Lord Byron was the immensely popular poet of his time. His prolific writing has placed him among the bright galaxy of English Literature. His view and philosophy of life have distinguished him very remarkably. Besides, his rebellious spirit has given a new dimension to him and distinguished him among the romantic poets in English Literature.
The letter which was written by Donna Julia from the convent to Don Juan highlights the positive aspects of her character. Donna Julia apparently seems to me a sex-box. But in this letter she explains why she feels fascination for Don Juan. She was not satisfied with her husband Don Alfonso. As a man of fifty he was not competent to satisfy the sexual hunger of her, so she felt fascination for Don Juan. Eventually she was discovered in her bed room with Don Juan and her conjugal life comes to an end. She was sent to the convent for purification.
Byron is the chief exponent and most renowned figure of the whole Romantic Movement. But he is hardly a romantic at all. His apology is not in favor of romanticism as it was with his contemporaries including Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, Southey, Scott. He was not a romantic in the way the word means for the traditional romantics. Byron was fascinated by the Augustan code of life which was a consistent reincarnation of the classical view of life. Not imagination but the exercise of instinct is important for life was his ideal. So in his work as in his life was a creature of instinct.
Byron was one of the most vigorous and powerful satirists of England during the nineteenth century. His genius was essentially satirical. In satire Byron found the suitable media for his rebellious and passionate nature and it is in satire which turned more joyously from the early years of his life. He had a great liking for Alexander Pope, the prince of satirists in the 18th century and for Gifford, his successor. He closely imitated their form and style in his satires, and almost, all the satirical works of Byron were written under the influence of Pope, Gifford and Swift.
Before going to labor
our topic it is better to have a sound
knowledge about Byronic hero. W. H. Auden analyzed
the conception of the Byronic hero as follows: Byron spent his early years in
comparative poverty with a mother who alternately hit him and covered him with
kisses and a Calvinist nurse who spoke to him of hell-fire and predestined
damnation... Unhappiness sharpens a child wits and he soon realized that his
parents were violent and odd people, that this ancestors were violent and odd
too and that his deformity made him different from other children. Further as
usually happens when the parents are separated he idealized the absent one, the
father. Out of this background came the Byronic Hero. Father made him passionate,
Nancy made him doomed ancestors and the little lame foot made him aristocratic
yet the bitter enemy of society.
Byron is pre-eminently the most vital reactionary poet of his age. He is not only sensitive but also sensible. He is dissatisfied with the current social order. So he revolts against the social, political and religious injustice and hypocrisy. The follies and frailties of the society have become a sort of object whom he pricks with the sharp weapon of his satirical disposition. He has experienced his time and life as his hero Don Juan does. Thus his autobiographical elements come abundantly in his poem Don Juan.
Though Byron was
not as studious as Shelley, his attitude towards life was very profound and
convincing. He was never happy with the going on customs of the society. He
wanted to bring about a revolutionary change in the society. This longing for regeneration
makes him a great revolutionary poet and lover of man. Byron was one of the
proudest revolutionary poets and the poets of freedom and liberty
that England has ever produced. He was a born rebel and the fire of liberty and
hatred for tyranny burnt furiously in his veins. "Art for Art's
Sake", says Courthope, was abhorrent to his genius. He was the Avtar of
the revolutionary movement, where every thought was prompted by revolt against
the moral postulates of society.
To Byron Nature is a great metaphor which has helped him to interpret many of his ideas and feelings. His emotion has been strengthened in association with the phenomena of Nature. It has provided him with a ground on which he has presented his views and ideas of life.
