The most striking feature of Byronic heroes is "rebellion". Their resistance is not only directed at specific authority and tyranny, but also at social norms and customs. In the end, this rebellion will rise to a rebellion against abstract destiny. Resistance to fate is often reflected or projected as resistance to existing authority and tyranny. For example, Harold left society by traveling far away; Manfred challenged the fate of mankind with death; Cain fiercely resisted the authority of ideology-God.
At the same time, different from the heroes in classical literature, Byronic heroes have some non-heroics, such as melancholy, arrogance and self-identity in Byronic heroes; For example, there is such a poem in Childe Harold's Travels: "(Harold) often frowns when he is over-reveling, as if he is recalling his deep hatred and brokenhearted sadness." It should be said that the rebellion of Byron hero is highly personal, and he challenges everything with his personality and emotion. For example, Harold defected from bourgeois society alone; Manfred alone bears all the sins of himself and mankind, and fights against fate with destruction alone. They showed the personal heroic image of a typical Byronic hero. Their loneliness is inevitable and the inevitable result of self-exile. Byron has formed his own unique creative style in oriental narrative poems, with rich lyrical tone, strong subjectivity, the extraordinary quality of the protagonist, emotional exaggeration, exoticism and galloping imagination. His poetic narration does not follow the natural sequence of plots, but chooses the most vivid plot, cuts in from the key point of fate and unfolds in an explosive way; Image-building has repeatedly given the protagonist his own characteristics, which makes the protagonist show aloof and rebellious character when he walks into extreme emotions and intentions.
tragical
Byronic heroes are profoundly tragic, and the significance of tragedy lies in destroying valuable things. The tragedy of Byronic heroes lies in the failure of their idealistic efforts. They often boast about their father's eternal ideal day after day with full enthusiasm, but in the end they inevitably fail and even destroy their personal lives. The root of their tragedy still lies in their personality. Personality means finiteness. They try to exhaust the mystery of the universe with limited individuals, get rid of their own tragic situation and even reach the realm of freedom and integrity, which in itself violates the objective law. According to Christian teachings, this is a kind of original sin-arrogance. The feelings of hopelessness, pessimism and despair expressed by images such as Childe Harold are the embodiment of Byron's same feelings. The description of Flod's uncompromising death to heaven and his lonely death, as well as his philosophy of "world sorrow", can be said to reflect Byron's despair of the so-called ideal world. Manfred was inspired by Goethe's Faust. Like Faust, Manfred lost confidence in scientific knowledge and was very dissatisfied with reality. Unlike Faust, he abandoned religion and refused to make a contract with the devil. Regardless of the threat of any external dark forces, he absolutely relies on himself and never gives up his dignity, freedom and will. In endless disappointment and deep guilt and pain, he denied all the existing world order and only wanted to forget and die. Manfred expressed Byron's philosophy of "century sorrow", and Manfred, the hero, became the most mature image of "Byronic hero". Of course, Byron also admitted that the connotation of human nature is freedom. But with his own cleverness, he has realized that in the system he lives in, the essence of human freedom is impossible to realize, and the so-called "ideal world" is just wishful thinking, because the whole capitalist society is at the expense of eliminating human freedom. The despair and sadness in Byron's works are more profound than passive. The fact that the western capitalist world developed later proved that Byron's hunch was more and more correct. Without exception, the tragic endings of Byronic heroes are the embodiment of their courage, sincerity and sense of responsibility in some aspects, reflecting the passion and rationality of human beings.
Reflect on yourself
Poetry is like a person. Byron's poems reflect his personality and psychological characteristics to some extent. Advocating freedom and resisting all forms of oppression are the outstanding characteristics of Byron's thought. Free thought is a kind of flesh and blood thing in a poet. Sometimes it is an angry emotion, sometimes it is a force of resistance, sometimes it is a feeling of love, and sometimes it is a thinking character. In Europe's struggle against Christian orthodoxy, hypocritical morality, feudal aristocracy, monarchy and various forms of tyranny, it deeply influenced the history and future of the oppressed nation with its exciting appeal. Closely connected with this thought is the thought of personal heroism, which gives unlimited vitality and vigor to free thought. Byron expressed his disappointment, pessimism, loneliness and arrogant nature more than once in his poems. It is this thought that ignores people's role that makes Byron create a series of "Byronic heroes". These protagonists are rebels with anti-social and rebellious character, but most of them are individual rebels. They are arrogant and lonely, and without the support of the people, the outcome is tragic. There is no doubt that the essence of "Byronic hero" is Byron's personal portrayal and the sublimation of his personal heroism.
Byronic Hero reflects Byron's shadow in life experience, personality representation, world outlook and political thought. His body is deeply branded with Byron, Byron's blood runs through his veins, and Byron's soul flashes in his mind. He is Byron in a Byronic hero coat. The distinctive duality in Byronic Hero is the external expression of Byron's own duality of thought and personality. The dual characters embodied in a series of idealized Byronic heroes in Byron's poems reflect the dislocation between Byron's ideal and reality, and reflect the ideal contradiction between reality and life. In the Byronic hero, Byron entrusted his soul. Byron used the body of a Byronic hero to practice what he thought. He traveled in Europe and the East and recorded what he saw, heard and felt. Byron described his thoughts, pursuits, ambitions and his views on the world in which he lived in a Byronic heroic tone. Dressed as a Byronic hero, Byron attacked all kinds of social evils and praised and inspired people of all ethnic groups who fought for freedom. At the same time, it is through Byronic heroes that Byron shows his duality in politics, thought, outlook on life, world outlook and personality. But this duality comes from the dislocation between Byron's ideal and reality. This dislocation between ideal and reality creates the duality of Byronic heroic character. Byronic hero is the product of the opposition between individual and society, and it is also the artistic reflection of the author's ideological characteristics and weaknesses. This kind of characters appeared in Byron's works one after another, which was of progressive significance to the violent impact of British feudal order and bourgeois society at that time. However, their individualism, anarchism and pessimism often bring negative effects to readers. Russian literary critic Elinski and poet Pushkin both pointed out the ideological weakness and harmfulness of Byronic heroes.
The ideal essence of this heroic enthusiasm is a kind of heroism with bourgeois individualism and humanitarianism, which has both individualistic factors and humanitarian demands. The spiritual core of western romanticism is individualism. Individualism requires to establish a life attitude centered on the self in the natural state, give full play to people's independent subjective spirit, and oppose all constraints and oppression on human nature. Byron, as a representative of English romantic poets, showed individualism incisively and vividly in his personal life and poetry creation. In Byron's early poems, both Conrad the pirate, Cain, a "god reader", and Harald, who kept thinking and exploring, appeared as rebels divorced from the masses, all with the characteristics of individualism.
But Byron's heroism is not pure individualism, and his worship of individual freedom is not pure self-worship. In Tang Ying, poets showed profound and broad humanitarian spirit. Don Juan, the hero of the work, has a sympathetic, kind and universal humanitarian heart from beginning to end. He loves mountains, rivers and seas, pure women, oppressed and humiliated people, and all mankind. His love is profound and broad. At the same time, he hated the tyrant who made war, caused bloodshed, led to poverty and suffering, and his hatred also went deep into the bone marrow. "Childe in? In Harold's Travels, the poet listed the Battle of Tarabella in 1809, which showed his attitude. He severely condemned Napoleon's war of aggression, pointing out that this kind of war was to sacrifice people's blood and life to the god of war:
Death stood there, counting his gains.
Because there are three major forces gathered in front of him at present,
Sent his favorite thing-the contribution of blood.
Byron also made a bitter satire on Spanish upper-class aristocrats in his poems. At the time of national disaster, they still indulge in debauchery;
Everyone here is a noble except the noble.
Only the degenerate expensive stomach is willing to be the slave of the enemy.
At the same time, he also called on the Greeks to rise up and fight for national liberation on their own:
Slaves for generations! Do you know that?/You know what?
Whoever wants to be liberated must do it himself.
You must raise Bai Ji's right hand to defeat?
Can Gauls or Muscovites be fair to you?
Therefore, Byron's heroism is not pure individualism, but a social ideal, an ideal for the oppressed nation to strive for liberation, freedom and democracy. Byron's heroic and enthusiastic morality advocates freedom, independence and equality, and emphasizes human freedom and human participation, which is consistent with humanistic social ethics. Moreover, Byron also expressed disgust at solipsism. He criticized Bishop Becquerel's solipsism in Don Juan.
Throughout Byron's life, he was brilliant but arrogant and dissolute; The body is flawed but the heart is strong; There is an obvious tendency of individualism, but deep sympathy for the workers in a weak and helpless position; Hate society but have good social ideals, and make unremitting efforts for it. Byron, with heroic enthusiasm, like the characters in his poems, is full of contradictory and complicated factors: individualism and humanitarianism, Satan's spirit and fraternity. This makes Byron's life and personality full of legend, romance and flavor of the times.
Byronic hero represents the spirit of the times and is the product of the rise of capitalism, bourgeois revolution and romanticism. He reflected the complex psychology, social disappointment and resistance to reality of some intellectuals with bourgeois democratic ideas in Britain and Europe at the beginning of the19th century. Byronic hero is also a portrayal of Byron's personal thoughts and life, showing his personal heroism characteristics. On the one hand, he is an individualist, emphasizing individuality; On the other hand, he is a hero who dares to fight against the environment and the times with his own strength. Byronic hero is the "leading figure" in literary works, that is, the paradigm that contemporary people place worship and sympathy on. Don Juan is the last Byronic hero in Byron's works. This young British aristocrat, an "upstart" dressed in Spanish clothes, is a brave and beautiful person. The difference between him and other "Byronic heroes" is that he does not have direct conflict with society. On the contrary, he relied on compromise, complied with the temptation of the environment and was at his mercy. Don Juan's adventure is that "love" leads to politics, winning the favor of powerful ladies with her beauty, reaching the top of the world and becoming a senior official in an important position. "Good wind, with its strength, sent me to Qingyun." Ironically, the thought embodied in the image of Don Juan is in sharp contrast with the bitter satire on the real society that constitutes the keynote of long poems, which clearly reflects the contradiction and complexity of Byron's thought.
The significance of Tang Sulu's image lies in that it objectively only exposes the life and morality of the degenerate aristocratic upper class. It is worth noting that Byron's satire and criticism of Tang Rui, a noble who suddenly rose to prominence, is far less than his appreciation. This can't help but remind people how vividly Don Sarv embodies Byron's noble bourgeois thoughts and artistic taste. At the same time, it also shows readers that Byron finally gave up the road of personal development through resistance in the past. No wonder some people think Byron is different from Shelley. Byron is more practical. Since the author himself is still like this, it is logical that the image of Don Juan shows another form of personal development, that is, to compromise the corrupt life and morality of the aristocratic bourgeoisie and the upper class, and to adapt to the unlimited development of personal interests and demands by the actual rulers of the upper class. The Destiny of Tang Sulu shows the author's abstract understanding of social good and evil in his later period. It has been replaced by calm thinking, and the romantic passion in the past has been transformed into a realistic "pragmatic" point of view. At that time, the temporary pressure of the Holy Alliance made Byron unable to indulge in fantasy. Don Juan's road and his pragmatic attitude were far from Byron's enthusiasm when he was young. Even if the author's original creative intention is to let his hero finally appear in Paris during the French Revolution, according to the development logic of Don Juan's image, it is difficult for Don Juan to play the romantic figure during the French Revolution, because pragmatic realism is far better than romantic passion.
Did Tang Can Sulu really become the initiator of the Great Revolution? I'm afraid Byron himself is not sure about this. Tang Sulu, who made his fortune in the spring breeze at that time, was probably as hostile to the revolution as the aristocratic bourgeoisie in Britain at that time. A person knows himself better than himself. As a sensitive poet like Byron, he knows himself, which is probably the potential factor for Byron to interrupt long poems! Therefore, the image of Don Juan is more vivid than the previous "Byronic hero". It shows the extreme individualistic nature of Byron's worldview. Judging from the development clues of Hallor de Conrad Manfred Tangsulu, "Byron's death at the age of 36 is a kind of happiness." Marx, the revolutionary mentor, asserted that Byron was a "reactionary bourgeoisie". It is really the true summary and wisdom of Byron's development history.
Some people compare Byron to "Aetna" in Greek mythology, because "Aetna" will gain great power as long as it is in contact with Mother Earth. So did Byron. As long as he comes into contact with the people's movement, Byron's thought and creation will have great motivation, otherwise he will be lonely, melancholy, confused and pessimistic. How apt this metaphor is. Unfortunately, Byron and his ideal "hero" have become rebels of bourgeois individualism because they are not close to Mother Earth. His tragedy is that he has the courage to "bash one's eyebrows and point fingers at a thousand people", but he has no spirit of "bowing his head and being a willing ox".