‘Of Spirits so Lost and Fallen’: The Violent Byronic Hero in Miserrimus and Wuthering Heights

Abstract Key thematic parallels between Frederic Mansel Reynolds’ controversial Miserrimus: A Tale (1833) and Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847) indicate an intertextual connection between these novels in their suggestive portrayal of the Byronic hero as demonic entity. Crafted by Reynolds to explore the realised violent potential of Lord Byron’s heroes, Miserrimus risks becoming inhuman and spiritually damned under the influence of unrestrained passion and revels in committing acts of cruelty. Similarly moulding Heathcliff in the Byronic tradition, Emily takes inspiration from Miserrimus’ demonic violence to add mystery to her character’s all-absorbing desire for revenge. Knowingly, each man faces the prospect of eternal damnation but cannot spiritually recover from the consequences of selfish fury. With Heathcliff’s death, Wuthering Heights eliminates the threat of the violent Byronic hero to restore a more hopeful future prospect, unlike Miserrimus, which concludes only with expressions of misery and regret.