Byronic Daydreams

So, I've had a few conversations with people (mainly women) recently with regards to a certain topic I feel very strongly about. This issue goes waaaaay back with me, to the age of about twelve or thirteen, and perhaps other people's differences of opinions on this matter can be traced to their more recent familiarization with it. I just want to get the word about about something that seems to me to be absurdly obvious in every particular.

I am talking, of course, about Edward Fairfax Rochester, of Bronte's JANE EYRE, and his obvious dominance as the most perfect male character in all of literature.

Forgive me if I get girly for this post. It must be done.

Many women will go the easy route and vote for Darcy, of Austen's PRIDE & PREJUDICE. A fine choice, I suppose, but seeing as how everyone has jumped on that bandwagon, it makes me all the more inclined to say, "Rochester for me, please." Naturally, there are scads of delightfully attractive fictional characters (Gatsby? Newland Archer? Dean Moriarty?), but I'm talking primarily about 19th Century British Lit, because that seems to be the most hotly contested area. Plus, I picked Rochester years ago, so it makes sense to compare him to his contemporaries.

I've loved JANE EYRE ever since I was recommended it in middle school by my seventh grade English teacher, and it has become more alive and different for me with every reading. Perhaps Lizzie Bennett is easier to identify with, but I love how incredibly quiet and smart our little Jane is. Lizzie is outspoken - for those of us who are actually quite shy, it's refreshing to find someone in literature who thinks more than she speaks.

Now, as to Rochester - COME ON!!! Who couldn't find that man attractive? Allow me to post here a snippet from Ye Olde Wikipedia on THE BYRONIC HERO:
"The Byronic hero is an idealised but flawed character exemplified in the life and writings of Lord Byron, characterised by his ex-lover Lady Caroline Lamb as being "mad, bad, and dangerous to know".

Additionally:
The Byronic hero typically exhibits several of the following characteristics:
a strong sense of arrogance
high level of intelligence and perception
cunning and able to adapt
suffering from an unnamed crime
a troubled past
sophisticated and educated
self-critical and introspective
mysterious, magnetic and charismatic
struggling with integrity
power of seduction and sexual attraction
social and sexual dominance
emotional conflicts, bipolar tendencies, or moodiness[citation needed]
a distaste for social institutions and norms
being an exile, an outcast, or an outlaw
"dark" attributes not normally associated with a hero[citation needed]
disrespect of rank and privilege
has seen the world
jaded, world-weary
cynicism
self-destructive behaviour
a good heart in the end


This, as we know, describes Rochester completely. Allow me to digress for one moment to discuss Charlotte's sister Emily's creation, Heathcliff (of WUTHERING HEIGHTS), who is also considered a Byronic Hero. Umm...While I find him to be decidedly attractive and alluring in his own way, as he is meant to be, he ultimately does not have Rochester's generosity or heart, and while WH may be an overall better novel than JE (I can't believe I just typed those words. What sacrilege!), Rochester will always have my eternal devotion.

All I'm saying is, he's an ideal man. IDEAL! He's passionate, but not clingy, educated, but not snobby, has a past, but is trying to look forward, and manages to be both dashing and rugged simultaneously. I don't know what I would do with an actual Byronic Hero in real life - slap and then ignore him, probably - but on paper, he is what I want down to the letter. Darcy almost makes the grade, but Rochester is more take-charge, more knowing, and more powerful. Plus, let's face it, he makes a fabulous entrance in the novel. He has more than a note of mystery, of mysticism. How grand.

That's really all I want to say at the moment.