Byron's most famous poem is Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. The poem was created in parts. Her first two songs were written during Byron's travels to Portugal, Spain, Albania, and Greece (1809-1811). The third canto is on the shores of Lake Geneva after the final departure from England (1816), the fourth canto is completed in Italy in 1817. The two opening songs of the poem were published on February 29, 1812 and immediately won the hearts of readers. “One fine morning I woke up and found out that I was famous,” Byron recalled. All four songs are united by one hero. The image of Childe Harold entered world literature as the image of a completely new hero, whom literature had never known before. It embodies the most characteristic features of the enlightened part of the young generation of the era of romanticism. Byron himself stated that he wanted to show his hero “as he is” at a given time and in a given reality, although “it would be more pleasant and probably easier to portray a more attractive face.” Who is the “pilgrim” Childe Harold? Already at the beginning of the poem, the author introduces his hero: There lived a young man in Albion. He devoted his life only to idle entertainment In an insane thirst for joys and bliss... This is the scion of an ancient and once glorious family (Childe is the old name for a young man of the noble class). It would seem that he should be satisfied with life and happy. But unexpectedly for himself, “in the prime of life’s May,” he falls ill with a “strange” disease: Saturation began to speak in him, A fatal illness of the mind and heart, And everything around seemed vile: A prison is his homeland, a grave is his father’s house... Harold rushes to foreign, unknown lands to him, he longs for change, danger, storms, adventures - anything, just to get away from what he is tired of: Inheritance, house, family estates, Lovely ladies, whose laughter he loved so much... He exchanged for winds and fogs, To the roar of southern waves and barbaric countries. A new world, new countries gradually open his eyes to a different life, full of suffering and disasters and so far from his former secular life. In Spain, Harold is no longer the society dandy he is described at the beginning of the poem. The great drama of the Spanish people, forced to choose between “submission or the grave,” fills them with anxiety and hardens their hearts. At the end of the first song, he is a gloomy man, disillusioned with the world. He is burdened by the entire way of life of aristocratic society, he finds no meaning in either earthly or afterlife, he rushes about and suffers. Neither English nor European literature in general has ever known such a hero. However, already in the second chapter, finding himself in the mountains of Albania, Harold, although still “alien and careless of desires,” is already succumbing to the beneficial influence of the majestic nature of this country and its people - the proud, brave and freedom-loving Albanian mountaineers. The hero increasingly shows responsiveness and spiritual nobility, and there is less and less dissatisfaction and melancholy in him. The soul of the misanthrope Harold begins to recover, as it were. After Albania and Greece, Harold returns to his homeland and again plunges into the “whirlwind of secular fashion”, into the “crush of a hall where the bustle is in full swing.” He again begins to be haunted by the desire to escape from this world of empty vanity and aristocratic swagger. But now “his goal... is more worthy than then.” Now he knows for sure that “his friends are among the desert mountains.” And he “takes up the pilgrim’s staff again”... From the moment Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage appeared in print, readers identified the hero of the poem with the author himself, although Byron categorically objected to this, insisting that the hero was fictional. Indeed, the author and his hero have a lot in common, at least even in biography. However, Byron's spiritual appearance is immeasurably richer and more complex than the appearance of the character he created. And yet, the poet’s desired “line” between him and his hero could not be drawn, and in the fourth song of the poem, Childe Harold is no longer mentioned at all. “In the last song the pilgrim appears less often than in the previous ones, and therefore he is less separate from the author, who here speaks for himself,” Byron admitted. Childe Harold is a sincere, deep, albeit very contradictory person who is disillusioned with the “light”, in his aristocratic environment, runs away from it, passionately seeks new ideals. This image soon became the embodiment of the “Byronic” hero in the literature of many European countries during the era of romanticism.

And his features breathed a gloomy coldness of life-denying sadness.

D. Byron

The poem "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" is written in the form of a lyrical diary of a traveler.

The journey of the hero and the author has not only educational significance - each country is depicted by the poet in his personal perception. He admires nature, people, art, but at the same time, as if unintentionally, he finds himself in the hottest spots of Europe, in those countries where the revolutionary and people's liberation war was fought - in Spain, Albania, Greece. The storms of the political struggle of the beginning of the century burst into the pages of the poem, and the poem takes on a sharp political and satirical sound. Thus, Byron's unusual romanticism is closely connected with modernity and is imbued with its problems.

Childe Harold is a young man of noble birth. But Byron calls the hero only by name, thereby emphasizing both his vitality and the typicality of the new social character.

Childe Harold undertakes the journey for personal reasons: he “had no enmity” towards society. The journey should, according to the hero, protect him from communicating with the familiar, boring and annoying world, where there is no peace, joy, or self-satisfaction.

The motives for Harold's wanderings are fatigue, satiety, world-weariness, dissatisfaction with himself. Under the influence of new impressions from historically significant events, the hero’s conscience awakens: “he curses the vices of his wild years, he is ashamed of his wasted youth.” But familiarization with the real concerns of the world, even if only morally, does not make Harold’s life any more joyful, for very bitter truths are revealed to him, connected with the life of many peoples: “And the gaze that sees the light of truth grows darker and darker.”

Sadness, loneliness, mental confusion arise as if from within. Harold's heartfelt dissatisfaction is not caused by any real reason: it arises before the impressions of the vast world give the hero true reasons for grief.

The tragic doom of efforts aimed at good is the root cause of Byron's grief. Unlike his hero Childe Harold, Byron is by no means a passive contemplator of world tragedy. We see the world through the eyes of a hero and a poet.

The general theme of the poem is the tragedy of post-revolutionary Europe, whose liberation impulse ended with the reign of tyranny. Byron's poem captured the process of enslavement of peoples. However, the spirit of freedom that so recently inspired humanity has not completely faded away. It still lives in the heroic struggle of the Spanish people against the foreign conquerors of their homeland or in the civic virtues of the stern, rebellious Albanians. And yet, persecuted freedom is increasingly being pushed into the realm of legends, memories, and legends. In Greece, where democracy once flourished, the refuge of freedom is only historical tradition, and the modern Greek, a frightened and obedient slave, no longer resembles a free citizen of Ancient Hellas (“And under the Turkish whips, resigned, Greece prostrated itself, trampled into the mud”). In a world bound in chains, only nature is free, and its lush, joyful flowering provides a contrast to the cruelty and malice that reign in human society (“Let genius die, freedom die, eternal nature is beautiful and bright”). And yet, the poet, contemplating this sad spectacle of the defeat of freedom, does not lose faith in the possibility of its revival. All powerful energy is aimed at awakening the fading revolutionary spirit. Throughout the entire poem, there is a call for rebellion, for the fight against tyranny (“O Greece, rise up to fight!”).

Lengthy discussions turn into the author's monologue, in which the fate and movements of Childe Harold's soul are presented only in episodes, significant, but incidental.

Byron's hero is outside of society, he cannot reconcile with society and does not want to seek the use of his strengths and abilities in its reconstruction and improvement: at least at this stage the author leaves Childe Harold.

The poet accepted the hero’s romantic loneliness as a protest against the norms and rules of life in his circle, with which Byron himself was forced to break, but at the same time, Childe Harold’s self-centeredness and isolation in life ultimately turned out to be the object of the poet’s criticism.

In world literature, Childe Harold is the standard of a romantic hero. An attractive young man, tired of everyday existence, goes to unknown countries to get a taste of life. became the first poet who managed to convey all the feelings that overcome the heart of a dreamer.

History of creation

The image of Childe Harold was born during Lord George Byron's long journey around the Mediterranean. The poet, who spent two years traveling, experienced such a range of emotions in relation to the lands and cultures he saw that, without finishing the cruise, he sat down to write a poem. Over the course of two years, the writer created a hero whose characteristics had not previously been found in literature.

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage was published in March 1812. The resulting work was a success among secular youth and allowed the writer to pay off the debts that Byron created due to his passion for gambling and drinking.

A simple analysis of the hero reveals common features between the disillusioned Childe Harold and the ruined Byron. And the author himself did not deny that in many ways the image created in the poem is autobiographical.

Lord Byron’s plans did not include creating a continuation of the work, but, overwhelmed by thoughts and personal problems, as well as impressed by the response of society, the writer left for Geneva, where he sat down to write the third part.

After finishing the work, Lord Byron, still recovering from depression, like his hero, goes to Rome, which inspires the man to create the fourth and final part of the poem. It took the writer a total of 10 years to complete the non-standard epic.

The resulting lyric epic poem broke stereotypes and received the status of an innovative work. Later, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage will inspire European and Russian classical writers to create new literary masterpieces.

Plot

Childe Harold's biography is similar to the biography of the “golden youth” in any millennium. The young man grew up in a family of hereditary aristocrats. The young man's father died early, and his mother raised the boy. From an early age, the hero's only true friend was his younger sister, with whom Harold shared his joys and sorrows.

There were no problems in the life of the romantic hero. Women admired the appearance and manners of the young aristocrat, and friends supported him in the wild evening entertainment. But one day the young man fell into depression. The entertainment lover was no longer interested in balls and other joys.

To drive away the blues, Childe Harold goes on a sea voyage. The young man does not warn his family about his departure, secretly equips the ship and sets sail. The first stop was Lisbon, which struck the young man with unkemptness and desolation. In Spain, as in Portugal, the main character was struck by the number of robbers and destruction, some of which were the merit of Napoleon. Childe Harold is so depressed that he does not even notice the attractiveness of local girls, although he is reputed to be a connoisseur of female beauty.

The next stop for the pampered aristocrat was Greece. But the beautiful lands of the new country also seem to Childe Harold to have been destroyed by the war. The young man laments that a country known for such a diverse history is disappearing into ruins:

"Where? Where are they? Children learn at their desks

The history of times gone by in darkness,

And it's all! And to these ruins

Only a reflection falls through the distance of thousands of years.”

Albania made another impression on the young man. Looking at the sights of the new country, the hero felt the blues finally receding. This ends the young aristocrat's first solo journey.

Childe Harold returns home to England. But, finding himself in familiar surroundings, the hero realizes that he is now too far from balls and other entertainment:

“Among the desert mountains are his friends,

Among the waves of the sea is his native country,

Where the sultry lands are so azure,

Where the breakers foam as they rush in.”

Realizing that there is nothing keeping him in England anymore, the young man sets off on a new campaign. The first stop is Waterloo, famous for its military events. Imbued with the spirit of defeat and disappointment, the man travels to the Rhine Valley, which delights the hero with the beauty of nature.

Illustration for the book "Child Harold's Pilgrimage"

To escape from hateful and stupid people who do not understand what they are doing to the world, Childe Harold goes to the Alps. Afterwards, the traveler spends the night near Lake Geneva and stops briefly in Lausanne.

Venice became a new stop on Harold's route. As in most European cities, the man notices destruction and desolation, covered with colorful carnivals and unbridled fun.

The hero continues his journey, visiting cities and villages that are located on the coast of Italy. The man likes the locals, but Childe Harold internally regrets that the population of such a great country is not free.

In such reflections, the hero reaches Rome, which made the man feel the greatness of the ancient people. Looking at the local sights, the young aristocrat reflects on the vicissitudes of love, on how often young men chase an unattainable ideal.

Inspired, full of new hopes and bright thoughts, Childe Harold again finds himself in the Mediterranean Sea, where he finds harmony with the world:

“I loved you, sea! In the hour of peace

Sail away into the open space where the chest breathes more freely,

Cut through the noisy wave of the surf with your hands -

It has been my joy since my youth.”

• In the poem “Eugene Onegin,” the main character recalls Byron’s character, and the author himself compares it with Childe Harold.
• Childe is not the name of the hero, but a title. This is how the son of a nobleman who did not achieve the status of a knight was called in the Middle Ages.
• Over time, the character became an example of the so-called “Byronian hero.” This image is endowed with high intelligence, cynicism, mystery and contempt for power.

Quotes

“The day is like a dolphin, which, dying, changes colors - only to become the most beautiful at the last moment.”

“Oh superstition, how stubborn you are! Christ, Allah, Buddha or Brahma, Soulless idol, god - where is the rightness?

“Who, when a gray beard prevented him from being in love like a young man?”

Byron's first poem written in the romantic style. It was distinguished primarily by its genre form - a lyric-epic poem, combining the story of the hero's life and travels with the free improvisations of the poet. The first two songs in form resemble the lyrical diary of a poet-traveler, the internal dramatic monologue of a hero entering an independent life, and a poetic essay about the fate of peoples during the Napoleonic wars.

Without constraining himself by genre rules, he experiments in the field of content and language. The poem is written in Spencerian stanza, which allows you to recreate the complex inner world of the Herald and chat with the reader about other cultures and civilizations. Lots of descriptions of other countries.

The new genre form determined the compositional structure: Byron freely handled the narrative structure, breaking it up with inserts - ballads, stanzas, lyrical digressions. It’s also free with the hero - either he leaves it to the reader, or Harold’s personality is blurred in the flow of the author’s impressions of what he personally saw and experienced.

Lyrical hero: Harold's Childe is a new hero in literature, a romantic type who embodied the most important features of his time.

Difference from the educational hero, for whom travel is associated with gaining experience. From the sentimentalist - where the travel motif shows the complex tossing of the hero.

Childe Harold is the scion of an old noble family who spent a rather idle life, was fed up with it, but was not happy. An illness caused by the emptiness of an organized and externally prosperous existence. Childe is a romantic person, eager for the unknown, which seems better to him, thirsting for terrible and dangerous adventures. He is attracted by an energetic, passionate life, and not by the solitary and contemplative life that he enjoys.

The magnificent strange ballad known as “Sorry,” put into the mouth of the hero, contains everything that is akin to a romantic image: longing for an unknown ideal, restlessness, aspiration to the beautiful world of free elements, isolation from any soil of the native environment, restlessness and at the same time inner freedom, sorrow, disappointment, activity and contemplation.

However, all these qualities inherent in Harold are universal and universal.

Byron gives the hero the opportunity each time to pour out his soul tormented by melancholy in a new way (the ballad “Sorry”, the stanzas “Iness”). The greatest similarity between Childe Herold and Byron is the thirst for knowledge, the desire to look into one’s own inner world: to know oneself, to discover the world, and to open the world, to understand one’s place in it.

But in the first two songs, Byron separated himself and his hero → the third-person story is largely Byron's reasoning, not Harold's. Nevertheless, the images of the Author and the hero are closely intertwined.

The image of Childe Harold became a symbol of his time and caused a lot of imitations. This was the beginning of the reign of the Byronic hero.

Personality and general characteristics of the work of J. G. Byron (“Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage”, Oriental Poems, “Manfred”, “Cain”, “Don Juan”).

John Gordon Byron 1788 - 1824

London, ancient aristocracy. Graduated from university, tried to engage in politics (defended the poor)

In 1815, he married a woman whom he considered ideal, but a year later she demanded a divorce. Byron was accused of immorality.

In 1816, Byron left England forever (company of libel). Traveled around Europe, then lived in Italy. He really hoped for the victory of the Italian revolution, but it failed, Byron left Italy and in 23 came to Greece, where there was also a revolution. In 24 I caught a cold during a trip to the mountains.

Byron's heart is buried in Greece, and his ashes in England.

Byron called people to revolution; it contains a motif of disappointment and world sorrow.

His first collection, “Leisure Hours,” speaks contemptuously of the secular mob. A literary manifesto of English romanticism.

A writer must be closer to life, overcoming religious and mystical moods, Byron believed.

In 1812, the first songs and poems of Charles Harold's Pilgrimage appeared (4 pieces)

The poem was a huge success in Europe, as it touched on the most pressing issues of the time and reflected the mood of disappointment that was widespread in Europe after the collapse of the French Revolution. “Freedom, equality, brotherhood” turned into the suppression of man.

In the first song, Byron shares the idea of ​​the French enlighteners (“all troubles come from ignorance”), but later he comes to deny these thoughts.

Byron believes in rock. This rock is hostile to the human race, hence the gloomy notes of doom.

But soon he changes his point of view and begins to believe in good changes in the world.

The main character of the work is a young man who has lost faith in life and people. He is characterized by spiritual emptiness, disappointment, anxiety and a morbid passion for travel. He leaves his homeland and sails to the east on a ship.

“I am alone in the world. Who can remember me, who could I remember?”

Proud loneliness and melancholy are his lot. Harold's main distinguishing feature is individualism. The positive in the image of Harold is a protest against oppression, disappointment in old ideals, a spirit of search, a desire to know oneself and the world.

The nature is gloomy. In this image, Byron makes a great artistic generalization. Harold is a hero of his time, a thinking and suffering hero. In Europe it caused many imitations.

A very important character in the poem is the lyrical hero, which expresses the author’s thoughts. At the end of the poem, the voice of the lyrical hero sounds increasingly stronger, because Byron is no longer satisfied with the image of Harold. He does not like the role of a passive observer, which is Harold. In addition, this hero’s personal experience is very narrow.

The third song reflects the spiritual drama of the author himself. Byron turns to his little daughter Ada, whom he will never see.

The reaction in Europe gives rise to a theme of gloomy disappointment. Byron mourns the suffering millions, curses the monarchs, but his pessimism is replaced by faith in good changes.

Many of Byron's contemporaries believed that Byron and Harold were the same person. In the process of writing the poem, he outgrows his hero. But they have common features.

The work of brilliant poets is always a confession, but Byron knows life and people better than Harold.

Creation of a man of a new time.

The reaction of the revolution is hard for Byron. Motives of gloomy despair appear.

"Eastern Poems"

Abidai bride

Corsair 1814

Siege of Carinth 1816

Rubber 1816

The hero of all these poems is a typical romantic hero (strong passions, will, tragic love). His ideal is anarchic freedom.

The celebration of individualistic rebellion reflected Byron's spiritual drama. The reason for this drama must be sought in the era itself, which gave rise to the cult of individualism. The idea of ​​ruined human opportunities in modern society is important.

The heroes of Byron's poems act as avengers for violated human dignity.

"Yaur" - plot: Yaur on his deathbed confesses to a monk, he loved Leila, they were happy, but Leila's jealous husband tracked down his wife and killed her. Yaur killed Leila's husband. His monologue sounds like an accusation against society, which humiliated him and made him unhappy.

"Corsair" The hero is the leader of the pirates. They deny the laws of society, live on a desert island and are afraid of the Corsair. This man is very stern and powerful, but he is lonely and has no friends. The hero of the Corsair is always immersed in his inner world, he admires his suffering and jealously guards his loneliness. This is his individualism - he puts himself above other people whom he despises.

The evolution of Byron's hero. If Harold does not go beyond passive protest, then for the rebels of Eastern poems the whole meaning of life lies in action, in struggle.

"Jewish Melodies" 1815. The mood of gloomy despair is very strong. Love lyrics are devoid of mysticism, religiosity and asceticism.

"Prisoner of Spies" 18

"Prometheus" - poem. The Promethean theme is one of the main ones in Byron's late work.

Byron's darkest poem is Manfred.

The tragedy of unsatisfactory individuals, the collapse of hopes, despair.

Manfred runs away from human society, condemns the order in it and the laws of the universe, as well as his own weaknesses.

Manfred is a hero of his time. Therefore, he has selfishness, arrogance, lust for power, and gloating.

His girlfriend, Astard, dies because of Manfred's selfish love.

The supreme spirit of evil, Ahriman, and his maid Mimisis are a symbolic image of the dark world of evil.

Manfred cannot submit to the world of evil, just like religion. He rejects Abata's offer to repent and dies free and independent as he lived.

Mystery "Cain" 1821 (dramatization of biblical stories)

The main theme is atheism. Here Cain is not a criminal fratricide as in the Bible, but the first rebel on earth, rebelling against God, for God doomed the human race to incalculable suffering.

Byron's Jehovah is ambitious, suspicious, vindictive, and greedy. That is, all the features of an earthly despot.

Cain, with his sharp mind, questions the authority of God. He strives to understand the world and its laws and achieves this with the help of Lucifer. Lucifer is a proud rebel who is overthrown from heaven by God for his love of freedom. Lucifer opens Cain's eyes to the fact that all disasters are sent by God. But knowledge does not bring happiness to Cain; he seeks sympathy from his brother Avil, but he blindly believes in the goodness of God. In the end, Cain hits his brother in the temple and he dies. the parents curse Cain and he goes into exile along with his wife and two children. Here Byron's “worldly sorrow” reaches cosmic proportions. Together with Lucifer, he visits the kingdom of death in space, where he sees the long dead. “The same fate awaits humanity,” says Lucifer, and Byron comes to the conclusion that progress is impossible.

It is important here that Byron breaks up with the individualist hero. Cain is not a lonely rebel, indifferent to the fate of people like Manfred. He is a humanist who rebelled against the power of God for the good of people. Manfred suffered from loneliness, but Cain is not alone. His wife, Ada, loves him, and he has a friend, Lucifer. Ada is one of the best female characters in Byron's entire work. His atheism made a great impression on his contemporaries.

The crowning achievement of Byron's work is the poem in verse "Don Juan" 1818 - 1823. The main theme is criticism of bourgeois society. Byron considered this the main work of his work.

Reflection of the modern era and revealing the depths of the human soul.

Byron began to be critical of the way the Romantics wrote (for their idealization of life)

He turns to the poetry of reality, that is, to the objective transmission of reality.

The first songs are a parody of romanticism. The image of Juan has lost the aura of romantic heroism. He is a living person with all his weaknesses and vices. Positive traits: honesty, masculinity, love of freedom. Sensitive, capable of compassion.

Bourgeois society will not bring freedom to people. Byron depicts the power of the bourgeoisie as a web that entangles the people.

Byron is the enemy of bankers and lords. He paints a sharply negative picture of church circles, bankers and a corrupt government. He talks about the hypocrisy and insignificance of high society.

Byron's personality.

"Genius, ruler of our thoughts" Pushkin

"Byron became the actor of his own life" Andre Murois

Byron had a limp since childhood, was extremely hot-tempered, and could suddenly fly into a rage, just like his mother. Grew up with a mother who was very irritable. Byron's father died in 1791 in complete poverty. At first the Baron pitied his mother, and then began to despise her. At the age of 9 he fell in love with his cousin.

He was ashamed of his lameness, and felt a constant fear that, due to his physical disability, he would be despised. And the stronger his pride manifested itself. The most painful humiliation due to his lameness was when he listened to the conversation of his beloved with his maid. Then at night Byron ran away from home with the desire to die. He became afraid of women and wanted to make them suffer as he suffered himself.

At the age of 16, he learned that he had a half-sister, Augusta, who was 20 years old. Later they fell in love with each other, although Augusta was married. In 1814 she gave birth to a daughter from him. Byron then disowned his mother.

In 1805 he graduated from school. He makes the discovery that people do not need absolute feelings like he does. Everyone around was just playing with love, with truth, with God. He didn't want to be like them. He didn't want to be like them. Underneath the childish gaiety, a deep melancholy grew. Childhood was a tragedy.

In 1805 he entered Cambridge, where he became a central figure.

He suffered from the restless ambition of weak people. He stopped believing in God under the influence of Voltaire. Byron got a pet bear.

From childhood he developed compassion for poverty and gave away a lot of money.

In 1809, Byron sailed to Portugal with a feeling of deep misanthropy. Sends a farewell letter to his mother. I sought refuge in the world of stars and waves because I was afraid of people.

His life changed after the release of "Harold" - he woke up as a celebrity. They began to invite him and Byron began to impersonate Harold, masking his natural shyness. First of all, he was suspicious. It seemed to him that now he knew what a woman was. The time for tenderness and heartfelt outpourings has passed for him.

Byron did not understand the feelings of other people and did not want to understand.

"Like Napoleon, I have always felt great contempt for women, and this opinion has formed from my fatal experience. Although in my works I extol this sex, but this is only because I portray them as they should be."

"Give a woman a mirror and some chocolates and she will be happy"

“It’s a misfortune that we can neither do without women nor live with them.”

26 years have passed, 600 years according to the heart and 6 years according to common sense.

In 1814, Byron groom (26 years old). He hoped for happiness in his marriage to 22-year-old Anabella. But he soon realized that he had made a mistake in getting married. The wife, with her bourgeois prudence, turned love into an equation; moreover, she was devout and tried to convert her husband to faith.

Byron has no interest in religion. He was rude to his wife. In the end, the wife decides to divorce, which shocked Byron.

All former acquaintances began to turn away from Byron. "I don't love the world and the world doesn't love me." Avenger.

Byron was a fatalist and a very superstitious person.

He had many women.

At 31, he has aged terribly.

At 35, life became completely empty.

"Being the first person in the country means getting closer to the deity"

Byron always wanted to do what no one else could ever do.

He decided to devote himself to politics, but he was too indecisive and dreamy.

The rebels in Greece give him the title of archangel (commander-in-chief) and Byron was very proud of this.

It was predicted for him in his youth. that he will die at 37 years old. Byron believed it. And so it happened.

Things were going badly for the rebels and Byron began to be fascinated by his visit to Greece. He's not much of a military man.

After Byron fell ill, he began to understand the value of family, which he once called slavery. His last hours of life were spent in delirium. Byron's brain at autopsy looked like that of a very old person.

After the poet's death, many began to take an interest in him.

Byron's close people burned his memoirs.

“In the depths of his soul there always lived a being higher and more worthy,” Lady Byron said about her husband, “He always suppressed this creature but could never destroy it.”

Born January 22, 1788 in London. His mother, Catherine Gordon, a Scot, was the second wife of Captain D. Byron, whose first wife died, leaving him a daughter, Augusta. The captain died in 1791, having squandered most of his wife’s fortune. George Gordon was born with a mutilated foot.
In 1798, the boy inherited from his great-uncle the title of baron and the family estate of Newstead Abbey near Nottingham, where he moved with his mother. The boy studied with a home teacher, then he was sent to a private school in Dulwich, and in 1801 - to Harrow.
In the autumn of 1805, Byron entered Trinity College, Cambridge University.
In London, Byron incurred debts of several thousand pounds. Fleeing from creditors, and also, probably, in search of new experiences, on July 2, 1809, he went with Hobhouse on a long journey. They sailed to Lisbon, crossed Spain, from Gibraltar by sea they reached Albania, where they paid a visit to the Turkish despot Ali Pasha Tepelensky, and proceeded to Athens. There they spent the winter in the house of a widow.
Byron returned to England in July 1811; He brought with him the manuscript of an autobiographical poem written in Spencerian stanzas, telling the story of a sad wanderer who is destined to experience disappointment in the sweet hopes and ambitious hopes of his youth and in the journey itself. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, published in March of the following year, instantly glorified Byron's name.
Following in the footsteps of Childe Harold, Byron created a cycle of “Oriental Poems”: “The Giaour” and “The Bride of Abydos” - in 1813, “The Corsair” and “Lara” - in 1814. The poems were replete with veiled hints of an autobiographical nature. They rushed to identify the hero of "The Giaour" with the author, saying that in the East Byron was involved in piracy for some time.
Anabella Milbanke, Lady Melbourne's niece, and Byron occasionally exchanged letters; in September 1814 he proposed to her and it was accepted. After the wedding on January 2, 1815 and a honeymoon in Yorkshire, the newlyweds, clearly not meant for each other, settled in London. In the spring, Byron met Walter Scott, whom he had long admired.
On December 10, 1815, she gave birth to Byron's daughter, Augusta Ada, and on January 15, 1816, taking the baby with her, she went to Leicestershire to visit her parents. A few weeks later, she announced that she would not return to her husband. Byron agreed to a court-ordered separation and sailed for Europe on April 25. Byron completed the third song, “Childe Harold,” which developed already familiar motifs - the futility of aspirations, the transience of love, the vain search for perfection and the beginnings of “Manfred.”
Byron returned to work on Don Juan and by May 1823 completed the 16th canto.
He chose the legendary seducer as his hero and turned him into an innocent simpleton who is harassed by women; but even hardened by life experience, by his character, worldview and actions he still remains a normal, reasonable person in an absurd, crazy world.
Byron consistently takes John through a series of adventures, sometimes funny, sometimes touching, - from the “platonic” seduction of the hero in Spain to idyll love on a Greek island, from a slave state in a harem to the position of the favorite of Catherine the Great, and leaves him entangled in the networks of love intrigue in an English country house.
Tired of an aimless existence, yearning for active work, Byron seized on the offer of the London Greek Committee to help Greece in the War of Independence. Sobered by the strife among the Greeks and their greed, exhausted by illness, Byron died of a fever on April 19, 1824.

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage occupies a special place among Byron's works.

This is a poem with a large and topical social theme, imbued with deep lyricism. "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" is not only a story about the fate of a romantic hero, but also a political poem. The thirst for political freedom and hatred of tyranny constitute its main content.

Childe Harold became a household name for the romantic hero - a young man, disillusioned, dissatisfied and lonely. He believes neither in sublime feelings nor in affection; in his opinion, there is neither true love nor true friendship. The reason for Childe Harold's disappointment was a clash with society.

In the first two songs we see the hero in Portugal, Spain, Albania and Greece - the countries where Byron visited. Childe Harold longs for personal freedom and, not finding it in the world around him of “riches and miserable poverty,” dreams of loneliness. He avoids people, goes far into the mountains, listens to the splash of the sea wave, and is fascinated by the raging elements. Only ordinary people, courageous and freedom-loving, attract Childe Harold.

Childe Harold is not satisfied with life, but his protest is passive: he reflects on the reasons for his discontent, but does not seek to intervene in life, to take part in the liberation struggle.

And gradually, as the plot of the poem develops, the image of Childe Harold is increasingly relegated to the background. The image of a hero powerless and unable to fight the life that disgusts him is more and more obscured by historical events full of drama, in which the author himself begins to act not only as a contemporary and observer, but also as an active participant. A second, no less important image appears in the poem - the image of a struggling people.

Thus, in the first two songs of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Byron welcomes the performance of progressive forces, the rise of the masses, and the defense of freedom.

The subsequent, third and fourth, songs of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage are separated from the first two by several years. They are directly related to Byron's stay in Switzerland and Italy, where he lived in 1816 - 1823, finally leaving England.

In the third canto, published in 1816, Byron addresses an important issue - the attitude towards the French Revolution of the late 18th century. Speaking about the dominance of the monarchical reaction, especially after the formation of the Holy Alliance in 1815, he is firmly convinced that the ideals of freedom proclaimed by the revolution must certainly triumph; humanity has learned a lot, believed in its own strength, and let the tyrants who are now in power know that their victory is temporary and the hour of reckoning is not far off.

Byron creates a special genre of romantic poem and a characteristic image of a romantic hero. The poet is interested in the acute dramatic events of the past, the life of exotic countries of the East.

The heroes of these poems, disillusioned wanderers who have broken with society, are somewhat reminiscent of Childe Harold, but the passive nature of his experiences is alien to them. People of one passion, great willpower, who do not humble themselves, who do not make any agreements, they are unthinkable outside of struggle. These are rebels. They challenge the sanctimonious bourgeois society, oppose its religious or moral foundations and wage an unequal struggle with it.

One of Byron's characteristic romantic heroes is Conrad, the main character in the poem "The Corsair". His appearance is unusual: burning black eyes and gloomy eyebrows, thick curls falling onto a high pale forehead, a caustic smile that simultaneously expresses contempt for everything around him and regret. This is a gloomy, strong and gifted nature, capable, perhaps, of accomplishing noble deeds. However, society rejected Conrad and did not give him the opportunity to develop his abilities. He became the leader of a gang of sea robbers. His goal is to take revenge on the criminal society that rejected him and now calls him a criminal. Conrad is an extreme individualist. The whole world is hostile to Conrad, and he curses this world. Loneliness instills a feeling of disappointment and pessimism in his soul.

The hero of Byron's romantic rebellious poems but has positive ideals. They fight without believing in victory, they understand that they cannot defeat a society that is stronger than them, but they remain hostile to it to the end. Byron's heroes remain lone rebels. They are attracted by the strength of protest, the irreconcilable spirit of struggle, but the lack of connection between the hero and the masses, the people, and common interests, the hero’s individualism is evidence of the weakness of Byron’s own worldview.

Byron's rebellious poetry, rich in socio-political significance, was the main reason for the organized persecution of the poet by reactionary circles of English society. The reactionary press took up arms against him.

Byron decided to leave his homeland. In 1816 he left for Switzerland, then to Italy. An enemy of official England, its hypocrisy, hypocrisy, the notorious bourgeois “freedoms”, the corrupt bourgeois press, he continues to be deeply interested in the fate of his homeland, the fate of his people.

Byron looked forward to the revolutionary upsurge in England and more than once stated that in this case he would return to his homeland to take a personal part in the struggle.

In the satirical epic Don Juan, the action moves to the 18th century. The hero of the work, Juan, from Spain ends up in Greece, then in Turkey, Russia, Poland, Germany, England... According to the author, “having traveled across Europe, experiencing all kinds of sieges, battles and adventures,” Juan had to finish his travels "participation in the French revolution."

However, the main thing in Don Juan, as Byron himself admitted, is not the fate and adventures of the hero, but the depiction of public and private life in various countries of Europe and Asia.

In Byron's works the image of a contemporary emerges, given a romantic interpretation. This is a person who breaks with European civilization, because there is falsehood, lack of freedom, this is a person open to the world, a person who does not find refuge anywhere. The complete type of individualism.

However, the motives of hopeless despair are combined in this work with the determination of its hero to defend his human dignity and freedom of spirit to the end. The poem “Manfred” belongs to the powerful poetry of symbols, which interprets the fundamental questions of existence. Manfred achieved his enormous power over nature not through a deal with the rulers of the underworld, but solely through the power of his mind, with the help of a variety of knowledge acquired through exhausting labor over many years of life. The tragedy of Manfred, just like the tragedy of Harold and other early heroes of Byron, is the tragedy of extraordinary individuals. However, Manfred’s protest is much deeper and more significant, for his unfulfilled dreams and plans were much broader and more diverse: The collapse of hopes associated with enlightenment is what underlies the hopeless despair that has taken possession of Manfred’s soul. Having cursed the society of people, Manfred runs away from it , retires to his abandoned family castle in the deserted Alps. Lonely and proud, he opposes the whole world - nature and people. He condemns not only the orders in society, but also the laws of the universe, not only the rampant universal egoism, but also his own imperfection, because of which he destroyed his beloved Astarte, for Manfred is not only a victim of unjust social orders, but also a hero of his time, endowed such traits as selfishness, arrogance, lust for power, thirst for success, schadenfreude - in a word, those traits that turned out to be the other side of the coin of “personal emancipation” during the French bourgeois revolution. Manfred is well aware of his selfishness and is tormented by the fact that his wild, indomitable character brings terrible devastation to the world of people. It is unthinkable for Manfred to submit to this cruel world, just as it is unthinkable for him to submit to religion, which seeks to subjugate his powerful, proud spirit. Manfred's suffering reflects the difficult thoughts of Byron himself, ultimately generated ... by the general crisis of educational thought in Europe. These lines are directly related to the problems of “Cain”; reflections on the question of the essence of knowledge and the place of man in the system of the universe in “Cain” will receive special meaning and development. Another motif, inherited from Byron’s previous works and later transferred to “Cain,” will be the already familiar motif of tyranny-fighting, refusal to bow to higher powers. In “Manfred” this protest is most clearly expressed at the end of the poem, when the hero refuses to obey the ruler of evil forces, Ahriman, and follow the powerful spirit called upon to lead him towards death. Manfred, having mastered various sciences, longs for oblivion and freedom from his experience, he dreams of non-existence. Like other heroes of Byron's drama, he "painfully experiences the very fact of his existence."