Abstract
This article discusses the impact and legacy of Lord Byron, an English poet of the Romantic era, and describes his life from early childhood until death. It recounts that following the critical reception of Lord Byron’s first poems, the poet became instantly successful upon the publication of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage: A Romaunt. The attention and adoration Byron received from the public in the wake of this publication marks a shift in the way authors were perceived by society. This article also describes how Lord Byron embraced his newfound celebrity and embarked on a prosperous writing career. The author emphasizes Byron’s creation of a new character type, the Byronic hero, which remains popular to this day. Additionally, the article expounds upon his fall from favor, through slander and scandal, and his subsequent departure from England. The author reveals Lord Byron’s passion for freedom and clarifies how he became a legendary figure in Greek history. Finally, the article demonstrates the lasting influence that the life of Byron, his poetry, and the invention of the Byronic hero have had on modern society.
The Romantic period is typically demarcated by the years 1785-1832, and is known for its host of inventive, countercultural, and rebellious writers. As one of the Romantic poets, Lord Byron was swept up in the literary and political movements of his time, experimenting with his own brand of anti-hero, with structure, and with verse. “I awoke one morning and found myself famous,” Lord Byron commented after the publication of his poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage: A Romaunt became an instant success (qtd. in Heinzelman 494). Byron serves as a powerful example of a poet’s ability to transform widespread attitudes and expectations. The effects of Lord Byron’s haunting poetry and scandalous life are evident even to this day. His emergence as the first celebrity has dramatically changed the way authors are viewed by the public, his life has become legendary, and his invention of the “Byronic hero” has only grown in popularity, appearing in modern films, plays, and literature.
Lord Byron was born in 1788 in London and was “descended from…[a] colorful, violent, and dissolute” aristocratic family (Lynch and Stillinger 1722). When the future poet was still young, his father squandered the family’s wealth and fled to France, leaving Byron’s frequently irate mother to raise him on her own (Graham 1). Though his childhood was fraught with familial, medical, and financial difficulties, Byron nonetheless prospered in his early athletic, poetic, and academic pursuits. While he was attending Trinity College, he developed a reputation for himself by becoming adept at fencing, boxing, swimming and horse-riding—and was known for his excessive spending and drinking (Lynch and Stillinger 1722). During this time, he published his first poetic collections: Fugitive Pieces, Poems on Various Occasions, and Hours of Idleness. These were met with mostly critical reviews, to which he responded with satire (Graham 2).
However, his subsequent work Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage: A Romaunt was lauded by the public, and won him many ardent fans. One of these, by the name of Lady Caroline Lamb, disturbed him so much with her advances that he sought marriage to dissuade her (Tuite 73). The sheer amount of attention given to Byron as a budding poet was unprecedented in England. Though many poets had attained great fame posthumously, none were as publicly celebrated during their lifetimes as Byron was. Even the other Romantic authors of his time did not invoke as much adoration—and indignation—as Byron did in a few years. This was largely due to the similarities his critics and fans alike detected between Byron’s work and his life. Jerome Christensen claimed that “his poems are imagined as an elaborate code,” a code which has “some determinate relation with a singular circumstance of Byron’s life” (483). The autobiographical aspect of Byron’s poetry provoked reader’s interest in his personal life, resulting in a “radically altered relationship between writers and readers” and creating the phenomenon of a “literary celebrity,” as well as a sense of “intimacy” that readers felt toward Byron and his poems (Tuite 62-63).
Lord Byron readily embraced the social life and his new role as celebrity, and was involved in “romantic intrigue, party-going, boxing, and revelry,” habits that only increased as he became wealthier (Graham 3). At the same time, the reading public was thoroughly invested in Byron’s life, actively comparing the poet to the characters in his works, while keeping up-to-date with news of Byron’s activities. Kurt Heinzelman went as far as to say that “Byron’s peers recognized celebrity as part of Byron’s personal aura,” demonstrating how influential Byron’s poetic contributions were to society, and how seamlessly he adopted this bold public persona (Graham 590).
As a result of the public’s fanatic attraction to the characters in Lord Byron’s poetry, a new character theme become popular: the Byronic hero. Byronic heroes fulfill roles as anti-heroes, political figures, “self-exiled” wanderers, and semi-biographical chroniclers of Byron’s life (Lutz 23). As anti-heroes, they are ambiguously good, unconventional, complicated, pessimistic, and consumed by an obsession for love or revenge—they are “dangerous lovers,” attractive but ultimately doomed to tragedy (Lutz 24). As political figures, Byronic heroes are self-contradictory at times, “refus[ing] to subject [themselves] to any form of external constraint” while maintaining a “aristocratic and authoritarian ideology” and utilizing violence at times to achieve their just ends (Poole 105). As wanderers, they are haunted by dark pasts, punishing themselves continually for past mistakes and crimes (Lutz 23). As a method for Byron to chronicle his experiences and desires, the Byronic hero mirrors his interior motives and love life.
Byronic heroes are perhaps the most lasting token of Lord Byron’s work, continually appearing in various modes of entertainment long after his death. Even in the 21st century, fans are attracted to these dark and mysterious heroes, which retain the vibrant and violent emotions of their predecessors, as well as their voluntary estrangement from society, and the tragic flaws that cripple them. Modern examples of Byronic heroes include Severus Snape from the Harry Potter series (J. K. Rowling), Han Solo from Star Wars (George Lucas), and Captain Jack Sparrow from The Pirates of the Caribbean (Ted Eliott et al.). Older examples include Mr. Rochester from Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë), Raskolnikov from Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoevsky), and Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë). Clearly, Byron’s role in popularizing this brand of hero has had wide-ranging influence and remains deeply rooted in Western culture.
However, Lord Byron’s works fell swiftly out of favor, primarily because of the scandal that came to light later in his lifetime. His readers were aghast at the accounts of Byron’s incestuous behavior and promiscuity. In particular, past lovers such as Lamb worked to undermine his reputation, spreading rumors of his “disloyalty” and publishing scandalous material (Tuite 68). The popularity of Glenarvon, a work of Lamb’s that dealt a blow to Byron’s reputation, demonstrates the public’s appetite for scandal connected to their beloved celebrity. Scorned by his once adoring fans, Byron, not unlike the characters in his poetry, subjected himself to exile. Forming a literary group with fellow Romantics Percy and Mary Shelley, he settled for a time in France, eventually alienating himself even from this group. He married Teresa Guiccoli and settled down for a time.
In the end, Lord Byron could not be satisfied with a peaceful life. His passion for the cause of freedom and justice led him to become involved in foreign rebellions. First, he acted as a diplomat, but then he decided to take on the role of soldier, despite lack of adequate training or experience. He joined the Greek War of Independence and died after only a few months. Though he was sick at the time, the medical treatment he was subjected to weakened him further, since bleeding was the method chosen to remedy his illness. To this day, he is considered a national hero in Greece for his service, however short-lived it was (Graham 9).
Byron’s life and works, as interconnected as they are, have both had a powerful impact on the way that society views highly talented individuals. As the first celebrity, he was a precursor to the obsession that fans offer their favorite artists, musicians, authors, and poets today. The autobiographical aspect of his poetry gave rise to the notion that a poet or author’s life, desires, and experiences are ultimately inextricable from their work. The idea that understanding the writer’s background could aid readers in comprehending the writer’s diction and artistic style also became popular due to Byron’s influence. Despite the passage of time, which has dulled society’s attachment to the first celebrity figure, his personality and desires are reborn in the countless Byronic heroes of popular culture.
Sources
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