-Mattthew Arnold

-Marilyn Gaull

The Byronic Hero

George Gordon Noel Byron (1788-1824)

Key words that determined Byron's writings: revolution, crisis, battle

The founding event or the founding presence of LB's writing was crisis or crises. Because this
something se we will find him sharing with all other Romantic poets as well including the first gen.,
W. And Coleridge. That crisis is something explicitly addressed and discussed with W. And Coleridge.

What, after Blake , we see in Romantic poets is that sense of disappointment with the outcomes of
the French Rev. We felt this with W.W and how he tried to escape this whole situation, to find a new
type of revolution awe saw that also implicitly very directly in Coleridge's Christabel. All that fear of
something that seems to be attractive, but may turn out to be very, very ugly. In Christabel we could
see Coleridge's fear of revolution turning out to be extremely dangerous.

We cannot do without the French Revolution – that is something still very much important within the
context of our study of Romantic poetry in general.

In our studies of romantic poetry in general we would also have to keep in mind the Napoleonic wars
that are very important in the context of Lord B.'s writing – Battle of Waterloo, the Greek War of
Independence and the Industrial Revolution. That decades in which it developed and grew and this is
something that informed Lord B.'s writing.

Byron was very disappointed. There is obviously that complete lack of idealization of French Rev. that
we see in W. Blake. Byron feels very disappointed of the way things turn out after the revolution took
place, including the whole idea of Napoleonic Wars, of Greek War of Independence where he
actually saw a new potential of their fighting for absolute freedom and he joined actively that war of
Greek Independence because of his belief in human freedom.

We find this belief in human liberty and human freedom, love and fascination with these two as the
foundation of the Byronic hero and the main motif in his poetry in general. That’s sth on which he
created a new hero that we call Byronic hero-that belief in human liberty, in human freedom is sth
that we could see as the foundation of the Byronic hero as a pattern, or as a motif in his poems in
general.

There are many Byronic heroes. None of them are the same, they are similar to each other, and what
they do share is that love of freedom, that fascination with freedom.

Another crisis that is sth that Byron decided to play with and reshape in his own way, create sth he
saw as different-the crisis of heroes, the way Byron decided to depart from the conventional
understanding of a hero as we know them in general.
The typical definition of a hero is a person noted or admired for courage, outstanding achievements,
etc. Typical examples of heroes are kings, saints, warriors, knights. People were disappointed with
e.g. kings in the 18th century already. In the 18th and 19th centuries the general atmosphere was that
there was no place for such idealized figures.

As the French Rev. wasn’t only about political system but about social system as well, all of the
ideals are challenged and replaced by the secular ideas of Enlightenment. So, people started
admiring for example general and more ordinary people, less important, less notable personalities
that do stand out but aren’t meant to be perceived as heroes.

There were no perfect heroes nor perfect heroism, there was this secular lack of idealism and people
never idealized themselves or the way they behaved (a prominent Duke of Wellington sad that he is
aware of the fact that in the end he is only a man). Even the brave ones were not to be idealized.
Byron was one of those people, too. He decided to shape this new type of imperfect hero and base it
upon himself and his own life. He wanted to project himself onto the poetic material that he created.
Byron is to be identified in all of his writings and the characters he created.

He was of Scottish origin. He wore costumes and his attitude was special (his pose-the pose that he
was taking was describing the society in general; all society is just one huge mask and costume). By
changing costumes he was changing identities and he thought that there is no eternal social and
moral norms. There is no eternal system of values, everything is just a pose. Something that is not
acceptable today might be completely acceptable in the future and vice versa.

His poetry is about who we are and what we believe in.

Byron stands out both positively and negatively as well for the rest of the romantic poets.

In order to get to know Byronic hero we have to know Lord Byron first. Each and every Byronic
character is closely connected to Lord Byron himself.

He participated in the Greek War of Independence and according to him those who actively
participated in the social change could be the real poets. One should challenge the social norms and
contribute to the change of them.

Hedonistic young lord and sexual predator that is present also in Childe Harold and Don Juan. He
travelled abroad and that is related to the idea of escape or sexual freedom.

He stirred a great deal of conservative anxiety by challenging all the established norms of proper
behaviour.

Duality: clash between the conventional and original: He is neither conventional nor fully original,
but he is both ate the same time. Clash between the society and the individual: He uses certain
conventions in e.g. Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage but also subverts them as well.

The Byronic hero is defined as a boldly defiant but bitterly self-tormenting outcast, proudly
contemptuous of social norms but suffering for some unnamed sin. He never really gets openly
presented to us, there is always something that’s hidden, there is always some sort of mystery
around him.
He plays with certain conventions, he uses them but also subverts the a great deal. He plays with
our expectations.

Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage- is a romance and we have that already said in the title. In romances we
have idealized characters: Childe Harold is young (has some kind of aristocratic background) but he
is far from being idealized character; he is Byronic in the way of being young lord but also very, very
hedonistic. The very portray of Childe Harold is something that we don’t expect form a typical
romance. Childe Harold is s

All archaic language he uses contributes in a way to another characteristic of romances and that is
the enchanted setting. He uses Albion’s Isle for England. But also England is not an enchanted
neverland that we usually have in romances so we can see this way how Byron uses some
conventions but also departs from them at times. He plays with conventions and our expectations by
giving us some but also taking away some.

He faithfully appears to follow the Spenserian stanza; stanzaic structure is a convention and doesn’t
invent anything in the terms of the form but creates new kind of hero.

He is capable of love and he loved one; she’s always mysterious one and their relationship is
forbidden. That is one of the characteristics of romances. They cannot be together but it turns out
that this is something that is good for the lady, she should not be with someone who is toxic in a way.

We highlighted the fact that Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage in its title has a ‘romance’ added to it – that’s
how Byron envisioned this entire piece, but when it comes to we should know that it’s not just a
typical romance it’s a Byronic romance displaying a mixture of conventions and originality.

When it comes to typical conventions of every romance, Byron offered us the usual ones, but gave
them his own spin by moving from the convention rules of that genre.

Conventions used in CHP:

 Every romance has the element of a journey/rites of passage/quest – Sir Gawain, Red Cross
Knight

Young nobleman needing to undergo the rites of passage

Spenserian stanza faithfully used throughout the poem, no wonder he was called a neo-classicist
among the romantics, who idolised ancient author as well as Pope and Milton stick to the
particular, already established rules

In other aspect he was very original:

the pilgrimage is not a spiritual/religious one (like in the pre-renaissance literature), but rather
profane/secular/sexual – sex tourism, another way for him to grow; CH is about freedom,
philosophy, wars in Europe at the time etc.

Byronic hero – far from idealised, usual type of a hero – he’s unexpected
Don Juan is neither fully convention nor fully original – mixes those two. It is supposed to be a
different kind of poem than CH (which is a romance). He called Don Juan an epic and it does have
certain features we’ve already encountered in other epics.

In epics, heroes are more idealised, less human because they’re all super in every possible aspect.

Definition: Epic is a long narrative poem celebrating the great deeds of one or more legendary heroes
in a grand ceremonious style. elements: hero, length, grand and ceremonious style

When it comes to Byron, everything has to have this Byronic modifier, so DJ is not an epicit’s
primarily a Byronic epic that represents the clash of conventions and originality (of elements of
those two).

Byronic here is tied to narrative, style, and to a hero, Don Juan.

Notice the pronunciation of his namedifferent from conventional pronunciation; Don Juan to
rhyme with e.g. one.

I STANZA: comes after a pretty on dedication to a poet he hated very much, Robert Suddy as much as
Wordsworth. Then he opened this tale of Don Juan and narrated in a way unique to him.

-notice the way the epic starts - ‘I want a hero’ – strange and unusual, not the way epics begin.
Beowulf didn’t start like this. He’s expressing his wishes instead of wishes of e.g. community. The
way he phrases it is important; it is all about a wish, all about him and his personal wants there are
many heroes out there, but they’re not the ones he wants, s, so he invents one that fits his needs.
The voice present here, I, is unusual in epics.

Imagine that happening in Beowulf. There is no I, no subjectivity there, no individual wishes in epics!

If you just observe the sentence on a syntactic level, SVO pattern, subject and object work together
like in Wordsworth’s poems. The emphasis is on me, the way I see things which is different from how
someone else sees them. That distinction is present and important here as well. It is my vision of
what the hero should be like and I will decide who he’ll be.

And you can see his originality here: different kind of hero – his own hero. It’s all about his personal
choice.

The problem with all of those heroes is that they go out of style, don’t last. These ‘heroes’ are not
heroes enough even though they appear in newspapers and we see them all the time. They’re just
celebrities and that’s not enough to be a hero.

He wants a hero who is heroic enough to be remembered! Those who are surrounding him are not
heroic enough. His problem is that the age he lives in doesn’t offer him such people.
Structure of stanza: Eight line stanza – OTTAVA RIMA (Italian) – strict, there needs to be this rhyme
pattern: AB AB AB CC – these are formal constraints he had to observe; not a Spenserian
stanza. He uses a different kind of stanza bcs it’s a different kind of a poem satirical

In the first six lines, he presents a serious problem and talks about it. Why did he choose Don Juan of
all the heroes out there?  the last two lines give us a sort of answer; he tells us where this idea of
Don Juan comes from and it deflates that seriousness he had built in the first part of the stanza.
Everything he had tried to build in the first part become insignificant in the last two lines.

Ottava rima combines serious and funny tones that constantly mix throughout the poem  he (DJ) is
present in pantomimes and because of his anti-heroic qualities, her gets sent to the devil before his
time.

Ottava rima is used in mock heroic epics/poems.

Pantomime: a theatrical entertainment for children based on a fairy tale [...] the playing of the hero
part done by a woman.

So, we have a hero played by a woman wearing a mask. Why is this so important? GENDER
CONFUSION (typical for Byron).

It’s something that even more contributes to the notion of what hero should be like and who he’s
supposed to be. Does a hero necessarily have to be a superman or can it be something less than a
man? That’s what Byron develops here.

The way we know Don Juan based on this definition is as a hero is from children’s plays who is played
by a woman. He goes on to mention many important historical figures, nonetheless he chooses this
guy from pantomime. Don Juan serves as the archetype of the modern-day lover, however, he
NEVER EXISTED!!! Don Juan is the archetype of a modern day lover.

He’s a legend, a fictional character, a “nobody” who was in love only with himself-The only difference
here is that Byronic heroes were capable of loving.

Byron takes this seemingly random character from pantomime, who is taken to devil before his time,
and everything in general seems to be random. He starts by saying he wants a hero and he chooses
this anti-heroic hero. But, why is Don Juan his hero of choice?

It is because like Byron himself and his characters, Don Juan asked these big questions about social
norms and social institutions. Like Byron (going back to documentary), Don Juan was a home
wrecker. He sleeps with married women, he would have loads of illegitimate children and everything
seems to be insignificant.

But the serious question Byron asks is what is marriage. Is that a sacred standard we should all obey?
Who says we should? Is marriage just another pose that changes from time to time (remember his
portraits and the poses he took)?

We know that Byron had a relationship with his half sister. And all that scandal was yet another
chance for him to ask, ‘who says I can’t?’
He wants to challenge and try to change social norms and rules and that’s why Don Juan is an
awesome example. Why shouldn’t we choose a hero who wrecks those social norms?

Every epic tale starts in medias res and that is a convention (every epic starts instantly; readers get
more information as the story goes on). Then we find out more about the characters, everything
starts with the main story because it is the more important element. Byron partly follows this
tradition.

VI STANZA- follows this epic tradition, literary theory: this how epics are written and how the story
revolves in epics; the main story slows down for us to learn more about character (like in Beowulf) –
this is called epic retardation.

This is the usual method, but not Byron’s. His story starts with the actual beginning: we get the
information about his family instantly- this is another departure from the tradition.

 “to begin with the beginning …” → originality

 ME; MY; MINE → this often pops up, just like W. Wordsworth he brings the world closer to
him “ I shall open with the line, it will cost me

This epic is truly Byronic, subjectivity is relevant in this epic, and he brings subjectivity into epic
genre. (My wish is to begin with the beginning)

In the following two stanzas: he returns to tradition; describes his lineage because every hero needs
background. He starts with the description of Don Juan’s father and mother. Description that is in a
way is a mockery of Don Juan’s mother and father.

Not typical heroic lineage. Byron hated women like Don Juan’s mother (so called blue stockings)
women who pretend to know a lot, but are pretty stupid.

“His father’s name was Jose, Don of course “...

„She knew the Latin—that is, 'the Lord's prayer,'

And Greek—the alphabet—I 'm nearly sure;

She read some great French romances.”

Entire description is in tongue-and-cheek attitude and if we erase those comments like Don of
course this would be a completely different poem. Without this ironic voice, it is a new poem.

When reading this story we need to focus on the story itself and on the way it is told, and it is not
typical for the epic tales. In epic tales we don’t have those voices making for example comments like
Beowulf is a great hero and I agree. It is something universally acknowledged (no personal
interference).

Everything is universal, no I agree- disagree like Byron does. He makes himself the hero of the poem
along with Don Juan, he is as important as Don Juan (comments he puts, and the way he express his
feelings: sarcasm). Sarcasm is important element.
(Legend of Don Juan is still relative live today.MOVIE ADDAPTATION: Don Juan DeMarco (1994) -
changed the original story a bit, lord Byron’s poem is read in the movie – influence of Lord Byron.)

Lord Byron and the movie--Typical Byronic traits:

 one woman that he is in love,

 character of Don Juan - elevated (he is standing on top of the building); psychiatry, death –
nowhere to go so I must die (death as a final resort), social outcast, costume: mask – character of
Don Juan de Marco wears the mask at the very beginning; billboard below him: Unmask The Mystery
( the whole movie is about unmasking the history of Don Juan; later DJ influences shrink; Byron was
always trying to open his characters to readers).

Just like other Byronic characters, Don Juan is a lunatic who needs a help (who determines what is
normal, is normal life just a pose – in movie police and psychologist serve as forces who are there to
normalize us, but what is normal?).

Separation between characters the rest of the society is another Byronic treat. His characters are
always above the rest of the normal people. His characters are very sensitive, usually his characters
are bipolar personalities. They are hypersensitive because of the injustice in the world and all the bad
things in the society. His characters are the only ones capable of loving and feeling the true emotions
(just like in the movie; shrink learns how to love his wife; Don Juan’s influence).

Next scene is close adaptation of Lord Byron’s poem:

 Dona Julia mentioned as the first woman he fell in love with

 another mask: he had to dress up like a woman, masks: one mask replaced with another (woman
attire replaced his previous mask) – who we are; is it ever possible to determine that.

Shrink asks many questions, but DJ tells fantastic stories.

Is everything the way it is shown? Duality in the poem and the movie: sarcastic tone: talking about
true love and how it is hard to forget it, but in the next moment he is amazed by how easily it can be
actually forgotten. Also a womanizer is dragged and dressed as a woman, and conventionally he is
made to act as a woman.

That is another thing that Byron does to his charactershis Don Juan is not womanizer, he is not the
one seducing women, Dona Julia seduced him and so did the other women, they chase him. Sultana
offers herself to him, he doesn’t come after her.

It breaks the conventions of man courting and chasing after women.

Also the scene where the rope snaps shows the loss of his masculinity (in a way castration-dressed as
a woman and all the manly qualities taken away from him). Byron is challenging established gender
roles.