as the Byronic hero
Heathcliff in an adaptation of
Emily Brontë's
Wuthering Heights Byron's influence is manifest in many authors and artists of the
Romantic movement and writers of
Gothic fiction during the 19th century. Lord Byron was the model for the title character of
Glenarvon (1816) by Byron's erstwhile lover
Lady Caroline Lamb; and for
Lord Ruthven in
The Vampyre (1819) by Byron's personal physician,
John William Polidori.
Edmond Dantes from
Alexandre Dumas'
The Count of Monte Cristo (1844),
Heathcliff from
Emily Brontë's
Wuthering Heights (1847), and Rochester from
Charlotte Brontë's
Jane Eyre (1847) are other later 19th-century examples of Byronic heroes. In later Victorian literature, the Byronic character only seemed to survive as a solitary figure, resigned to suffering. However,
Charles Dickens' representation of the character is more complex than that. Steerforth in
David Copperfield manifests the concept of the "fallen angel" aspect of the Byronic hero; his violent temper and seduction of Emily should turn the reader, and indeed David, against him. But it does not. He still retains a fascination, as David admits in the aftermath of discovering what Steerforth has done to Emily. He may have done wrong, but David cannot bring himself to hate him. Steerforth's occasional outbreaks of remorse reveal a tortured character, echoing a Byronic remorse. Harvey concludes that Steerforth is a remarkable blend of both villain and hero, and exploration of both sides of the Byronic character. Scholars have also drawn parallels between the Byronic hero and the so-called
superfluous man, solipsist heroes of Russian literature. In particular,
Alexander Pushkin's famous character
Eugene Onegin echoes many of the attributes seen in ''Childe Harold's Pilgrimage'', such as solitary brooding and disrespect for traditional privilege. The first stages of Pushkin's poetic novel
Eugene Onegin appeared twelve years after Byron's ''Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
, and Byron was of obvious influence (Vladimir Nabokov argued in his Commentary to Eugene Onegin that Pushkin had read Byron during his years in exile just prior to composing Eugene Onegin
). The same character themes continued to influence Russian literature, particularly after Mikhail Lermontov invigorated the Byronic hero through the character Pechorin in his 1839 novel A Hero of Our Time''. The Byronic hero is also featured in many contemporary novels, and has played a role in modern literature as the precursor to a popular form of
antihero. Erik, the Phantom from
Gaston Leroux's
Phantom of the Opera (1909–1910) is a well-known example from the first half of the twentieth century, while
Ian Fleming's
James Bond (if not his cinematic incarnations) shows all the earmarks in the second half: "Lonely, melancholy, of fine natural physique, which has become in some way ravaged ... dark and brooding in expression, of a cold and cynical veneer, above all
enigmatic, in possession of a sinister secret."
Modernity Different iterations of the Byronic Hero are also recognisable in pop culture. Many researchers have already connected the figure of the Byronic Hero to mainstream Hollywood characters:
Christopher Nolan's interpretation of
Bruce Wayne as
superhero vigilante
Batman has been described as embodying “the dark side of human possibilities”, where his “moral code does not align with the law.”
Christian Bale's portrayal of the character in the
Dark Knight trilogy was described by Nolan as "exactly the balance of darkness and light that we were looking for." Author George R.R. Martin has explicitly described
Jon Snow from
A Song of Ice and Fire and its adaptation
Game of Thrones as "the brooding, Byronic, romantic hero whom all the girls love." The
Star Wars franchise has also repeatedly dealt with themes of temptation and corruption relating to the central conflict between a "Light Side" and a "Dark Side", as embodied by the character of
Anakin Skywalker. The undisputed villain of the original
Star Wars trilogy achieves some sense of redemption when audiences get insight of the manipulation and mind control he became the victim of, which inevitably led him to become the infamous Darth Vader. This ambiguity and his close relationship with darkness (literal and figuratively) places him right in the centre of the Byronic Hero archetype. ==Byronic heroine==