Lord Byron
1788 - London
1824 – Missolonghi
(Greece)
Life
Youth
The Grand
Tour
Adulthoo
d
1809:
as many
young
aristocratics
did atwoman,
that
time,
His
mother,
by
turns
a
violent
and
sweet
His
egotistical
behaviour
and
his
incestuous
relationship
work was a success: “I awoke one morning and
George
Byron
set
out
on
a
journey
to
Spain,
Malta,
moulded
his
tempestous
character.
made
unpleasant
hisliked
friends,
so loved
in 1816
left
foundhim
myself
famous”.toHe
it and
tohe
create
Greece and Middle
East.
England
started
wandering
an air of and
mystery
about
himself.about the Continent.
He started composing poems at twelve years old and
As
he
returned
(1812)
he
published
two
cantos
of
inIn
1807
he
published
his
first
collections.
1823 he took part to the Greek indipendence war
Childe Harold's
inawhich
against
the TurksPilgrimage,
but died for
fever he
thedescribes
following
Several parts of Europe always reminding the reader
year.
of their remote and recent historical associations.
Profile
His
works
were translated
intovein
many
but he became
Byron
represents
the satirical
of languages
English Romanticism;
even
his mysterious
adventurous
life:
In hismore
mostfamous
famousfor
satire,
Don Juan, and
the travel
is an excuse
his
melancholy
and sexual
extravagances
concurred
to
to satirize
the social
conditions
of contemporary
England
embody
the figure of the
romantic
dandy.
and the contemporary
society
in general.
His politic ideas of equal rights and social reforms brought
him to join the “carbonary”movement in Italy and the Greek
Indipendence war.
In a word, he became a myth.
The Byronic Hero
“The Byronic Hero was the brooding and defiant romantic
Character who emerged from Lord Byron's finest works,
Mysterious
withManfred,
Manfred's
Unknown past
Child
Harold'scharacter
Pilgrimage,
Don Juan”
Grolier
Enciclopaedia
a mysterious
past
Will to escape from the past, His mysterious guilt
due to a sense of guilt
Travel
lover has some typicalDon
Juan's
travels
This
character
features
which
can easily
Supernatural
The seven spirits M. invokes
be
identifyed inforces
his works:
He's an outcast, a superior
Manfred lives alone in the
man who doesn't share
castle, refuses human
common's people destiny
contact and every sort of
submission
Byron – Byronic Hero
This is a comparison between some features of the Byronic
Hero and Byron himself:
Mysterious character with
a mysterious past
Will to escape from the past,
due to a sense of guilt
Travel lover
Supernatural forces
He's an outcast, a superior
man who doesn't share
common's people destiny
He loved to keep his life
mysterious
He had a tempestuous past
(his mother, incestuous rel.)
He travelled a lot
His egotistical behaviour
separated him from his
friends
Manfred
Manfred in a Gothic castlein the Alps. Tortured by his own sense of guilt, Manfred
invokes six spirits associated with earth and the elements, and a seventh who
determines Manfred's personal destiny. None of the spirits are able to grant him
what he wishes, the forgetfulness and oblivion he seeks. Manfred falls into a state of
unconsciousness during which an unidentified voice (probably his own conscience)
tells him that he will be tortured by his own nature. Although he will seek death, his
wish will be denied.
So Manfred attempts suicide from the high cliffs of the Jungfrau, but he is rescued
by an elderly Chamois Hunter who takes him back to his cabin and offers him a cup
of wine. Manfred imagines that the cup has blood on its brim, Astarte's blood, which
is also his own blood (incestuous relationship).
Manfred invokes the Witch of the Alps, who offers to help him on condition that he
swear obedience to her. Manfred refuses to be her slave: he's unwilling to submit to
any external authority. Astarte appears to him again and predicts that his “earthly
ills” will soon come to an end.
Manfred returns to his castle feeling peaceful, if only for a short time. He is visited
by the Abbot of St. Maurice who offers comfort through religion. Manfred refuses,
although he takes the hand of the Abbott at the moment of death, finally accepting
the human contact he had refused during life.
All Manfred's themes are linked to the Byronic Hero's features:
Mysterious past
Sense of guilt
Supernatural elements
He's an outcast
The End