- THE BYRONIC HERO The Byronic Hero, the best example of which we can find in the portrait of Conrad, the protagonist of the Oriental Tale, "Lara" or in Manfred, is the imaginary character that can be found in almost every work written by Lord Byron (real name George Gordon), one of the most famous English romantic writers. There are two fundamental distinctive characteristics of this hero: noble origins and mysterious past. A man of few words who never smiles and does not hesitate to kill or to love and help whenever the circumstances require that. Courage and passion move him and, behind his hardened heart, a tender soul and charming manners emerge. The Byronic hero is, in some way, the portrait of Byron himself or rather of what Byron would have liked to appear and tried to seem before the people he knew. Neither was he troubled about concealing negative sides of that hero: the feeling of being a victim of Fate (Calvinistic influences in Byron's education), remorse for past committed crimes, the life as an eternal exile, the tendency to incestuous relationships. Yet this hero is definitely inspired by those of the Gothic novels' and for many aspects by Milton's Satan. On the other hand, the Byronic hero is partly inspired by the Shakespearean hero, even though the latter is punished for his misdeeds whereas the former is presented as the victim of the conjuring fate. Neither is this hero similar to Faust, because his pride and over-confidence make him feel no need for a pact with the devil. He is completely independent so that he can live without God and the devil. But his figure is especially taken from the figure of Cain as the man predestined to commit evil and be damned.