Research Paper

Lamont Austin

Mrs. Hanes

English 1302

7 August 2010

The Byronic Hero and Other Themes Found in Don Juan

Lord Byron’s epic poem, “Don Juan” deals with the Byronic hero. Lord George Gordon Byron was born January 22, 1788, in London and died April 19, 1824, in Missolonghi, Greece. He was among the most famous of the English Romantic poets. The poem “Don Juan" was written between 1818-1819 and at that time the Industrial Revolution was going on. The poem brings to light much of Byron’s psyche, which was sometimes thought to be strange.

The epic poem that Lord Byron wrote is not quite an epic. It is a mock epic for it mocks society and the norms that existed when the poet penned Don Juan. The protagonist is not a true hero in every sense of the word as befits the Byronic hero because he possesses qualities of an anti-hero. A Byronic hero possesses qualities that present the protagonist as an idealized but flawed character whose attributes are many and include great talent, great passion, a distaste for society and social institutions, a lack of respect for rank and privilege (although they possess both), being thwarted by love by social constraint or death, rebellion, exile, an unsavory secret past, arrogance, over-confidence or lack of foresight, and ultimately a self-destructive manner. Lord Byron led quite a controversial lifestyle and that is reflected in this poem. The Byronic hero has both heroic and anti-heroic qualities, which makes it difficult when to decide whether to sympathize with Don Juan or not. The protagonist’s heroic qualities can be seen when Juan is first introduced in the poem as having some promise and possessing the qualities or characteristics of a hero—he is handsome and slender and quite a debonair fellow.

The narrator of “Don Juan” is an omniscient persona who states the facts but also adds in his personal thoughts on the characters. From the beginning he lets the reader know that he is in search of a hero. He cannot...