The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination

A Bildungsroman is a work of literature that concerns the education of a young protagonist over a period of time. It is sometimes described as a coming-of-age story. As the protagonist matures, his or her moral, psychological, and emotional growth is documented, as are various trials and tribulations that encourage such formative experiences. Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre tracks the development of the title character, making the novel an example of a Bildungsroman.

The Byronic hero is a kind of anti-hero whose dark temper and rebellious attitudes are intriguing despite their unpleasantness. The Byronic hero’s psychological complexity is part of his, or her, appeal, and the realistic nature of this hero’s temperament sets him or her apart from other kinds of literary heroes. George Gordon Byron, the Romantic poet better known as Lord Byron, is responsible for the existence of the term; both the protagonist Childe Harold, of Byron’s epic poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, and Lord Byron himself are widely accepted by scholars as the original Byronic heroes. Edward Rochester of Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Heathcliff of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights are popular examples of Byronic heroes.