Frankenstein Byronic Hero

Through the years, the definition of a hero has changed drastically. For example, in the story Beowulf written by an unknown author, the hero, Beowulf, is considered to be an epic hero. In the story Frankenstein, written by Mary W. Shelley, the hero of the story is a byronic hero. Lastly, a hero we all know today is Superman, created by Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, and he is considered to be a modern hero. Through all of these works of literature, Frankenstein, Beowulf, and Superman, the authors ' express three different types of heroes, and all of these have created an impact on society during their time periods. In the epic poem Beowulf, the main character named Beowulf is portrayed as an epic hero. An epic hero is a person who has an

Frankenstein 's monster, from the story Frankenstein, is an example of a byronic hero. A byronic hero is usually a loner who might be rejected by society, have a troubled past, self-destructive, and usually misunderstood. Frankenstein 's monster is an excellent example of this, as he starts the story being brought to life through impossible ways (Shelley 42). Almost immediately, his creator despises him and eventually abandons him, giving him the rejected aspect of a byronic hero. As the monster progresses in the story, he eventually begins trying to befriend multiple people, just by knocking on their cabins only to be attacked by them and chased away (Shelley 78). This shows him being misunderstood as he only wanted to become friends with anybody he could, but he was just assaulted instead. The monster eventually begins to become self-destructive and says he will get revenge on all mankind and he will kill all of Frankenstein 's family, even after he caused the death of four others (122). Eventually, Frankenstein dies and the monster goes to see his dead body. The monster is immediately filled with regret and explains how he is truly sorry for everything that he has done and that he knows there is no way for him to fix all the mistakes he has made (180). He then says that he will end his own life in order to put himself out of his misery. This shows just how much self-hatred that he had for himself, and it also creates the reader to shift from hating the monster, to

The hero that we all know today, Superman, is an excellent example of a modern hero. The comic of Superman was created during the Great Depression as a form of happiness during the very sad time. He was created by two high school students who wanted a strongman to have superhuman strength and powers, but his main enemy would be more internal rather than external. Eventually, the two students sold all of the rights to superman to Harry Donefeld for $130. Eventually, Superman blew up and was known as the amazing modern hero with incredible strength and able to accomplish anything that he had set his mind to. This was good for the Great Depression as a source of motivation to get out of the funk of time period (Rizzotti). Superman is an excellent example of a modern hero due to his superpowers and his internal rather than external conflict. Today, Superman is just used as a form of entertainment, but for individuals he can still be a motivation to get through hard times similar to back when he was