He is dreadfully handsome. Endlessly brooding. And he hates everyone but you.
In an age of modernity and algorithmic romance, the man of everyone’s dreams has materialised from scripture to one’s ‘BookTok’ feed.
Coined from Lord Byron himself, the Byronic hero is an archetype defined through its juxtaposition; emotionally conflicted yet magnetic, compelling and charming; damning and deeply romantic. Between Mr Darcy flexing his hand in agonising desire, to Heathcliff brooding upon the windy moors, these characters embody the fantasy of a man shrouded in danger, wounded by the world around him, desperate to unravel himself for love.
Booktok, a side of Tiktok that does as it sounds—involves itself in the world of fiction—has revived this archetype with fervour. With characters like Edward Cullen—my personal beau—(Twilight), Cardan (The Cruel Prince), and Aaron Warner (Shatter Me), the concept of Byronic heroism is resurrected in the twenty-first century, characterise by emotional torture—a mix of rage and misery—reconfigured as ‘depth.’
This obsession must be analysed: why do we crave this emotional paradox? The poignant desire for a man who is stoic, and powerful, yet so sensitive and plagued by vulnerability. In literature, and thus on BookTok, they are framed as emotionally repressed, until their soul is cured through their love, care, trust and yearning for a woman.This fantasy is created through a need for emotionally exceptional connections—to be the one to hold power, breaking through the pain and agony.
With the recent casting of Jacob Elordi, who has coined himself as a ‘Gen-Z heartthrob,’ as Heathcliff in Emerald Fennel’s Wuthering Heights adaptation, Booktok was ignited. Elordi, with his angular jaw and sharp silence, epitomises the visage of the romantic hero. Through his past roles, such as Nate Jacobs in Euphoria, he displays the toxicity and danger of a Byronic man, which could now be shaped and moulded into the role he has been placed into—yet now, reflecting a female desire, involving deep, passionate love.
The racial miscast of Heathcliff, as argued by classic literature fanatics, is perhaps due to a director’s need to reflect the aesthetic demand for the cinematic portrayal of our hero type, and how this allure of beauty, power and pain remains centred to the white man.
The Romantic hero persists because he is a promise of something more profound than just love: intensity. He is a fantasy of passion, and romance, with such transformative power it can create redemption from ruin. Whether one is traversing through the pages of a Bronte novel, or engrossed in a Tiktok edit with a Lana Del Rey soundtrack, the same thought remains: “We don’t want our men perfect, just pining.”
“portrait from ‘Œuvres complètes de Lord Byron. Traduction de M. Amédée Pichot. Onzième édition, accompagnée de notes historiques et littéraires. [With plates, including a portrait.]’.” is marked with Public domain mark 1.0.