Snape. I suppose some may think Snape a Byronic hero because of the Heathcliff parallels, but, honestly, he's not that much like Heathcliff, and it's arguable whether even Heathcliff is (1) Byronic, or (2) a hero.

Which doesn't mean I don't see Snape as a hero! I do, certainly. I just don't see him as Byronic. Really, in universe, he's not attractive to women!

[oryx_leucoryx]

I think the many Severus-shippers are evidence that at least fanon!Severus is often a Byronic type. And at least some of the fics started before DH were written by authors who hoped the canon character would turn out somewhat in that direction.

[sweettalkeress.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, one argument that could be made against the notion that Sirius is a Byronic hero could be that I don't know if Sirius has the hypersensitivity or brainpower that really characterizes a Byronic hero. I don't think there are too many "Byronic hero" types that get regular comparisons to dogs, for example.

[night-axe.livejournal.com]

Agreed. The only person I ever saw equating Snape with Heathcliff was a dedicated Snape hater. Heathcliff is a vicious, abusive man who beats his wife and kills pet animals for fun. His death is clearly a good thing. Despite one or two moments of sympathy I always read him as the villain.

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

I agree. I would argue that Catherine Earnshaw is a villain as well, since both she and Heathcliff are selfish, hateful, and abusive people who drag everyone else into their self-inflicted misery. I could see some parallels in that both Snape and Heathcliff are depicted as anti-social, strange-looking men who pine after the beautiful and shallow woman who rejects them for the wealthy and more socially acceptable man, and that both of them are trapped in the past. But yes, Snape may be an unpleasant man, but he is not a wife-beater or an animal abuser.

[night-axe.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, Catherine is awful. The best thing she does is (spoiler), which throws their undying love nicely into perspective.

Snape and Heathcliff undoubtedly have points in common. They're not too different as boys, before Heathcliff turns into a psycho. But adult Snape's goodness or badness is much harder to assess because the author tried to set him up as a bad guy for six books until she flipped it around in the seventh. Before the big reveal Snape is a kind of ogre to Harry, and that's the image that sticks with some readers. (terri_testing has a great essay about the dangers of the Harry filter on Snapedom to which I can't find the link right now.) If someone's hated Snape all through the series DH won't change their minds. It only proves he was on the right side, not that he was maybe a little less dickish than Harry's been painting him.

[night-axe.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, Catherine is awful. The best thing she does is (spoiler), which throws their undying love nicely into perspective.

Snape and Heathcliff undoubtedly have points in common. They're not too different as boys, before Heathcliff turns into a psycho. But adult Snape's goodness or badness is much harder to judge because the author tried to set him up as a bad guy for six books until she flipped it around in the seventh. Before the big reveal Snape is a kind of ogre to Harry, and that's the image that sticks with some readers. (Terri has a great essay about the dangers of the Harry filter on Snapedom.) If someone's hated Snape all through the series DH won't change their minds. It only proves he was on the right side, not that he was maybe a little less dickish than Harry's been painting him.

(Reposted b/c I got spamtrapped)

[aikaterini.livejournal.com]

I'd argue that the Byronic hero doesn't necessarily need to be conventionally handsome; after all, Edward Rochester from Jane Eyre is cited by many as a Byronic hero and yet it's made very clear in the text that he's not handsome. But I do agree with you that I don't see Snape as a Byronic hero. He's not viewed as attractive, handsome, or romantic by other characters in the text, nor is he portrayed as such. He also enforces rules and has a disapproving eye for those who rebel against those rules and he doesn't brood much in the books.