Teaching the Byronic Hero in High School English

As high school English teachers we often find ourselves challenged to engage our students in reading and discovery. One of the best ways I have found for this is teaching the original bad boy: the Byronic Hero.

Students love exploring this character because they are familiar with this brooding character from more contemporary stories. However discussions of the Byronic hero also opens up activities based on ethical criticism, psychological criticism and more.

What is the Byronic Hero?

The definition of a Bryonic Hero is a brooding, isolated figure who is both charismatic and rebellious.

This archetype was first brought to light by the poet Lord Byron, who was himself a brooding and isolated man. The main character in the semi-autobiographical, long narrative poem “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” is considered the first Byronic Hero.

This melancholic, morally ambiguous character was then imitated by other authors including Lord Byron’s friend Mary Shelley in Frankenstein.

Teaching the Byronic Hero in high school English--five activities

5 Activities for teaching the Byronic Hero in High School English

Activity 1: Use Anchor Charts for the Byronic Hero

Using notebook-sized anchor charts are a great way to introduce students to the characteristics of the Byronic Hero. Share the anchor charts with the characteristics of the hero already filled in or use them as guided notes. I like to put these traits in categories like social, emotional, romantic, intellectual and psychological.

Have students brainstorm characters they already know who share these character traits. Examples students may know are Snape from Harry Potter, Edward Cullen from Twilight, Batman, Walter White from Breaking Bad, etc.

Then have the student use these as a graphic organizer to note the character traits of the Byronic Hero in the text you are using in class.

Activity 2: Compare and Contrast the Byronic Hero and the Traditional Hero

I often structure my year around the big question: What is a hero? This gives us the opportunity to discuss different types of heroes like the traditional hero, the tragic hero and more.

Byronic heroes often stand in stark contrast to more traditional heroic figures. So try having students compare these different types of heroes. Use a two-way or three-way venn diagram to compare specific characters like Beowulf, Victor Frankenstein and Hamlet or just the characteristics of a traditional hero, a Bryonic hero and a tragic hero.

5 activities for teaching the Byronic Hero in high school English

Activity 3: The Byronic Hero’s Inner Conflict – Close Reading

One of the most compelling aspect of this archetype is their internal conflict, often revealed through introspective monologues or soliloquies.

Select passages that reveal the brooding nature of this archetype. Have students use color coding to note figurative language, diction and syntax that help to emphasize the character traits of Byronic heroes.

You can choose one passage for the entire class to focus on or use a jigsaw activity having small groups focus on different passages.

To add to the complexity of this task you could have students use psychological or ethical criticism lenses to examine them as well.

Activity 4: Byronic Hero Hexagonal Thinking

Hexagonal Thinking is an activity that asks students to place six-sided pieces next to each other creating a hive-like effect. This is a super activity for critical thinking because students not only need to place the pieces, but they also need to explain why they placed them where they did.

This is a great activity for book clubs. Give students sheets of hexagons with space for them to add specific characteristics of the hero in their text along with hexagons that include the traits of a Byronic Hero.

Activity 5: Byronic Hero in Poetry

Use poetry to introduce the Bryonic Hero. Give students excerpts from Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage or other Lord Byron poems like “When We Two Parted.”

Then have them annotate for the traits of the archetype in the speaker. Then discuss what makes the speaker a Byronic hero. Ask them to pinpoint diction, figurative language and tone that identifies the speaker as this type of hero.

This is a great activity to use before delving into a longer text.

The Byronic Hero in High School English Classes--5 engaging activities

Developing a Byronic Hero Unit

I love to do a Byronic Hero Unit in the winter. It just seems to fit the mood of the characters. I will often begin by introducing the archetype through anchor charts. We will then follow that with poetry. Finally we move into novel study either by working on a full text together or in book clubs.

Using activities that ask students to identify, compare and analyze complex archetypes like the Byronic Hero are moving them toward deeper understanding of complex characters in literature. Looking for materials to build your unit? Try the Pencils and Prologues Content Library.