Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: A Byronic Hero

Though Sweeney Todd is a fictional character, he is the prime example of the Byronic hero, and for many, many reasons.

Todd, from the beginning of the movie, is a noticeably traumatized by his wrongful imprisonment, loss of his wife to suicide (or so he thinks), and inaccessible daughter; all three tragedies that emotionally torture him have one common thread- Judge Turpin- who falsely accuses him to get to his wife, whom he rapes, and then takes his daughter as his own and eventually wants to wed her. This is too much for Todd to handle and he is bound of self-satisfying revenge, taking justice into his own hands and plotting to kill the judge. But he has one extremely violent outburst and murders someone who blackmails him, a man that would have ruined his revenge scheme. With an epiphany, he realizes he'll probably never see his daughter again, therefore having nothing to lose, and that since all men deserve to die, his own core belief, he would be doing the world a favor. And with plenty of manipulation, he is successful in killing the men who come into his shop for a shave and sends them down to the ovens to become meat pies for the restaurant below, showing his reckless, cunning, and ruthless side. By the end, he is depressed to find out that his wife had been alive all along, living as a crazy (due to attempted suicide by arsenic poisoning), homeless woman on the streets of London. Not only that, but it was by his own self-destructive hands that ended her life, due to a wrong-place-wrong-time situation.

One trait that Todd doesn't share with a Byronic hero is self-awareness. He doesn't realize that by choosing his version of justice over legality he is embodying Judge Turpin, the very man he hates. Turpin did whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted and took his power for granted in evil, immoral ways. Todd is taking his power, as a barber to unsuspecting, trusting victims, for granted as well and is seemingly ignorant of this connection between he and the one man he wishes to kill the most. There is a slight possibility that if Todd has recognized this connection to Turpin, he would've stopped his murder spree. Though, from what I can only imagine, Todd would most likely dive into a deeper depression and take his own life.

So, as you can see by his story, (and by the bold words,) Sweeney Todd had a majority of the characteristics of the Byronic hero.