Byron`S Variety of Romanticism Compared

| OU-A207-TMA07 |

| “Byron’s variety of Romanticism represents a more convincing critique of culture and events in Europe than the work of any of his contemporaries” |

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Discussed, with reference to Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage Canto III and two other source texts; Francisco de Goya (Spanish) and Jacque-Louis David (French). |

Mr. Peter J. Moore. 27 / 01 / 2014

“Byron’s variety of Romanticism represents a more convincing critique of culture and events in Europe than the work of any of his contemporaries”

Discussed, with reference to Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage Canto III and two other source texts; Francisco de Goya (Spanish) and Jacque-Louis David (French).

It is very difficult to agree, or to feel totally convinced with Byron’s critique of culture and events in Europe. His aristocratic status and misanthropic sensibility heavily bias his particular variety of Romanticism. The texts to be used comparatively are from Francisco de Goya and Jacque-Louis David.

Byron’s era was an age of Liberal optimism. The influence and force of his genius was most apparent on the continent and not in his own country. Described as an “Aristocratic Rebel” (Russell, p.675) he was critical of governments in general and monarchical governments in particular.

The bizarre circumstances of his early life focused on fear. Fear of his cruel and vulgar mother, parental arguments and the strict Calvinism of his evil nurse. This fear and his alienation at school through lameness helped to cultivate his rebellious streak. From a life of poverty, at the age of ten, he was propelled into the world of the aristocracy; inheriting a title and lands.

He relished and professed admiration for his family heritage of lawlessness and was only too “…willing to take on the character of his ancestors…” (Russell, p.676). His peers shunned him and being unable to be an aristocrat in his own age, he would be a medieval baron in the style of his ancestors or the...