Humanities of the Modern World: The Romantic Hero Chapter 28
Among 19th-century romantics, the hero was an expression of expansive subjectivity, national sentiment, and the creative imagination. Characterized by superhuman ambition and talent, the romantic hero, whether a historical figure or a fictional personality, experienced life with passionate intensity. Romantic writers — Byron in England, Pushkin in Russia, and Goethe in Germany — portrayed real-life figures (Napoleon Bonaparte) and literary heroes (Prometheus and Faust) as figures who symbolized the quest for knowledge and power.
Human liberty, a concept central to the heroic spirit, dominated abolitionist literature in America. The romantic heroine and romantic love and longing assumed a special importance in the arts of the nineteenth century.
