romantic hero
Love story lead
A romantic hero is a protagonist embodying ideals from the Romantic literary movement: passionate, individualistic, often brooding or rebellious, driven by emotion rather than reason.
Such figures reject social conventions and may be outsiders or outcasts—think Heathcliff or Byron's protagonists.
The type persists in modern fiction, from gothic novels to contemporary romance: He had all the markings of a romantic hero—mysterious past, smoldering intensity, tortured soul.
- RomanticismEmotion-centered artistic movement
- star-crossed loverOne whose romance fate forbids
- passionateIntensely emotional or enthusiastic
- emotional intensityStrength of feeling
- Lord ByronRomantic period English poet
Heathcliff · wild moors · alienation · brooding · dark past · 19th century · rebellious · tragic flaw · Cyrano de Bergerac · Faust · solitary · lone wolf · melancholic · flawed · freedom · noble savage · nature worship · tortured soul
- heroesheroes, heroine, heroines, superhero, superheroes
- Romantic FiguresRomeo, Juliet, Casanova, Don Juan, Cleopatra
- Stage RomanceRomeo and Juliet, balcony scene, love duet, leading lady, leading man
- French RomanticismVictor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, George Sand, Balzac, emotional expression
- realism and romanticismnaturalism, idealism, emotion, nature, reason
- romance tropeslove triangle, true love, forbidden love, tragic love, damsel in distress
romantic herovillain
Wicked story antagonist
antagonist · femme fatale · cad · love rival · seducer
romantic heroeveryman
Ordinary representative person
common man · schlub · nebbish · milquetoast · straight man