Heroism in Romanticism
Don Juan, Prometheus, Frankenstein's monster: these are all heroes who were made famous by the Romantics. The Romantics were great at creating larger-than-life, unforgettable heroes. And that's because these poets (and novelists) were all about telling the stories of people who rebelled, who fought for their ideals, or who were just plain amazing lovers (ahem). They loved to write about characters who stood out from the crowd.
They were so good at it in fact, that their particular brand of hero gets called the "Romantic hero" or "Byronic hero" (after Lord Byron). Not too shabby.
Chew on This
Want to see the theme of heroism in action? Check out Robert Walton's words in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. He's a North Pole explorer who's going to make it up to the North Pole no matter what, we say!
It isn't so easy becoming a hero, is it? Nope. The Ancient Mariner in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" undergoes some serious transformations before becoming a pious hero.