The Problem With the Byronic Hero - written by Khadijah
The Problem With the Byronic Hero Byronic hero: a type of fictional character who is a moody, brooding, rebel, often one haunted by a dark secret from his past. If you are a regular reader of YA novels you have definitely come across this hero prototype before: he is found in nearly every fantasy. At first, I enjoyed his presence in books; he always offered a depth of character that the other male characters were lacking in, but then I started to notice patterns, both in the books themselves and in the way people talked about them. The presence of a Byronic hero almost always resulted in at least one of the following: some type of verbal abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and on and on. Abuse, abuse, abuse!!! Literally, any type of abusive behavior that you can think of I found in these books and they were perpetrated by the hero of the story.!?!!? And he is who we are supposed to root for???? No
