Mavarine Du-Marie
Personal ID: M2515473
The Open University
Question
Compare Byron's Childe Harold Canto III and two other texts from the course in terms of their attitude
to prevailing political and/or cultural convention.
Number of words: 1,978
Page 1 of 7
In appraising the literature text of Childe Harold Canto III with two other texts; Olney
Hymns Three and Dr Faust in terms of their attitude to the prevailing cultural convention,
during the eighteenth century, it becomes clear that Romantic values took precedence
over that of the Enlightenment principles.
As Romanticism was a counter-culture to the Enlightenment; it was opposite to the
accepted outer senses, and the traditional male hero, to whom the 17th century
Encyclopédie explained him to be the embodiment of Enlightenment ideals of
steadfastness, intrepidness, valiance, and, the great man as having morals; who's
behaviour exhibited noble motives.1 Whereas, the Romantic sentiment was an emotion
which could express the inner feeling, and came to be represented as the 'Romantic male',
that is, an anti-hero and a great man of vices whom was defined as "...a very indifferent
character, [who] might have done more and expressed less..."2 by their behaviour in
society; "....mad, bad and dangerous to know."3 Therefore culturally considered to be
avant-garde, because the anti-hero was seen as someone who transgressed physically,
without limits mentally and strived to know himself spiritually.
However, historically, there was a pre-Romantic culture, which had given credibility to
express ones feelings4 too, such as espoused by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) in
his reflections:
"....[a]lone for the rest of my life - since I find consolation, hope,
and peace only in myself - I no longer ought nor want to concern
myself with anything but me. It is in this state that I again take
up the sequel to the severe and sincere examination I formerly
called my Confessions. I consecrate my last days to studying
myself and to preparing in advance the account I will give myself
before long. Let me give myself up entirely to the sweetness of
conversing with my soul, since that is the only thing men cannot
take away from me...."5
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Personal ID: M2515473
The Open University
in his Reveries of the Solitary Walker published posthumously in 1782. This precursor
gave rise to the concept of the cult of sensibility as an aspect of European culture, in
terms of both art and life, but specifically, in the literary genre of the anti-hero, by
authors using the literary device of pathos; as a means of invoking the emotions of a
reader of their texts, as exemplified by Rousseau in his romantic confessions6 by which it
can be clearly identified as being a sentimental work, and solely, in a male narrator's
voice.
Therefore, the nature of the romantic anti-hero's individualism can also be read into the
eighteenth century literature texts of three works; Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Canto III,
stanzas 8-16, by Lord Bryon (1788-1824),7 Faust Part Two, Faust's Last Speech, by
Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832)8 and The Olney Hymns: Hymn 3, Uncertainty of
Life by John Newton (1725-1807)9, as all have an emphasis on the anti-hero's life
experience romantically being "....as a whole new state of mind[.]"10 Thus by comparing
the drama of Harold's 'pilgrimage', the Olney Hymn Three narrator's voice about the
'uncertainties of life' and Faust's "...desperate yearning for some understanding of 'the
force that binds all Nature's energies' (22)..."11 there's a comprehension in terms of the
cultural thoughts, of a romantic male's character, as written by the authors, as having
prevailed the conventions of society, at that time, in fiction.
For by analysing the text of only Harold's own pilgrimage of Canto III written in stanzas
eight to sixteen, there is the evidence of the 'setting out' to find or lose himself, and his
importance is given in capital letters in the spelling of his name; the reader is impressed
to remember this man Harold, for he is 'the' archetypal romantic anti-hero; who comes
and goes as he pleases with indifference, because as bluntly stated regarding Harold's
character, that he's:
"...[S]ecure in guarded coldness, he had mix'd / Again in fancied
safety with his kind, / And deem'd his spirit now so firmly fix'd / And
sheath'd with an invulnerable mind, / That, if no joy, no sorrow lurk'd
behind; / And he, as one, might midst the many stand / Unheeded,
searching through the crowd to find..."
in stanza ten, lines 82 to 88. Thereat Harold is at ease within the prevailing cultural
Mavarine Du-Marie
Personal ID: M2515473
The Open University
conventions - even though not of them - that is, Harold is sought out by others in society
as there's "...[F]it speculation! such as in strange land, / He found in wonder-works of
God and Nature's hand...," stated in stanza ten which describes Harold's physical being
and later on in the prose metaphorically likens him to a 'wild-born falcon'12, as well as,
the use of strong figurative language:
"....Where rose the mountains, there to him were friends; / Where
roll'd the ocean, thereon was his home; / Where a blue sky, and
glowing clime, extends, / He had the passion and the power to
roam; / The desart, forest, cavern, breaker's foam, / Were unto him
companionship; they spake...."
of Harold's affinity with nature, which is thrust at the reader in stanza thirteen, in other
words, he was a different kind of man who had an unknown quality with regard to his
persons' which set him apart from others. Therefore it does seem appropriate that Harold
is the "...central character in this [play because he] lacks the traditional heroic virtues..."13
in this particular 'framed-narrative' of Canto III as to be the anti-heroic figure.
However, any man in a conventional society would strive to differentiate himself because
"...in Man's dwellings he became a thing, / Restless and worn, and stern and
wearisome..." as proclaimed in lines 127 to 128, that every-day existence mattered little
and offered his self-esteem nothing in return that Harold left the scene abruptly as he had
entered for "...on with the giddy circle, chasing time, /Yet with a nobler aim than in his
youth's fond prime..." in lines 98 to 99, which prevails upon the senses of the listener the
detached manner of the anti-hero's attitude in a conventional society although HAROLD's
presence is still there every-time the prose of Canto III is read.
Therefore, Harold is a 'protagonist' within Canto III simply because he prevails to be his
own person; an individual among other men, yet silently supportive of another man's
voyage - as to be there physically on board but not mentally - which is so anti-heroic with
a certain arrogance for:
"....he knew himself the most unfit / Of men to herd with Man;
with whom held / Little in common; untaught to submit / His
thoughts to others, though his soul was quell'd / In youth by his
own thoughts; still uncompell'd, / He would not yield dominion
Mavarine Du-Marie
Personal ID: M2515473
The Open University
of his mind / To spirits against who his own rebell'd; / Proud
though in desolation; which could find / A life within itself, to
breathe without mankind...."
said in stanza twelve, which could have evoked a feeling of being a kindred spirit when
read, because Harold was also a great man of vices as "...the very knowledge that he lived
in vain...." written stanza sixteen, meaning Harold had been a man who lived and
embodied the spirit of his time, therefore was seen as a thoroughly 'modern man of
Europe' 14, which was so profound that another man would have felt a pang of familiarity
too with regards to flights "...that keeps us from yon heaven which woos us to its brink..."
as stated in line 126 regarding 'human frailties' as mentioned in stanza fourteen.
By comparison, in a similar vein to this is Olney Hymns Three: Uncertainty of life, where
the narrator says "I am standing on the brink..." in verse three, thus confirming to the
reader how frail life really is, but, goes on to state "...[I]f from guilt and sin set free, / by
the knowledge of thy grace; / Welcome, then, the call will be to depart and see thy
face..." in verse four. This expression in verse one, of an intimate thought, of a man
looking inwards to his spiritual self and left 'wanting', as by the usage in the wording of
the verse to convey to the reader those actual feelings of 'time elapsing' and not
'conversing with the soul' as Jean-Jacques Rousseau had mentioned earlier, for it says:
"...When the former year begun: / Some, but who GOD only
knows, / Who are here assembled now; / Ere the present year shall
close, To the stroke of death must bow..."
in verse two, was to understand that an anti-hero would've been acutely aware of his
mortality and would engage in peregrination; exploring outwardly other worlds in an
unknown adventure15 but internalising each experience as to sublimate the senses to
become closer in fully knowing of himself before death occurs to his physical body.
Compared to these attitudes of sublime thoughts, in a text from Dr Faust, its evident that
he has no qualms with regard to cultural conventions being overturned for the sake of
understanding his own limits, although he did start out with Enlightenment principles in
seeking Knowledge, as he declared:
Mavarine Du-Marie
Personal ID: M2515473
The Open University
"...Here I am, then. Philosophy behind me, / Law and Medicine too,
/ and - to my cost - Theology... all studied, grimly sweated through; /
and here I sit, as big a fool as when I first attended school."16
However, the main concern of the text in Dr Faust was his transition to the Romantic
ideals of living life to the full (even with the assistance of Mephistopheles):
"...May rage and gnaw; and yet a / common will, / should it
intrude, will act to close / the breach. Yes! to this vision I am
wedded still,...."
in his Faust last speech.17 Which was something borne out too in the text of Childe
Harold when it states "...Who can contemplate Fame through clouds unfold / The star
which rises o'ver her steep, nor climb?..." in stanza eleven. Although in Dr Faust his
actions are more direct as to lose his soul through his own will, rather than being
"...Which, though 'twere wild, - as on the plundered wreck..." in line 141 as the implied
suggestion of what could occur regarding Harold’s fate.18
Comparatively, there is a strong similarity to all three chosen texts: the meeting of their
deaths with such bold declarations of further deeds to be done still. This corresponds to
Harold's being written out of the rest of the prose as: "...did yet inspire a cheer, which he
forebore to check..." in the parting of ways at the end in the last line of 144, as too in
Olney Hymn Three its written as: "...But the happiest year they know / Is their last, which
leads them home..." in the last line of verse four and in Dr Faust he says "...This record of
my earthly life shall last. / And in anticipation of such bliss / What moment could give
me greater joy than this?" This all meant that the complete finishing of a romance wasn't
a viable option to a true Romaunt19 who would have seen it rather as an opportunity for
yet another journey for a Man to take, as "....they dealt with the 'far-away', where in time,
place or culture (they characteristically summon up nostalgia, although typically at the
same time they reflect critically from a modern perspective upon the escapist lure of
romance..."20 and this prevailing Romantic attitude was at that time the accepted cultural
convention in the eighteenth century.
In summing up, the three texts of comparison between Childe Harold's Pilgrimage to Dr
Mavarine Du-Marie
Personal ID: M2515473
The Open University
Faust and Olney Hymn number Three brings forth an understanding of the changing
ideology from the period of Enlightenment to Romanticism, particularly towards the
thoughts of males, during this time in society; as these specific texts were all written by
men regarding Man and his sense of place in the world as a direct response to his own
individualism21 in terms of their attitude to prevailing political and/or cultural convention.
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Mavarine Du-Marie
Personal ID: M2515473
The Open University
From Enlightenment to Romanticism c. 1780-1830, published by The Open University, ISBN: 0-74929600-3, copyright 2004.
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