Lord Byron London 1824 – Missolonghi (Greece)

Life Youth The Grand Tour Adulthoo d His mother, by turns a violent and sweet woman, moulded his tempestous character. He started composing poems at twelve years old and in 1807 he published his first collections. 1809: as many young aristocratics did at that time, George Byron set out on a journey to Spain, Malta, Greece and Middle East. As he returned (1812) he published two cantos of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, in which he describes Several parts of Europe always reminding the reader of their remote and recent historical associations. His work was a success: “I awoke one morning and found myself famous”. He liked it and loved to create an air of mystery about himself. His egotistical behaviour and his incestuous relationship made him unpleasant to his friends, so in 1816 he left England and started wandering about the Continent. In 1823 he took part to the Greek indipendence war against the Turks but died for a fever the following year.

Profile Byron represents the satirical vein of English Romanticism; In his most famous satire, Don Juan, the travel is an excuse to satirize the social conditions of contemporary England and the contemporary society in general. His works were translated into many languages but he became even more famous for his mysterious and adventurous life: his melancholy and sexual extravagances concurred to embody the figure of the romantic dandy. 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, Child Harold's Pilgrimage, Manfred, Don Juan” Grolier Enciclopaedia This character has some typical features which can easily be identifyed in his works: 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 Manfred's Unknown past His mysterious guilt Don Juan's travels The seven spirits M. invokes Manfred lives alone in the castle, refuses human contact and every sort of submission

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 Byron – Byronic Hero This is a comparison between some features of the Byronic Hero and Byron himself: 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