Romanticism

"Faced as we are with this destiny, there is only the choice of Achilles - better a short life, full of deeds and glory, than a long life without content."

[Spengler 1931]

The 'doomed' quality of the Romantic Hero is due to his inescapable realisation that his Will is not unlimited. As Colin Wilson put it, the question asked by the Romantic is 'why is man not a god?'

Appropriately, Russell, in his 'History of Western Philosophy' entitled four consecutive chapters thusly;

The Romantics,

Byron,

Schopenhauer,

Nietzsche.

Byron is the archetypal Romantic Hero. So much so, that Goethe put him in his Faust as Euphorion.

Byron's dramatic poem 'Manfred' is a concise manifesto of the Faustian hero;

I could not tame my nature down; for he

Must serve who fain would sway; and soothe, and sue,

And watch all the time, and pry into all place,

And be a living lie, who would become

A mighty thing amongst the mean, and such

The mass are, I disdain'd to mingle with a herd,

Though to be a leader - And of wolves.

The lion is alone, and so am I.

[Act III]

When Manfred is implored to hear 'heavenly patience', he scoffs;

Patience and Patience! Hence - that word was made

For brutes of burthern, not for birds of prey;

Preach it to mortals of a dust like thine;

I am not of thine order.

[Act II]