Franken-freak

After reading Grendel I am pretty stoked to have a book where I DON'T know what is going to happen and their is actually stuff going on, not just stuff that physically made my brain hurt :( but anywho. So for my research for this week I looked up the Byronic hero. The byronic hero is a fictional and cultural character type popular in the Romantic era and beyond. This character may appear in fiction, poetry, or history. So, I looked up some Byronic heroes: You have Grendel from Beowulf, Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean, Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, Edward from Twilight (I would like to point out the irony of Heathcliff and Edward being Byronic characters; one redeeming quality of Stephanie Meyer), Anakin from Star Wars, the list goes on and on. By studying these examples of Byronic heroes I though I could decipher which character in Frankenstein was a Byronic hero, the monster or Victor, but I really couldn't. Both characters are dark/cynical/brilliant in their own ways, they have wandering or searching behavior, the are haunted by some sin or crime, and they appeal to society by standing apart from society. Some of the qualities are more fufilled by the monster and others are more fulfilled by Voctor. Obviously with a tie to Grendel, we see that instead of Beowulf Grendel is the Byronic hero but Victor is more tightly connected to a monster than Beowulf ever was so it is a mystery! I am hoping that over time it will become more clear to me but this is AP literature so I doubt I will ever get a clear answer :p I am thinking they are BOTH byronic heroes... But anyway, I love this whole byronic hero stuff. It's fascinating. I decided to think about some of my friends and figure out which ones were Byronic heroes and it was kind of funny because I actually did find some that fit the card. The other funny thing that I discovered is that I listen to a lot of music that is related to Byronic heroes such as the Doors, Nirvana, Alice in Chains, and the Cure. I never knew so many people and characters that surround my life were related to this. I kind of want to be a Byronic hero. Doesn't everyone? to be the cool, sexy, cynical one that no one can figure out? I think it might be tougher than I'm expecting... Another thing that I have noticed is that the Romantic era has never ended. The interest in Romantic "poetry" is a continuing motif in popular culture. Romanticism values imagination and emotion over rationality. And is that not what love really is? All of these Byronic heroes who write music write music that echoes Romantic themes and seem to be reincarnations of Romantic poets. Their music discusses the forever broken heartedness that consumes them but they will never be rational and just quit. *Sigh* I want my own Kurt Cobain.. okay maybe not.. but still the same general idea :)